What's the point of "safe action" triggers?

[tinygnat219]

I agree, I HATE the way the "Safe" action triggers feel. For some God Only knows reason, if I shoot my Glock 19 or my XD 45 for more than 50 rounds, the skin on my trigger finger splits, think like a deeper papercut, and while I can still continue shooting, it annoys the hell out of me. This is why I only have one G19 and one XD. The G19's "ok", and the XD is probably my second best shooter that I have. I just don't shoot them that much because of that trigger and the way it feels on my finger.

I prefer smooth faced triggers to anything else out there. Does this seem wierd?

 

[hqmhqm]

I think people here are all missing the point about these "safeties".

The Glock and follow-ons like the M&P were designed for a specific
kind of duty; police and security. People who are not gun 'connoisseurs'.

If shots are fired, either on purpose or by accident, there is going to be a lot of second guessing after the fact, "did he remove the safety?" "was the safety on?", etc blah blah blah.

These guns remove all of that potential complication. You pull the trigger, it fires. The two part mechanism does prevent some situations of accidental trigger pull, such as the top of the trigger snagging on something, and it does not prevent others. But that is not the point.

The trigger was not designed to make you like the gun, it was designed to make life easier for the people who are responsible for handing out the guns to their officers or guards. That is its reason for being. It is not very useful to argue about it in other terms that people on this forum like to dwell on.

 

[Frog48]

The Glock and follow-ons like the M&P were designed for a specific
kind of duty; police and security. People who are not gun 'connoisseurs'.

Bingo. Some guns are made for "shooters". Some guns are made for folks that only shoot when they "have to". Glocks/XDs/M&Ps are designed to be easily operated with the lowest common denominator in mind. For better or worse, alot of gun owners only shoot when absolutely necessary... be it attending a CHL course, requalifying for duty, etc. For these people, range trips for pleasure and/or practice may be few and far between.

 

[skinewmexico]

Grip safety on the XD solves the Glock problem and the silly manual safety at the same time.

 

[mgregg85]

I've heard that the "safe action" style triggers are considered desireable over a DA/SA or DAO type trigger because they have a constant trigger pull that doesn't change between the first and second shot and they are lighter in pull than a DAO. Another benefit is the lack of a need for a manual safety.

I prefer my XD45 for self defense/combat/high stress because it has a nice constant trigger pull that isn't too heavy or too weak. I also don't like having to worry about a safety in a high stress environment.

 

[weisse52]

I do not quite grasp the concept that a thumb safety on a pistol could cause a problem in a stressful situation. You fall back to what you practice and train for.
When I first tried Glocks I found myself "sweeping" off a non-existant thumb safety because I had YEARS of practice and training to do that very function.

I have always thought of "safe action" pistols as high tech revolvers. If I remember one objection to auto's in law enforcement years ago was concern over the training necessary to ensure they would be safe.

AND, The only people who consider this a hate thread are the Glock faithful who believe that ANY DISCUSSION of this type of pistol had better be heaped with praise for their brand and scorn for all others.

The beatings may now start.

 

[Gordon Fink]

I have always thought of “safe action” pistols as high tech revolvers. If I remember one objection to auto’s in law enforcement years ago was concern over the training necessary to ensure they would be safe.

That is probably true. I don’t think single-action pistols have ever been very common in law enforcement, nor do I think the military routinely carried them cocked and locked (or loaded, for that matter).

~G. Fink

 

[MrAcheson]

Grip safety on the XD solves the Glock problem and the silly manual safety at the same time.

I'm not a fan of the safe action triggers because they're non-redundant. In a drop safe gun, the only way to fire it is to pull the trigger. The trigger safety does nothing to change this.

The XD grip safety adds redundancy without adding significant external complexity. You still grip the gun and fire with no manual safeties you can forget to turn off. But it's hard to fire then gun if you don't have it in a shooting grip. This is handy when holstering, etc.

I also don't like Glock's implementation of the trigger safety in particular. The trigger safety is narrow and it pokes me in the finger as I'm squeezing it. I find it very distracting. The XD has a wider safety bar so I don't have this problem. I haven't shot the M&P, but hopefully it has a wider bar too.

 

[Drail]

It's marketing to consumers who don't know anything about the product or its use. It is done with motorcyles, vacuum cleaners, ladders, computers, ad nauseum. Welcome to the 21st century. Personally, I never could see the point of striker fired pistols either. Must be some kind of Euro thing. I like the concept of an exposed hammer that I can see and feel. No doubts about what might happen.

 

[hqmhqm]

I also worry that the two part plastic trigger will just break off if something gets jammed.