# why have a beavertail safety?



## algore is a fatwoman

I'll be blunt. To me, a gun with a beavertail safety is like a car with automatic seat belts or daytime running headlights. I don't like them, see no purpose for them, and won't buy anything that has them. I don't mean to be insulting, it's just my opinion. So why do you like or dislike beavertail safetys? Maybe I'll change my mind. Oh, and since I'm sure someone will ask, the favorite gun that I currently own is an H&K USP .40.


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## DevilsJohnson

Shoot 500 rounds of 45ACP with a A! 1911 with the GI grip safety. That beaver tail feels pretty good after that. But to each their own. They also make it a little easier to get some of those commander type hammers in there :smt023 The weapon worked well for years without them that's a fact. T Here are several different styles of the safety also so you might want to look at all of those too before condemning the lot.


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## VAMarine

The beaver tail allows the gun to sit lower in the hand and does make for more comfortable shooting of the 1911 over prolonged range sessions.

I've had several 1911s with different type grip safeties and I'll take beaver tail any day of the week.

My pre-series 80 Combat Commander would do a number on my hand, this was by far the most uncomfortable gun to shoot that I ever owned.










The abbreviated safety that was on my Para CCW LDA was no walk in the park either and was just a hair worse than a standard grip safety









_Stock photo_

The final straw was when a friend wanted me to run a couple hundred rounds through his Springfield MILSPEC. That was almost as bad as the Colt. I previously thought that this type of grip safety wouldn't be too bad, but I just never got to shoot enough rounds through one to get tired of the tang digging in my hand.









_Ramdon photo found on Photobucket_

I'll stick with the beaver tail. While some with smaller hands don't get beat so bad, but I do.

But to each their own.


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## hideit

i gues you haven't been bit yet between the thumb and index finger
i have
i converted my 1970 1911 asap
heard about but until it happens - then yyou will understand


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## wardhaines

You can learn not to like hammer bite quite quickly. For those of us with larger hands the grip will press up pretty hard against the grip safety.
I don't like the look of full size beavertail safeties either. I have a full size GI 1911 that will get me every time if I don't remember to keep my hand low on the grip.

My Springfield ultra compact has a slightly longer tail, like the one on the full size shown above, and even that helps reduce the bite a lot.
I would hate to shoot the two above with the bobbed safeties. I would be guaranteed a bloddy hand after a few rounds.


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## Steve M1911A1

Since the OP is now banned, I suppose that answering his question is an exercise in futility, but...
If you merely swap parts, so that you're using the configuration of grip safety seen on the Springfield MILSPEC with the Commander-style "rowel" hammer, you can get the same effect of a beavertail safety without doing any frame modification or other major gunsmithing.
(You may have to file a small, rounded notch in the top of the grip safety, to allow the rowel hammer to come all the way back, but that's a really simple "kitchen table" job that anybody can do by eye.)


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## BULLMACK45

*calvary*

It is my understanding that the grip safety was on the 1911,was requested by the calvary. SOP was to go into combat ,round in chamber, hammer cocked,thumb safety off, because it was difficult to take the thumb safety off on a galloping horse. Who knows??


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## danite

*live,learn,and upgrade*

you can fly coach and still get there,but if you fly 1st class it's so much nicer,comfort is all!you get enhanced muscle memory,for quicker grip seating to hand,it allows the gun to sit higher in hand,so it aligns battery with your arm and eye,for a quicker sight picture,which can also provide less felt recoil,eliminates potential hammer and even slide bite[for the few with bigger/thicker thumb to finger webs]to extrapolate on that mind set sir would you throw a rock or pick up your roscoe to do your projectile launching.the beavertail is a better way to go,the other way is just functional,but what heck do i know,except free advice is worth what you pay for it


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## buckler

the beavertail serves many purposes. One that nearly everyone overlooks is that it protects the hammer from blows. I know for a fact that a hard blow can force off the safety of a Colt lw Commander and fire the gun!. another issue is that the beavertail lets you grip the gun higher, reducing the amount of muzzlejump, if you also "undercut" the bottom rear of the trigger guard a bit. Another issue is that a good beavertail, like Wilsons, "guides" your hand to a proper grip during the fast draw. another issue is that the beavertail reduces both wear on your jacket linings and 'snags" during the concealed draw. Another is that the beavertail protects your hand from striking hard, sharp corners of the hammer during the draw. I would never carry cocked and locked without it. In fact, I have welded on such beavert'ails to P35 Brownings and Stars. Ive also added them to PPK's, to prevent the slide from striking the owner's web of their hands. this gun is notorious for causing such injuries.


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## buckler

the "non gunsmithing' beavertails are a bad idea. Heavy loads and tight grips on the gun force flesh up into the gap between frame and beavertail, causing painful pinching on occasion.


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## SMann

You guys are commenting on the benefits of a beavertail which make sense. What about the op's question which was about beavertail "safeties". Having a beavertail on certain guns seems appropriate, but why do they also need to serve as a safety?


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## Steve M1911A1

SMann said:


> You guys are commenting on the benefits of a beavertail which make sense. What about the op's question which was about beavertail "safeties". Having a beavertail on certain guns seems appropriate, but why do they also need to serve as a safety?


The 1911 was originally designed to have two mechanical safety devices, a thumb safety and its grip safety, because it was to be issued, in part, to the US Cavalry and used from horseback. It was carried in "Condition Two," with a loaded magazine in its grip and a round in its chamber, but its hammer down (which is perfectly safe, because of the 1911's special firing pin). The cavalryman was to draw his pistol and thumb cock it, and the grip safety was there to prevent inadvertent discharges while that was being done. (Yes, I know that this is a stupid way of handling a 1911.)

The 1911's grip safety still exists because it was designed that way ("Tradition!"), so we who use that pistol have to cope with that "feature."
One way of coping with it is to make its shape more "hand-friendly," which accounts for the popular accessory "beavertail"-shape grip safety.
Another way of coping with it is to disable it, which can be done with either a hacksaw or a simple pin insertion.

If you shoot the 1911 with your thumb pressing down upon it's thumb safety (as I believe you should), you will very likely find that you cannot press the gun's grip safety inward far enough to allow the pistol to fire.
Several accessory manufacturers make "memory groove" grip safeties to correct this, all of which feature a raised nubbin placed to contact the palm of the shooter's hand. Pressing even very lightly against this nubbin decisively moves the grip safety inward to "off."


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## SMann

So basically there is no good reason for the beavertail to function as a safety unless you're riding a horse?:smt082 I hear ya Steve, it's just that there are plenty of 1911's out there that look only slightly like the original in varying calibers yet they keep an unnecessary feature. I just don't get it.


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## Steve M1911A1

SMann said:


> So basically there is no good reason for the beavertail to function as a safety unless you're riding a horse?:smt082 I hear ya Steve, it's just that there are plenty of 1911's out there that look only slightly like the original in varying calibers yet they keep an unnecessary feature. I just don't get it.


• In terms of appearing in court after even the most righteous shooting, my 1911s with pinned grip safeties would raise the damning question of why I would circumvent a designed-in "safety device," since only a rabid child-killer would not want his gun to be "as safe as possible."
• In terms of carrying cocked-and-locked, the grip safety might prevent an unintended discharge, should the pistol's thumb safety be accidentally wiped to "off." Of course, a properly designed holster would cover the gun's trigger, which also is a "safety."
• In terms of disassembly, the fact that the grip safety is a separate piece makes detail-stripping the gun much, much easier.

I own three 1911s, one of which is a "shortie," and a Star PD. All three of the 1911s have pinned grip safeties, and the Star PD never had one in the first place.
So I guess that I don't get it either, except for my third point, above.


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## buckler

the cutout rear of the 1911's frame made it easier to make, given the machinery of its day. The grip safety was added because the calvaryman had his horse's reins in one hand and the pistol in the other. Given rearing, galloping horses, firing at enemy horsemen, hits can't be had much beyond sword range, anyway, so the rifle served no purpose unless the horse soldiers dismounted. When your horse rears up at being shot, or smashing into the enemy, you grab the saddlehorn to stay on the horse. Without the grip safety, you shoot your horse in the neck. The grip safety does not block the sear, hammer, or firing pin, it only blocks the trigger, so it is no safety, except when you "slip" your grip on the gun to grab the saddlehorn and still hang onto your pistol.


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## Steve M1911A1

I thought I'd already written all that.

Leave it to *buckler* to restate the obvious, at great length.


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