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

[elwoodcg]

Pat McNamara stresses going on safe during mag changes and I agree with his logic. I didn't get the opportunity to ask him specifically in the class I took with him but for those of you that safe your AR during mag changes, how exactly do you go about it? Drop the mag first and then safe it, use your support hand to hold the rifle and do both functions at the same time or some other way? I want to buy into the notion that it "can only be an enabler, never a disabler" but haven't figured out how to do it without adding time to my mag changes. Surely it's possible as it doesn't seem to slow Mac down.

For what it's worth, I'm toying with some different selector options right now. Seems like a 45 degree selector would make going to safe super easy but let's assume we're talking about a standard 90 degree selector for now.

[Wake27]

You know he has his own section here where you can ask, right? And I always do it before dropping the mag.

[wahoo95]

Rifle empty
Activate safety
Swap mags
Deactivate safety
Resume shooting

[elwoodcg]

You know he has his own section here where you can ask, right? And I always do it before dropping the mag.

Yeah, I do. He's a busy guy so I expected that he'd take a while to respond. Also, I'm sure he's not the only guy who goes to safe during mag changes and multiple perspectives are appreciated. Thanks for your input.

[Chameleox]

At bolt lock, I go to SAFE, then drop the mag (these two things can happen relatively quickly). Once reloaded, I come back up to target, re-assess, and go to FIRE as needed.

The split difference, for me, is minimal, and worth the extra step.

[elwoodcg]

Thanks guys. I think my issue was that I was dropping the mag first and attempting to safe it while my other hand was reaching for a mag. I got that to work a couple times but not reliably. Going to safe first makes sense.

[JSantoro]

He's a busy guy so I expected that he'd take a while to respond.

....but he always responds. Always.

If you want to ask him directly, do so here: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...-Use-of-safety

[C4IGrant]

At bolt lock, I go to SAFE, then drop the mag (these two things can happen relatively quickly). Once reloaded, I come back up to target, re-assess, and go to FIRE as needed.

The split difference, for me, is minimal, and worth the extra step.

This is interesting to me. I have talked to a lot of other Delta Guys and they do not teach to do this. The question I have is, the gun is EMPTY so why put the safety on?

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



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[jwreck]

This is interesting to me. I have talked to a lot of other Delta Guys and they do not teach to do this. The question I have is, the gun is EMPTY so why put the safety on?

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



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Glad I'm not the only one confused by this. Seems like a pointless action to me.

[C4IGrant]

Glad I'm not the only one confused by this. Seems like a pointless action to me.

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.



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