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That was one I never could understand. Based on his idea that the M70 safety should be on the left side for right-handers, I tried handling some left-handed M70s. I started by holding the rifle in a normal position, basically at port arms, with the safety on, my left hand on the fore end, and my right on the pistol grip. I tried manipulating the safety while the gun was up, as well as taking it off safety for a snap shot as he talks about in his article.

With the rifle to the shoulder there was no way I could operate the safety while keeping my hand in anything resembling a firing position on the pistol grip. I had to let go and reach across the rifle to get it all the way forward to the "fire" position. With the safety on the left side, it's beyond the arc that my thumb can reach while still holding on to the rifle. And letting go of the rifle so I can move my entire hand to get the rifle off safe, then re-establishing a firing grip, is a lot slower than just moving a single digit to flick off the safety and back to grip the rifle.

While still all the way down at port arms, manipulating the left-handed safety could be slightly faster if the thumb of the firing hand was already resting on the left side of the rifle, because with the rifle down it isn't the same stretch at all for the hand to make. Which I suppose might be a slight advantage for hip-shooting a threat that appeared suddenly at the end of your muzzle while you were daydreaming about being somewhere else. No advantage at all if your mind is on what you're doing. And if I had to mount the rifle to take an aimed snap shot as he suggests in his article, the rifle would be off safe when it reached my shoulder no matter which side the safety is on.

Maybe if you have hands the size of a Yeti it's a good idea. But for me, what works on a Government model .45 doesn't work as well on a rifle.

Edited by ChinaFleetSailor (21/07/08 05:45 AM)

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