Are ambi safeties safe?

[mlr1m]

I carry a 1911 with a standard safety. When I carry this pistol cocked the holster protects the safety from any contact with objects. I've noticed that some of the ambi safties look as thought they might be easily switched to fire postion by being accidentally brushed against something.
Are my concerns unwarranted? I'm asking because i'm thinking of getting a second 1911 and the one im looking at has the ambi safety installed.

Michael

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[AZ Husker]

I've had two with ambi's, and have problems with both being bumped off safe. It happened with several top quality holsters. If I made a screaming deal with a gun with an ambi, I'd switch it out for a standard (unless I was wrong-handed).

[retsupt99]

Both my Kimbers have ambi's...never had a problem with the safety. My holsters are 'boned' for the safety...

[mlr1m]

My IWB holster is boned in for the normal safety also. I'm using a Milt Sparks SS2 holster. It just looks to me like a safety on the off side would be unprotected.

Michael

[retsupt99]

My IWB holster is boned in for the normal safety also. I'm using a Milt Sparks SS2 holster. It just looks to me like a safety on the off side would be unprotected.

Michael

I've never had an instance where the off side safety was bumped...and the boned leather sort of holds everything in place...OMO

[Rcher]

I've been carrying 1911's for a long time and I have the same concerns as you. I prefer the standard safety over the ambi, I know it wont brush against a door frame and come off safe.

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[Janq]

I've had three 1911's with ambi safeties against one other that did not.
None of the three gets switched off by wear while ironically the one that is not ambi does on occasion come out of the holster that way.

For me having ambi is more useful as I shoot with either hand.
And, it makes it easy for me with a tactile sweep of the finger over the safety to confirm that it's on or off.

- Janq

[AZ Husker]

My Sparks, Brommeland, Tucker, and Kramer holsters are boned around the left safety lever, but the right one hangs out there in the open. Just reach down to your holstered ambi 1911 and push down on the right safety. There's a very good chance it will disengage.

[Sticks]

Is the trigger covered by the holster?

So what if the safety gets occasionally "bumped off".

My BE has the ambi safety, and only one time has it come off, and that was after a very grueling day rolling around on the deck of a piece of equipment rebuilding an engine. It was disturbing, and I was a bit upset about it at first, but the end result is that it is in the holster and the trigger is covered.

[dukalmighty]

The holster protecting the safety might work ok if your right handed but if your left handed even a standard safety is exposed,I carry an ambi safety 1911 compact RIA in a lefty holster,my safety may get bumped off occassionally but not very often and I will sometimes check the safety to make sure it's engaged after getting out of an armchair or doing something that caused me to bump my gun.Some safetys are harder to disengage then others.My SA is such that it's not an issue

[Rob72]

So what if the safety gets occasionally "bumped off".

If it's a well-tuned 1911, the trigger is lighter and has much less travel than Glock- the well-known biter of careless hands. The safety should be always reliably engaged, or removed. Having either/or, without intentional activation is a ready invitation to a ND.

That point aside, I've never liked ambis, as they ride the ball of my shooting-hand's index finger, and either only partially deactivate, or beat my hand sore in the first mag. I can operate left sided controls with either hand, but I've also gotten away from 1911s, which entirely cured my issues with them.

[JD]

I've never had a real issue with them, I don't think I've ever had one come off safe.

The only thing I will say about the ambi is that one should do regular safety checks using both sides of the safety, I've seen two issues on other guns that make me not so happy with the concept.
1: The shaft broke on the ride side safety making it useless as it wasn't making contact with the left side safety.
2: A safety that wasn't mated properly so that when the right side safety was moved to the firing position, the left side safety was still engaged enough to prevent the gun from firing.

[Flippinstk]

I'm left handed and have ambi-safeties on both of my carry guns. Only once did the safety get dis-engaged on my SA Micro-Compact. I was wearing it using my brandy new Blade-Tech OWB DOH that I bought for local steel matches and had it on to get used to it. Since then I have filed down the safety levers on the left side of both of my carry guns, they are still fully functional, just dont protrude off the outside of my guns anymore.

[limatunes]

I only had one instance where I was putting my carry gun away for the night, I unholstered my Kimber and realized that the ambi safety was already disengaged.

Now, I honestly can't say whether it was brushed off or if I accidentally holstered it without engaging the safety because I had been "playing" with it while I was at work (at the time I worked at a gun shop/range and it was pretty normal for us to "play" with our carry guns when things weren't busy).

It didn't bother me in the least because a) there is still a grip safety that needs to be depressed and b) I knew that while it was holstered nothing could get to the trigger anyway.

I just shrugged, checked my safety by engaging and disengaging it a few times to be sure it was still working properly, re-engaged it and put it away.

I've never again had a problem.

That's why I think I actually accidentally holstered it without engaging the safety.

Not sure why I did that but, oh well, no harm done. I was carrying the thing with the safety disengaged for at least 4 hours. No holes were blown in anything, especially me. So I didn't (or don't) sweat it.

[mlr1m]

The fact that a couple of you folks have had a problem with them has reinforced my original views against them. If I did have the ambi safety on my carry gun I would probably be constantly checking it, not a good thing.
If the new pistol I find has one I think i'll remove for my own peace of mind.

Thanks
Michael