Racinready300ex Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 On 2/19/2018 at 6:30 PM, 3gunDQ said: You have to have a ambi for and action shooting sports.... uspsa, IDPA, IPSC, 3gun and any local bullshit match. It doesn’t matter in any situation you want to be able to disengage with both hands. I have one on all of my 1911's and 2011's. I've never used one to activate or deactivate the safety. All I get from them is a callus on my strong hand where it touches the safety. I do think they look a little nicer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tattooo Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 You have to have a ambi for and action shooting sports.... uspsa, IDPA, IPSC, 3gun and any local bullshit match. It doesn’t matter in any situation you want to be able to disengage with both hands. If you mean " have to " as in a ambi safety is a required piece of equiptment I am almost positive that is incorrect. Hopefully others who know the rules can chime in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuckinMS Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 26 minutes ago, tattooo said: On 2/19/2018 at 5:30 PM, 3gunDQ said: You have to have a ambi for and action shooting sports.... uspsa, IDPA, IPSC, 3gun and any local bullshit match. It doesn’t matter in any situation you want to be able to disengage with both hands. If you mean " have to " as in a ambi safety is a required piece of equiptment I am almost positive that is incorrect. Hopefully others who know the rules can chime in. Uspsa does not dictate ambi safety, but when shooting weak hand it is nice so you can't have an AD while transferring from one hand to the other, and you can have the same grip with either hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 4 minutes ago, StuckinMS said: Uspsa does not dictate ambi safety, but when shooting weak hand it is nice so you can't have an AD while transferring from one hand to the other, and you can have the same grip with either hand. i guess if that's your preference..... I personally find that I shoot most quickly and accurately single-handed when NOT riding the safety, so either right or left, my thumb is below. This is also what charlie perez recommends, and he shoots even better than I do single-handed. regarding the AD, i don't put my finger in the trigger guard when transferring the gun. I can draw, transfer and shoot an easy target left handed in 1.2 -1.3 seconds. I'm pretty sure it's going to end up being slower to deactivate the safety with your left hand after the transfer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuckinMS Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 6 hours ago, motosapiens said: i guess if that's your preference..... I personally find that I shoot most quickly and accurately single-handed when NOT riding the safety, so either right or left, my thumb is below. This is also what charlie perez recommends, and he shoots even better than I do single-handed. regarding the AD, i don't put my finger in the trigger guard when transferring the gun. I can draw, transfer and shoot an easy target left handed in 1.2 -1.3 seconds. I'm pretty sure it's going to end up being slower to deactivate the safety with your left hand after the transfer. It's definitely not slower and my large hands will not fit under the safety without turning it on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3gunDQ Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 8 hours ago, tattooo said: On 2/19/2018 at 6:30 PM, 3gunDQ said: You have to have a ambi for and action shooting sports.... uspsa, IDPA, IPSC, 3gun and any local bullshit match. It doesn’t matter in any situation you want to be able to disengage with both hands. If you mean " have to " as in a ambi safety is a required piece of equiptment I am almost positive that is incorrect. Hopefully others who know the rules can chime in. 8 hours ago, StuckinMS said: Uspsa does not dictate ambi safety, but when shooting weak hand it is nice so you can't have an AD while transferring from one hand to the other, and you can have the same grip with either hand. You could say an “ambi safety is not required for Uspsa”... you are not required to load your mags either, just shot ten and give up. if you want to compete or stay alive in a defensive situation you may want to rethink it. Ambi safety is a must have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tattooo Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Yep it is not " required " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 13 hours ago, 3gunDQ said: . Ambi safety is a must have. no it isn't. it's just your personal preference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 (edited) I was anti-ambi until I started encountering stages where we had to draw into the weak hand. Did I remember to disengage the safety with my right thumb before transferring into my left hand? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. When I forgot (yes I forgot because I had not yet trained myself to do it automatically), that cost me time of course. So I said to heck with it, I'll put ambi thumb safeties on the competition guns and be done with it. My right forefinger base knuckle does contact the unaltered underside of the EGW left thumb's paddle. But I shaped and rounded that part of the paddle, quite easy to do. Edited March 16, 2018 by GunBugBit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 On 3/13/2018 at 11:05 AM, littlewing6283 said: I do not prefer ambi safeties. more of a PITA during teardown in my opinion A slight PITA for disassembly/reassembly is a small price to pay for a proper setup. My comment is negated if you have trained yourself without fail to disengage the thumb safety with your right thumb before transferring to your left hand when a stage calls for starting out in WHO mode. Me, I like using the same thumb-atop-safety grip with my left hand, just as with the right hand. Personal preference, not necessity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlewing6283 Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 26 minutes ago, GunBugBit said: A slight PITA for disassembly/reassembly is a small price to pay for a proper setup. My comment is negated if you have trained yourself without fail to disengage the thumb safety with your right thumb before transferring to your left hand when a stage calls for starting out in WHO mode. Me, I like using the same thumb-atop-safety grip with my left hand, just as with the right hand. Personal preference, not necessity. True , as you said i need to work on disengaging the safety before transferring to weak hand. My SS minor gun has an ambi and I likely wont take it off. I had a milspec with just a one sided safety and I liked it as well. But I hear what you are saying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3gunDQ Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 (edited) 18 hours ago, motosapiens said: no it isn't. it's just your personal preference. no,it is. Do you shoot production? Edited March 17, 2018 by 3gunDQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 On 3/17/2018 at 3:35 AM, 3gunDQ said: no,it is. Do you shoot production? no, it isn't. i mostly shoot limited or SS and have shot production in the past. For me personally, the ambi safety is not a problem, but also not something I have ever used. For my wife, and for the top level GM that taught our recent class, the ambi-safety *is* a problem, and their high grip can cause it to get flicked on accidentally. If you like it better, that's fine with me, but it's pretty silly to suggest it is a requirement when lots of skilled people prefer single-sided. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliveb Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 My two 2011s both came with ambi safeties, and I was never bothered by them. When drawing and the transferring to my weak hand, I like to disengage the safety with my left hand thumb after I've got a good grip on the gun. In WHO, I also mimic my SHO grip by riding the safety with my thumb. Furthermore, I think it looks nice - more symmetrical. In a nutshell, no big deal either way - If I had a gun which didn't have an ambi safety, I wouldn't bother changing it, but I certainly won't be removing the ambi safeties from my 2011s now that they have them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluedevil008 Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 For USPSA, it's a must in my opinion. Shooting weak hand, it not only takes away any risk of the safety popping up ever so slightly to jam the gun (has happened to me), it also gives your thumb a solid and consistent place to grip the gun. Get it installed correctly and there are no issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MemphisMechanic Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 (edited) On 3/17/2018 at 4:35 AM, 3gunDQ said: no,it is. Do you shoot production? We widely accept that it’s sensible to install different triggers (curved, flat, short, long) in 2011/1911s to accomodate different sized hands. Same for different stock lengths on an AR pattern rifle. Try extending that belief to safeties as well - it’s perfectly logical. The way my hands interact with thumb safties means that even if I weren’t lefthanded... I would still run an ambi on a 1911, 2011, or Tanfoglio/CZ production gun. I love them. But plenty of top level shooters don’t have grips which play nicely with them, and choose not to run them. Edited March 21, 2018 by MemphisMechanic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racinready300ex Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 40 minutes ago, bluedevil008 said: For USPSA, it's a must in my opinion. Shooting weak hand, it not only takes away any risk of the safety popping up ever so slightly to jam the gun (has happened to me), it also gives your thumb a solid and consistent place to grip the gun. Get it installed correctly and there are no issues. And I've had the opposite happen, I missed my grip on a transfer and my thumb hit the ambi and popped it up a little. Killed that classifier quick. Both are problems that can be trained out, and then it wont really matter if you have a ambi or not. I do have a nasty callus on my strong hand from the ambi safety. Next time I change a safety I don't think I'm getting a ambi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 35 minutes ago, Racinready300ex said: I do have a nasty callus on my strong hand from the ambi safety. Next time I change a safety I don't think I'm getting a ambi. I have that too from one gun where I didn't smooth/round the underside of the paddle where it touches the strong hand base knuckle. With the gun where I took time to smooth the paddle edges top and bottom, the callus almost goes away if I shoot and dry fire only with that gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluedevil008 Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 1 hour ago, Racinready300ex said: And I've had the opposite happen, I missed my grip on a transfer and my thumb hit the ambi and popped it up a little. Killed that classifier quick. Both are problems that can be trained out, and then it wont really matter if you have a ambi or not. I do have a nasty callus on my strong hand from the ambi safety. Next time I change a safety I don't think I'm getting a ambi. Well if you popped it up, why didn't you reengage it after the transfer? You either continued shooting with improper grip or you trained your weak hand grip to not pressure the safety, which I argued would be a mistake. Imagine if you pop up the strong side thumb safety and then have no weak hand thumb safety... that would be a disaster waiting to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 14 minutes ago, bluedevil008 said: You either continued shooting with improper grip or you trained your weak hand grip to not pressure the safety, which I argued would be a mistake. i just took a class from a well-respected GM. He suggested NOT riding the safety when shooting singlehanded, and people in the class who were doing so immediately improved when they moved their thumb to underneath the safety. Obviously you have had some success with your method as well. I personally have never accidentally bumped the safety on when shooting SHO/WHO, but I do practice that stuff regularly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racinready300ex Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 2 hours ago, GunBugBit said: I have that too from one gun where I didn't smooth/round the underside of the paddle where it touches the strong hand base knuckle. With the gun where I took time to smooth the paddle edges top and bottom, the callus almost goes away if I shoot and dry fire only with that gun. Yeah, I could do that. unfortunately I didn't notice it until I started dry firing regularly with this gun. But, at this point that would mean get the safety refinished and I don't really want to do that. I did have to cut a lot off the weak hand side due to my grip, but I noticed that before I finished the gun. I've also noticed the ambi side has loosened up some over time and I hate that. If I replace it I'll either go single side, or at a minimum not use the same safety. I think the notch that connects the two is what is loosening. In the last 3 years I've only shot 1911's and 2011's I've never used the ambi side of anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racinready300ex Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 2 hours ago, bluedevil008 said: Well if you popped it up, why didn't you reengage it after the transfer? You either continued shooting with improper grip or you trained your weak hand grip to not pressure the safety, which I argued would be a mistake. Imagine if you pop up the strong side thumb safety and then have no weak hand thumb safety... that would be a disaster waiting to happen. It didn't click up with that nice snap so I didn't notice it, I don't think it was all the way up but it was up enough to bind things up. It was certainly odd. I imagine your scenario would also be bad, but I really don't see it happening. What happened to me was 2.5 years ago and hasn't happened since. I don't really see it as a issue anymore, but I still haven't really seen the need for a ambi safety either. I must admit, I think they look better with a safety on both sides. So that alone may lead me to keeping them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Racinready, looks like your classifier scores have likely not been adversely affected by whatever safety setup you have. More good shootin' to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 2 hours ago, Racinready300ex said: I've also noticed the ambi side has loosened up some over time and I hate that. yeah, if strong hand rubs the ambi side, it will loosen up pretty quickly. My wife's ended up breaking. luckily we are just running stock edges with kydex holsters (not pretty guns), so I just dremeled the f*** out of the ambi side of another safety that I took off my 1911 because I hate ambi safetys, and used that instead. Now her hand doesn't touch it, so it stays tight. I still hate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3gunDQ Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 6 hours ago, motosapiens said: i just took a class from a well-respected GM. Whoever it was I lost respect for him. What the hell sense does that make? I ride the safety. Period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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