"No Tic" semi-auto safeties

[MountainRaven]

Trying to find a "no tic"/retro safety for my Brownells retro rifle. It appears as of this posting that the only place that has any (that didn't come out of a select-fire M16/M16A1 - and is therefore a legal minefield) is a company called, "ar15sport.com".

I've never heard of them. They seem to have an OK reputation from what I've been able to find, although a lot of their parts appear to be made by Delton. Which doesn't engender a lot of confidence for me.

But how hard can it be to mess up a safety, right? Does anybody have any experience with this company, especially with their safeties and other retro small parts?

Or is there somewhere else I should be looking but have somehow managed to miss?

Thanks!

[LoboTBL]

I've ordered several items from them and have been satisfied. I ordered nearly all of the parts for my M16A1 and XM16E2 clones from them. I will likely get most of the rest of the parts I need for my A2 from them when I get around to it.

Right now getting my new Jeep outfitted and to the level of capability that the one I lost to Harvey has a slightly higher priority.

They were actually ahead of the curve on retro parts and uppers. They had the retro uppers both stripped and complete way before Brownells. At one time they had a complete A1 upper w/ 20" barrel w/ 1 in 12 twist.

[MountainRaven]

Ordered the safety on Monday, it showed up today.

First impressions/appearance: It looks like it has better machining than the A2 safety the gun shipped with - and most A2 safeties I've seen. Make me wonder if it's machined from a billet of steel instead of being cast and then machined.

Unlike the Brownell's small parts, which are I-can't-believe-it's-not-black gray, the AR15Sport safety is definitely gray: A couple of shades darker than my mil-spec dryfilm NHMTG/Okay Ind. 20- and 30-round magazines. I really wish Brownells could more consistently anodize their retro rifles in gray. (My upper and lower don't match, which I don't mind, but the upper is more definitely gray than the lower and it's only a shade or two lighter.)

Initial function: The safety fits fine. When the safety is pointed at "Safe" the trigger cannot be pulled, when it's pointed at "Fire" the hammer falls. So far as I can discern, there is no impact on function (which, of course, is at it should be). The safety very positively clicks into both the Safe and Fire positions - more positively than the OEM Brownell's safety.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

[MountainRaven]

So that everyone knows:

Every image I've been able to find shows M16/XM16E1/M16A1 rifles with darker-colored pins and safeties than the receiver. The AR15Sport safety is lighter than the Brownell's gray retro receivers that I've had. This kinda bothers me.

The reversible Colt safeties (Colt PN: SP63000) - which Brownell's sells as an, "AR6721," safety (mine came out of an LE6920-OEM1) for less than $20 - have no tick on the side opposite the selector lever. The black-ish color of the selector looks more correct with the dark gray of the Brownell's retro lower. Of course, it still has the "long" lever on it, which isn't correct, but I personally find that less jarring than the light gray selector on a dark gray receiver.

And looking, now, at SP1 safeties and the, "AR6721," safety, it appears that the AR15Sport safety is basically a standard safety with the short lever that they ground the side opposite the lever to remove the, "tic," as it lacks the chamfering around the end of the shaft of the safety opposite the lever - and then refinished with a gray parkerizing.

So... if you want a not-entirely-correct safety for your Brownell's retro rifle or gray Brownell's receiver, I'd get the Colt, "AR6721," unit. For $20 - or free, if you have a Colt with that safety already in it, or you have a Colt that had one - I think it beats the AR15Sport one by a smidge. I think it will hold me over until I can get a more correct unit, like one from an SP1. The AR15Sport one will be taking the Colt safety's place in my parts bin, for now, alongside the A2-style safety the rifle shipped from Brownell's with.

If, however, you don't mind the, "tic," on the safety and simply want the shorter lever, it looks like the safeties that ship with the CMMG Gun Builder LPKs have a short lever, with a very fine (narrow), "tic," on it. (I looked at one at an LGS - and I'm pretty sure I have one floating around my parts bin, somewhere, but haven't been able to locate it.)

ETA: I now have an SP1 safety - which does have the same radius'ing on the right side of the safety shaft as the modern A2-style safeties and the Colt #SP63000 ("AR6721") safety. So that just reinforces my belief that the AR15Sport one is a modified short lever A2 safety. The SP1 safety is maybe a shade lighter than the I-can't-believe-it's-not-black gray Brownells XM16E1 lower, but it's much closer than the AR15Sport unit.

So to reiterate my previous conclusions:
-If you want a, "no tic," safety and the long selector lever doesn't bother you, buy the Colt SP63000 safety.
-If you want a proper, "no tic," safety with a short selector lever, buy an original Colt SP1 safety. As of this writing, they aren't honestly that much more expensive than the AR15Sport unit.
-I would only buy the AR15Sport unit if you have a US Anodizing XM gray lower receiver (which AR15Sport explicitly states that their retro safeties and small parts kits are a close match for).

Judging strictly from US Anodizing's website, their XM gray is actually a lighter gray than the 601, 602, and early 603 and 604 rifles (early M16s and XM16E1s) should have - and those earliest of rifles should, in fact, be a darker shade of gray. They also list XM gray as the appropriate color for SP1s, and based on the coloration of my SP1 safety relative to my XBRN16E1 gray receiver, I'd say Brownell's actually probably got the early gray pretty close... even if it does look awfully close to black (at least indoors).