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The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Sun, 08 Jul 2012 13:32:30
by traveler
You have to leave it on "fire" or you have to give each of your enemies an "extra" 1 second in which to kill you, as you take your hand off of the firing grip, disengage that stupidly designed safety lever, and return your hand to the firing grip. Either you are a fool, or you have to buy a custom made thumblever, mounted on the other side of the AK, like is featured on the Galil variant.

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 02:27:15
by Jakeiscrazy
It does suck, It was more or less designed for marching not for constant on and off use

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 08:44:27
by Reverenddel
Jake is correct.

The AK's safety isn't that "walking around" safety. it's that "We're in a transport, okay, remove safety, charge weapon... GO!" Safety.

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 12:03:16
by OakRidgeStars
The AK's safety is functional. Nothing more. Which is exactly how Kalashnikov designed it.

"Everything good is simple, and everything simple is good."

- Mikhail Kalashnikov

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 23:48:13
by Palladin
All of his posts reek of troll... I recommend a Dale Carnegie course. :coffee:

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 02:00:51
by Diomed
Don't finger it all the time like an AR, and you'll be fine.
Palladin wrote:All of his posts reek of troll... I recommend a Dale Carnegie course. :coffee:
I just figured he was working up to the big reveal - involving an assault wheelbarrow and a home-debarked chihuahua. He's already covered the suppressed .22 AR.

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:48:44
by bryanrheem
'My finger is my safety, sir'

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:30:08
by Jamie
And after you wear some of the parts for a while, the gun can go off spontaneously when you slip the safety on. Not the best feature.

(Happened to me at Gunsite. The head instructor was their head armorer, and he said it happens fairly regularly.)

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Thu, 09 Aug 2012 20:27:19
by Jakeiscrazy
Jamie wrote:And after you wear some of the parts for a while, the gun can go off spontaneously when you slip the safety on. Not the best feature.

(Happened to me at Gunsite. The head instructor was their head armorer, and he said it happens fairly regularly.)
Caused by full auto safetys in semi auto guns.

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 22:57:25
by RocKor
On my SGL21-94 I'm running a Krebs Mk VI Safety lever with the extended lever for your index finger. It is absolutely a game changer for the ergonomics on an AK. Midway USA has em for about $50 shipped. US PALM has an alternative if you don't want the Bolt-hold-open notch on the Krebs model.

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 19:43:33
by kzchopper
not to provoke anyone BUT. I was trained to keep my finger out of the trigger guard until it was time to fire. my truck gun is kept "cruiser-safe" full mag/empty chamber. just my .02 :ar15:

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 20:13:52
by grumpyMSG
kzchopper wrote:not to provoke anyone BUT. I was trained to keep my finger out of the trigger guard until it was time to fire. my truck gun is kept "cruiser-safe" full mag/empty chamber. just my .02 :ar15:
Unfortunately the AK's safety is also the dust cover blocking the gap where the cocking handle reciprocates, so if you have it thrown behind the seat like many truck guns are carried. that opening will potentially collect dirt, dust bunnies and anything else that falls behind the seat. Murphy's law would say "if anything can fit in the opening, it will end up in the opening, lost change, the pens off your seat and your children's missing crayons..."

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:54:03
by already
grumpyMSG wrote:
kzchopper wrote:not to provoke anyone BUT. I was trained to keep my finger out of the trigger guard until it was time to fire. my truck gun is kept "cruiser-safe" full mag/empty chamber. just my .02 :ar15:
Unfortunately the AK's safety is also the dust cover blocking the gap where the cocking handle reciprocates, so if you have it thrown behind the seat like many truck guns are carried. that opening will potentially collect dirt, dust bunnies and anything else that falls behind the seat. Murphy's law would say "if anything can fit in the opening, it will end up in the opening, lost change, the pens off your seat and your children's missing crayons..."
I am no expert, but my experience says dust bunnies and crayons wont stop an ak from going bang.

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Tue, 07 May 2013 10:58:45
by DiscipleofJMB
RocKor wrote:On my SGL21-94 I'm running a Krebs Mk VI Safety lever with the extended lever for your index finger. It is absolutely a game changer for the ergonomics on an AK. Midway USA has em for about $50 shipped. US PALM has an alternative if you don't want the Bolt-hold-open notch on the Krebs model.
I just got my Krebs safety yesterday. It IS a gamechanger. I had downgraded my SLR-106FR from "top tier" rifle status, but with some recent improvements it's back up there. Check out the "show off your gear" section once I post it later today. :)



Si vis pacem para bellum

follow me @DiscipleofJMB

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Tue, 07 May 2013 12:03:23
by Purdune
already wrote: I am no expert, but my experience says dust bunnies and crayons wont stop an ak from going bang.
No but that opening is large enough to let in metal objects like nuts, bolts, screws, and so forth. Who doesn't have them rolling around in their pickup?

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Tue, 07 May 2013 12:46:11
by GeneFrenkle
Huh? With the safety on, there's nothing for a bolt or anything to roll into.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... -01270.jpg

Top is safety on, bottom is safety off.

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Thu, 09 May 2013 16:54:11
by Purdune
GeneFrenkle wrote:Huh? With the safety on, there's nothing for a bolt or anything to roll into.
Referring to some peoples comments about leaving the safety off and how crayons won't stop an AK.

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Fri, 10 May 2013 19:24:17
by GeneFrenkle
Haven't seen anything about crayons. I have seen jello, puddimg, mud, sammiches. Tough to keep an ak from working. Besides, just pop the cover off, shake, and start using. The cover just makes it look purty and is handy for the COD tiger stripes.

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Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Fri, 10 May 2013 20:55:06
by grumpyMSG
GeneFrenkle wrote:Haven't seen anything about crayons. I have seen jello, puddimg, mud, sammiches. Tough to keep an ak from working. Besides, just pop the cover off, shake, and start using. The cover just makes it look purty and is handy for the COD tiger stripes.

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Unfortunately the AK isn't as tough as everybody seems to think. Specifically speaking, the top cover is made out of sheet metal (thinner than the receiver), dent it and you may have a cover that removes itself when you fire it or the operating rod wedges itself against the cover. In theory, you can operate the rifle without the cover and the operating rod spring guide will stay in it's notch because of the spring's tension. Are you willing to operate the rifle with your face right next to an uncovered operating rod and spring? Are you just not going to bother trying to aim and "walk" the rounds into the target instead? In a life or death circumstance I would try, but I am going to avoid it to begin with.

As I was trying to imply in the my earlier post, if you are using it as a "truck gun" just thrown in behind the seat and the safety is off and no round is in the chamber. If something falls in the opening, it has the potential to prevent chambering a round because you can't pull the cocking handle far enough to the rear. The bolt may not go to the rear far enough to strip a round from the magazine.

Re: The AK's safety lever sucks.

Posted: Fri, 10 May 2013 21:26:34
by GeneFrenkle
It's not that it's tough. The receiver, unless milled, is 1.5 mm thick, flexes with each shot, etc. It is more that it consistently functions. The safety isn't a safety. It just prevents the rifle from being racked. You don't even have to push the safety all the way down. It just needs to go down a cm or so, can be easily done with a thumb swipe when grabbing the rifle, and isn't dificult to do. Another option is to turn the rifle over.

I'm not sure i agree that it is a significant issue, particularly if you have enough time to fish around for a rifle amidst misc hardware in the back seat.

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