New for 08 thumb safety on XD

[Mity2]

I have mixed feeling about that.
Having safety is sort of double edge knife tho you know?
Trained personel(i.e. LEO, Military) may be able to remenber to take safety off before shoot it in split second, but some civilian may not be able to, and XD is one of popular choice for CCW.

If they come up with 5" tactical with safety, then I may get one in 45acp for home defence tho..

But for CCW, I'd rather have Glock style trigger safety(but I hate Glock's ergonomics), or no safety at all(like my M&P)

[ScaredOnce]

I wouldn't want one with the manual safety, but I do see where they're coming from.

1) There are those that are uncomfortable with the idea of a loaded handgun with no safety for carry. This could also appeal to the market segment who grew up with 1911s and wants to see what one of those "plastic" handguns are all about. So purely from a business point of view, this could potentially open up new sales avenues.

2) The next gen of gov't contracts for pistols was surely a consideration. I wonder if prices of the maual safety models will slowly creep up to justify a higher bid for the gov't contract. Usually on www.fbo.gov the RFPs will cite specific calibers not platforms. I don't think they usually get as specific as saying "manual safety", but these companies like SP know that this will be a selling point. The bigwigs that decide who gets wins the RFP probably grew up with 1911s...

[jtkratzer]

Originally Posted by TcRoc

I don't quite understand what your saying,I stated it was a good move on there part,,are you trying to say there are no other polymer framed guns with a thumb safety?

There aren't many polymer framed handguns with thumb safeties...that's a pretty straight forward statement. I'm saying it's a smart move to keep it optional on the XD45 on whether or not you want the thumb safety. You can get an XD45 with the safety and you can get it as it was without the safety. It's your choice. I think that's a smart move by SA to keep the original without the safety available.

Originally Posted by Mity2

I have mixed feeling about that.
Having safety is sort of double edge knife tho you know?
Trained personel(i.e. LEO, Military) may be able to remenber to take safety off before shoot it in split second, but some civilian may not be able to, and XD is one of popular choice for CCW.

If they come up with 5" tactical with safety, then I may get one in 45acp for home defence tho..

But for CCW, I'd rather have Glock style trigger safety(but I hate Glock's ergonomics), or no safety at all(like my M&P)

It's all in what you train with. Anyone who carries a 1911 has to practice dropping the safety when drawing. Same applies here. If you train to drop the safety, you'll be fine. The XD has a similar trigger safety like the Glock and it has a grip safety. I have an XD45 compact and I think it's a great all around gun as I can put the compact mag with 10 rounds in for carrying or I can put the full-sized 13 rounder in for the house/range/whatever. SA also makes a Compact Tactical XD45 5".

[boostjunkie1]

Yes they do make the 5" Compact Tatical and I happen to LOVE that gun! I have ran 300 round through it so far and it has been dead accurate from right out of the box...... I would love to see a thumb safty on the subcompact 40 or 45. That is what I would carry due to the fact that my Wife has taken over the 9mm sub. Springfield has made a wise choice in bringing this to the market. I know allot of people that will now buy a XD because of the safty.

[MarcS]

more useless shit to go wrong. Just adding points of failure.

[Skullz]

If it's an option, then I think it's great. Give the people what they want.

I also agree with Lycanthrope.. if it's gonna be there, make it bigger, even better, make it closer to a 1911.

As far as remembering to disengage the safety... thats all practice and training. I carried my sub-compact XD9 for a long time.

When I switched over to a 1911, I spent some time every day for a week draw and dry firing at home and then 3 days in a row at the range draw and live fire before I carried it. I think it's muscle memory at this point, because the last time I went to the range, I brought my Glock 17, and dammit if I didn't keep trying to click off the thumb safety every time I was ready to fire

[MarcS]

Originally Posted by Skullz

If it's an option, then I think it's great. Give the people what they want.

I also agree with Lycanthrope.. if it's gonna be there, make it bigger, even better, make it closer to a 1911.

As far as remembering to disengage the safety... thats all practice and training. I carried my sub-compact XD9 for a long time.

When I switched over to a 1911, I spent some time every day for a week draw and dry firing at home and then 3 days in a row at the range draw and live fire before I carried it. I think it's muscle memory at this point, because the last time I went to the range, I brought my Glock 17, and dammit if I didn't keep trying to click off the thumb safety every time I was ready to fire

That's good and all until stress takes over. I saw a guy who placed at NTI miss his 1911 safety in a training course. It happens. The guy was still bad ass.

[jtkratzer]

Originally Posted by MarcS

more useless shit to go wrong. Just adding points of failure.

Is the thumb safety on a 1911 "useless sh!t?"

[MarcS]

Originally Posted by jtkratzer

Is the thumb safety on a 1911 "useless sh!t?"

Um, no, because on that handgun it would be unsafe to carry without it engaged. We're talking about a gun that already has a number of passive safeties.

[Suburban]

Originally Posted by Kaos

fine with me, if they go back to 45 the m9's maybe will sell surplus sometime before i die.

Considering who the top two Democrats and Republicans for Pres in '08 are, I wouldn't bet on any more retired military guns making it into the hands of civilians. Maybe they'll only chop saw the frames, and sell the uppers and spare parts.

Sad, but it'll probably happen.