Quickest way to get an AR on safe during mag change?

[wahoo95]

I've trained with instructors who teach that the rifle should be on safe whenever you're not on target.

[elwoodcg]

His logic is laid out in the second post linked above.

"My safety states that the weapon should be on safe and your finger should be off of the trigger until you have a sight picture.".

I won't try to extrapolate it for him beyond noting that if you break your sight picture while reloading, when that bolt goes home on a live round, you may or may not have the sights on a target. The target may have moved, there may be a non-threat where the target once was, etc.

I shoot glocks so I can't comment on 1911's.

[TX Rancher]

Well, I wouldn't say that. My guess is that Pat has spent a lot of time around people that will either try to shoot themselves or others during a reload (foreign militaries, Cops, etc) and thusly has come up with this. We are all shaped by our environment.

We will be hosting Pat in Ohio come Fall 2014 and I look forward to listening to his reasons and trying his techniques.



C4

Maybe it's to maintain commonality for the different mag changes. During a tactical mag change there is still a round in the chamber and putting on the safety has some merit...not saying you should do it, but it certainly has more merit than in the situation where the bolt is locked to the rear

[C4IGrant]

I've trained with instructors who teach that the rifle should be on safe whenever you're not on target.

We must clarify this I think. After having just shot a bad guy, you are scanning for other bad guys with your finger straight and the selector set to Semi (or safety off if you like). I am guessing that you will agree with this.

I look at AR's the same way I look at a Glock. My "safety" is my brain (which is connected to my trigger finger). I have seen lots of folks put an AR on safe (when it was unloaded or not working) and then forget that they did this (causing all kinds of problems).

My guess is that within the next 5-10yrs, we will see a Glock like Fire Control Group in an AR.



C4

[C4IGrant]

I shoot glocks so I can't comment on 1911's.

If you think about it, your Glock has no safety (less your finger). You do reloads and malfunction clearing with it all the time. Just something to think about.


C4

[C4IGrant]

Maybe it's to maintain commonality for the different mag changes. During a tactical mag change there is still a round in the chamber and putting on the safety has some merit...not saying you should do it, but it certainly has more merit than in the situation where the bolt is locked to the rear

Could be and I do put my safety on during a Tac Reload. This is ONLY because the gun can actually fire though.


C4

[TactTeam]

It becomes one fluid motion with training. As you break the gun down to your workstation to reload you are safeing the weapon and hitting the mag release all about the same time. While doing this your off hand is moving forward to the expended mag to physically pull it out of the magwell (notice I did not say to throw it halfway across the firing line). Yes, get in the habit of doing that too so when you are in a fight and the mag gets stuck you won't be standing there like a dead-man with a good mag in your support hand and a bad mag in your gun.

I have had the fortunate opportunity to train with some really high end guys that have seen a lot of combat. Every time we debate the safe amongst the group, it comes back to basically what was posted above. If you aren't shooting, you should be on safe. As I'm sure many of you know, lots of things happen in combat. IED's, stress, sympathetic muscle contraction as well as a host of unimaginable things. If you are on safe, it lowers that risk of shooting something you don't want to hit.

With training it all becomes one fluid motion. Rifle not go boom, check chamber for malfunction, break rifle down to workstation as you are safeing firearm and extracting the mag. Put new mag in and come back up on target as you are charging the weapon and clicking the safe off.

Practice the reloading process a lot while everything is safe and clear. If you have a shot timer, put yourself on a clock and time yourself. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. The more you practice at 1/4 speed the smoother you will get. You will gradually get faster.

[Zane1844]

I have not been properly trained, however, I always check when I feel the bolt lock back, at the same moment I switch it to safety, then I put a new mag in and continue.

If I have my shot timer on and I am going for speed, I do not usually activate the safety.

[tb-av]

If we take this logic to say a handgun like the 1911, you cannot put it on safe when doing a mag change.
C4

Sure you can, when the slide is forward. The OP mentions nothing of an empty weapon.

[Wake27]

I wasn't really a fan of this policy either, assuming the shooter is always very conscious of what mode the weapon is in. I could see people forgetting to re-engage the safety if they don't practice one way consistently (and even then, its never guaranteed). Its an extra step, which always has the potential to add time, but Mac teaches it as well as the SME I shot with so I try to practice it.