Ambi-safety

[Randall]

Being a south paw, I am considering having an ambidextrous
safety installed on my RIA GI. My gunsmith is really great, but what
are the chances of it loosening after so many rounds? Is this concern
unfounded?

[RickB]

Do some searches here on the forum, and you'll see that loose ambis are not rare. If it's a quality part, and it's properly installed, you shouldn't have any problems; and if you're a lefty, you don't really have a choice. :)

[Joshua M. Smith]

I have found the STI/SVI safety seems to last the longest. I have one that is still very usable.

I would prefer a King's due to the retaining method, but since they supply MEU, they're perpetually out of their safety.

Kimber makes one which is very similar. It is retained by the hammer pin just like King's, and you therefore do not have to use special grips with the cutout for the Swenson style retaining tab.

The main difference between the King's and Kimber's is that the King's is cast, while the Kimber's is MIM. I've not been able to either break or loosen mine however.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/WabashShootist/Guns/1911/RC%20grips/RCrightside.jpg
My daily carry piece.


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/WabashShootist/Guns/1911/RC%20grips/RCleftside.jpg
I bobbed the left side because the paddle was interfering with operation as a lefty.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/WabashShootist/Guns/1911/RC%20grips/RCsafetysupport1.jpg
Make sure your grips support the right side paddle. This will help prevent the safety from coming loose at the joint.

If you don't use a stop for the right side paddle, you're stressing the joint as the right side paddle moves just a bit further than the left side on the down stroke. This is much worse if your ride the safety (I do). Support at this point is imperative.

Kimber is often out of stock as well; you might do will to reserve one if you don't want to file a recess in the right side grip of every grip set you try. As well, some ambi safeties have an annoying habit of riding out at the joint. The hammer pin retention keeps this from happening.

I'm thus far very happy with this setup - and I practice 100 draws per night, turning the safety off on each draw. It has yet to loosen or break as I half thought it would.

Josh <><

[RickB]

The Kimber safety has an internal stop. Because it rotates down onto the hammer pin, and the dovetail is closed at the top, the safety should bottom solidly on the hammer pin. The King's safety rotates up onto the pin, so the dovetail is open at the top, and you would have to be concerned with the pin joint loosening from torque applied while shooting. I just had a Kimber ambi installed, and while I haven't put many cycles on it, it feels extremely solid, and the levers are shaped better, for my hand/grip, than any other safety on the market.

[Joshua M. Smith]

The Kimber safety has an internal stop. Because it rotates down onto the hammer pin, and the dovetail is closed at the top, the safety should bottom solidly on the hammer pin.

Respectfully, I found on my Kimber safety that the pin cut was up too high to serve as a reliable stop without torquing the joint just a bit. I personally don't trust it to act as a stop, only as a retainer.

Josh <><

[RickB]

On my installation, the levers are hard against the (hi-cap) frame, so I couldn't tell, definitively, if the Kimber design would, in other instances, work as a proper stop. It appeared to me that it would. If it doesn't on your gun, then it doesn't. With the King's design, there's no hope if it doing so.