I was wondering how people manipulate the safety on the Garand / M14 style guns. For those who don’t know, the safety is a stiff lever on the inside of the front of the trigger guard which is pretty awkward to press.
Do you use your trigger finger or thumb to push it forward? My Garand’s safety is stiff enough that it’s painful to use my trigger finger.
If you’re at the ready, do you keep that finger touching the safety, ready to push it off, or do you just hold the gun normally and move your hand when it comes time to take the safety off?
Do you do anything differently in terms of when you take the safety off and put it on when compared to a gun like the AR where it is very fast and easy to manipulate the safety?
For my M1 Garand safety I use my thumb to push forward to take it off safe and my trigger to put the rifle back onto safe.
From what I have gathered from talking to WWII vets at reenactments that I attend most of them just left the rifle off of safe and treated it more like a Glock. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
As one WWII vet told me safeties were for the SHAEF mother efrs that were not getting shot at every 5 minutes. (I love talking to old vets:D)
When I asked about negligent discharges I was told that they were trained to carry their rifles at more of a port arm position as opposed to how modern rifles were carried.
I know that is a completely different situation than those of us who shoot our rifles on the range or in a class. So far the forward with the thumb and in with the trigger finger has not generated any NDs to date.
I would be interesting to get the opinion or hear how the modern soldier manipulates the M14 / Mk 14.
I remove my hand and use my thumb. With just a little practice it’s actually very fast and not at all a detriment. I actually run my socom 16 just like an AK. People keep looking to “enhance there M14’s” When the biggest problem is that they just don’t understand it and need to practice more. If you train a lot and keep it simple, light and fast it will be a very fast and efficient gun.
Everything in these vids can be applied to the M14 platform as well as the AK.
The short M14’s really do run well when treated like an over weight .308 AK. I’ve had a socom 16 for about 4 years now and until recently was my only center fire rifle. I just got a MAK 90 recently and it’s been a direct seamless transition from one to the other. The more I’ve learned about the AK the better I’ve gotten with my socom.
I have always used my trigger finger. Don’t isolate your finger muscle. The muscles that open your hand (moves your trigger finger toward the muzzle) is not as string as the muscles that close your hand.
Instead, think of it as moving your whole hand forward…all the while, you are keeping the back of your trigger finger on the safety. It is much easier…you are using more muscle.
You can take apart the trigger housing and polish the area where the safety slides on the housing. It is a match prep trick that does make it a little easier.
I use my trigger finger to push forward. Never had problems getting rounds downrange quickly. To put on safe though, I had to adjust my grip slightly as I have small hands. This was with a sage EBR chassis though, it might be more difficult with a traditional stock without a pistol grip.
Trigger finger. In high risk scenarios you can wedge your trigger finger up against the V that gets created by the strong hand side of the safety and the trigger guard (not unsafe and a proven technique). When it comes time to flip the safety just slide the tip of your finger to the left (or weak side). Don’t think about it as if you’re flicking the safety forward. Rather, keep your finger somewhat rigid and push your whole hand forward.