Magazine disconnects

[hard h2o]

Does anyone like a magazine disconnect on a semi-auto firearm?

I despise them.

[BigDog58]

+1 on the Despise . They suck, as far as I'm concerned. I will not own a firearm that has one.

[Erud]

Gun company lawyers like them.

[usnret]

Most of them are pretty easy to disable.

[Ironbear]

Met a cop once who thought of them as "unsafety" devices, since it seemed to promote bad habits. The tendency was to think of a gun with the magazine out as "unloaded".

Is there any modern pistols being made with disconnects? Seems like an idea whose time is past...

[Drizzle]

Wasn't the idea (for Smith autos in the 70s and 80s anyhow) that officers could remove the magazines when checking 'guests' into the jail without checking their whole firearm? I've heard of coppers who have forgotten pistols at the jail and had to drive back, or, in an extreme case, had to borrow a weapon from another officer in an emergency.

Had two on my Star 9mm autos, easily removed. Didn't understand having them on a non duty weapon (like the Smiths), and especially on a military weapon. A possible advantage for the open topped Beretta 92 was the ease of single loading rounds if one found oneself with ammo and without a functioning magazine.

[Seismic Sam]

I wonder if the ORIGINAL (back before WWII) 9mm Hi-Power that John Browning designed in 1935 had a magazine disconnect on it, or whether that was something the Belgians requested/implemented?? Anybody got an idea on this??

[Jack's My dog]

I had seriously been considering the Ruger SR9c, but passed due to the disconnect. However there are a few YouTube videos that show how to remove them I believe.

[hard h2o]

Mine is on my Marlin 795 .22.

My carry gun does not have one nor does it have a safety.

Hit the range Saturday. Sunday cleaning firearms. Took the Marlin apart. Cleaned and reassembled. Went to do a function check and no click when I pulled the trigger. It has had some light primer strikes so along with what seemed like a no trigger reset or no cocking I dropped it off at Joe's to be looked at. Got ho me and remembered that it has that dang magazine disconnect.

I am going to have to see how to disable it.

I assume that it is a lowest common denominator type of safety but it should not take the place of teaching or following the rules already established.

Drop the mag and you still might have one in the chamber. It might give one a false sense of security.

[old guy]

My Ruger sr22 has it, I love that little gun, hate the disconnect.

[usnret]

I had seriously been considering the Ruger SR9c, but passed due to the disconnect. However there are a few YouTube videos that show how to remove them I believe.

I would be very careful on which YouTube and who's YouTube video you watch and believe. There are an awful lot of self proclaimed experts (idiots) on YouTube.

[Squib Joe]

I wonder if the ORIGINAL (back before WWII) 9mm Hi-Power that John Browning designed in 1935 had a magazine disconnect on it, or whether that was something the Belgians requested/implemented?? Anybody got an idea on this??

It would be tough for John Browning to have designed this in 1935. Very tough.



I'm of the opinion that 80% or more of the HP came from Dieudonné Saive. The magazine safety was included by request of the French army (who were considering a contract with FN) for some froggy reason, and added by Saive to the original design from the mid-1920s.

[UnaStamus]

Wasn't the idea (for Smith autos in the 70s and 80s anyhow) that officers could remove the magazines when checking 'guests' into the jail without checking their whole firearm? I've heard of coppers who have forgotten pistols at the jail and had to drive back, or, in an extreme case, had to borrow a weapon from another officer in an emergency.

Had two on my Star 9mm autos, easily removed. Didn't understand having them on a non duty weapon (like the Smiths), and especially on a military weapon. A possible advantage for the open topped Beretta 92 was the ease of single loading rounds if one found oneself with ammo and without a functioning magazine.

The premise was that if you were fighting with a suspect and the suspect grabbed your gun, you could drop the mag and that would disable the gun. While true that it could disable the gun, it was a misguided ideology.

[Bitter Bastard]

I had mag disconnects on just two of my pistols - a Browning Hi Power and a S&W 639. I removed the Browning's and it helped the trigger pull immensely. The 639 was an old PD gun and someone had worked the trigger over so well, I never even looked into how the mag disconnect interacted with the mechanism because I didn't see anything to gain from it.

I don't like magazine disconnects but if there is no apparent functional penalty (like a bad trigger) for having one, I'd leave it in. Still, if it were an option to have one or not, I'd not have it. Shrug. They seem pretty useless in most cases from a "do things right" standpoint and actually clear your weapon, or dubious at best for any tactical use cases - ejecting the mag if the assailant is gaining control of your gun, or "oh crap, I need to fire while I have the mag removed." I know most people like to talk about the .001% chance of things but I'd rather focus on more fundamentals that I probably need practice on anyway.

YMMV.

Bitter Bastard

[Jack's My dog]

I had seriously been considering the Ruger SR9c, but passed due to the disconnect. However there are a few YouTube videos that show how to remove them I believe.

I would be very careful on which YouTube and who's YouTube video you watch and believe. There are an awful lot of self proclaimed experts (idiots) on YouTube.

Amen to that!