I really do. This goes against the Conventional Wisdom.
The biggest ding people have against them is that if you grip your gun wrong or high you won't engage the grip safety and your gun won't go BANG when you want it to. But I haven't had an issue with that since 1990 when I first fired a 1911 pistol. Nowadays I can't NOT engage the safety. Even with a high thumbs forward type grip, even with a 1911 without that bump on the back of the safety, even shooting it one handed with my non-dominant hand.
There was no re-learning a grip for the XD varieties. I did have to think about it very briefly the first shot when shooting the Pocket Hammerless, but then never again, and the grip was so odd for me on the FN1922 that I had think about the safety the entire time I shot it.
I have never tried a Lemon-Squeezer revolver, however.
A grip safety is more endearing to me than that little tongue on the trigger face on most striker-fired polymer pistols.
11 comments:
What good is a grip safety if it engages no matter how you pick up a gun? :)
Seriously, I've never had any problems with them either but I've also never been in a real gun fight where such a thing is a life or death issue and the stress causes you to do funny things.
Gotta love it when the first line of the critique is "It looks goofy".
I'm good with the XD, grip safety and all. I'd probably be OK with it if it didn't have those things either
I read somewhere that John Moses Browning (PBUH!) only put them on the 1911 because Big Army said so. But my hands are so wide, I've never had a problem with depressing them. However, the more parts there are to a Gun, the more that can go wrong. Also, I think the reason that the Springfield Xd comes with them is because it's a Tweeked Euro Design from Croatia, and it never hurts to have all those Bells and Whistles on them to meet the Import Sections of the GCA of '68.
FWIW, having just perused the Colt Catalog for another Project, I see that they are still making Double Action 1911's without a grip safety in .45ACP. They even come in Commander Size.
I played around with the idea over that Colt, Les. But I was waved off like an LSO to a Hellcat coming on to the deck of the Enterprise too low and with no landing gear down and a loose bomb swinging from one wing.
If the grip safety on the XD fails, the gun is inoperable and has a round stuck in the chamber.
-SayUncle
JMB put grip safeties on all his pocket guns without any wheedling from gov.mil.
On his .25 I have some problems with the grip safety, this is the sole place too.
1903, 1911, XD, no problem. I don't like how the XD safety hits my hand though. I could probably get used to it, but...
wv: hunta. Who Ahnald killed before he went to da choppa.
"If the grip safety on the XD fails, the gun is inoperable and has a round stuck in the chamber."
You sure about the stuck in the chamber part? That seems wrong.
I hear of a circumstance where the XD can lock up and you're not able to get a live round out of the chamber. I don't know the circumstances, but perhaps this is it.
Damn. He's right. I just tried it. The slide won't go back far enough to eject the chambered round if the grip safety is not pressed.
I'm with you, I'll take a grip safety over those darned trigger safeties anyday.
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