Cameron SS not having served in the infantry I have to ask. When you are in theater and on patrol do you have your rifle and pistol on safe or off safe. I ask because you suggest, I think wrongly that time would be wasted flicking off a safety. When drawing a 1911 or CZ with safeties both are off before I get to a level sight picture so why would a soldier be any different. First if it is applied then the time to swipe it off is not an issue and if it is not on then the gun is in the same position as it would be if the safety were not there.
I suspect the safety requirement is as you suggest, there primarily for troops with little or no training armed with one or as I suggested during training exercises which in the case of the US Army, is significant in terms of volumes of recruits.
I have decided to start a new thread so I will restrict my comment to the above.
Bob
Edit to add: the condition of your weapon is dictated by the threat level and is also dictated by CoC.
As a general rule, in a hostile theatre when we leave the wire our rifles are cocked and locked.
As for the BHP's, we periodically get orders to ground our pistols until they have been individually checked by weapon tech's because of faulty sears releasing hammers inadvertently so it is generally not advised to carry those cocked and locked. I think I recall being ordered explicitly to not carry them cocked and locked for similar reasons.
Weapon readiness states are determined on a mission by mission basis, but assuming that its a high threat level area, and weapons readiness states support carrying with a round in the chamber this is how I observed people carrying:
First, The operators manual for the browning high power specifically dictates that the browning be carried loaded with no round in the chamber, uncocked.
Likewise, the proper drill for the draw includes cycling the action on the draw. Similarly the drill for holster the pistol includes a 'make safe', which is a complete unload followed by reinserting the magazine but not putting a round in the chamber, leaving the gun uncocked and off safe.
Many people, even combat arms soldiers, carrying pistols overseas were not what I would call highly trained
on the pistol, or even specifically familiar with the proper drills. Most would be minimally trained, while a tiny percentage I would say are by and large untrained.
Personally, I followed the doctrine, as that is what my training taught me to do. Before deploying I would have had above average training
on the pistol. I never conducted any audits, but just from watching guys in the rifle company get read for a patrol, I would suspect that:
50% carried it as per doctrine, BECAUSE its doctrine
10% carried as per doctrine because they don't trust the gun with a round up the spout.
35% carried with a round in the chamber, cocked and on safe, because that is what they do with their rifle, and for whatever reason they choose to do the same with the pistol.
5% carry it unloaded because they forgot to load it, or do not anticipate needing it and are carrying it because they have to.
The C7 is always carried on patrol with a round chambered and on safe, if carrying with a round in the chamber is authorized. Most soldiers can take the weapon off safe while bringing it into the shoulder without an observable difference between not using the safety at all. Unscientific controlled tests conducted at the infantry school in Gagetown determined that carrying with the weapon off safe and taking a shot was on average about 0.10 Seconds faster than if the safety is used and disengaged while bringing the gun into the shoulder/up to the eye. Safeties do slow people down, but in competent shooters, it is a marginal slow down, and considering the amount of time soldiers spend with a round in the chamber NOT shooting, the consensus is that the added safety is worth the delayed response. Similar tests were NOT conducted for the pistol, and there was no consensus as to whether or not that same conclusions would be found with the BHP, or any other pistol.
As an interesting side note, the both the Sig Sauer 226 and 225 do not have safeties, and when either one is carried in a holster, it is always carried with a round chambered (if permitted by readiness states) and the hammer forward. in 2015, no one at the infantry school could give a documented explanation for the difference in drills between the Sig and the BHP. Lots of theories. No evidence. As far as anyone can tell the manual for the BHP was largely drawn from manufacturers published data on the pistol, which was never independently verified or tested by the military. It could simply be the fact that in the 1940s no one liked carrying it chambered, or there could be some long since forgotten technical reason. I don't think anything about the CAF's current practice with the BHP is in any way related to the US Army's decision to require a safety on their new pistol. It will be interesting to see if CAF requires a safety on their new pistol, whenever they get around to figuring out how to buy them.
Old worn out pistols are not drop safe. There is a particular angle that you can strike the pistol that will drop the hammer. Barrel parallel to the ground, moving downwards so as to contact the magazine plate with a slight 30 degree ish rearward angle. This is the same direction necessary to move the safety to the off position as well as to depress the sear and drop the hammer. IN my opinion, any pistol so worn out that this is the case is unsafe and should be quarantined, and this may very well be what Yohann experienced. Many people actually prefer these older pistols because the actions on them in general are much smoother, less prone to stoppages, and have lighter crisper trigger pulls. About half the pistols i saw in Afghanistan were brand new cosmoline covered war stock, and the other half were 20+ years of service unit owned pistol that had been very well worn.
Getting back to your original discussion, the safety on the BHP is problematic. First, it is very small. 99% of people on patrol are wearing gloves. In training, many people struggle to feel, let alone disengage the safety on the BHP. Second, on brand new pistols, the safety is so stiff that many of the smaller handed soldiers lack the physical strength to disengage it from a typical grip position, and need to adjust their hand position or use their left hand to disengage it. On the older pistols they are so loose that a soft tap on the bottom of the magazine can move the safety. Third, there is a particular subset of pistols in the fleet, typically the newer less worn pistols, that have a fun quirk where by if you attempt to fire the pistol while it is on safe, the sear locks up completely and the safety can not be moved until you manually #### the hammer all the way to rear. (while it is cocked and sitting on the sear, it is only at 95% of its available rearward travel). You need to #### it back that last 5% before you can get the safety to release, and you can then disengage it. Not exactly something you want someone to have to struggle with under stress, while faced with a lethal threat, AFTER their rifle has already failed.
I am sure with modern combat pistols featuring a safety, these issues would not be present and it is entirely likely that removing the safety on the draw can be achieved with a comparable or less delay in response as seen in testing conducted on the rifles. I would sure love to see the result. I would also love to know how many of the worlds fastest competition shooters use guns with safeties. I don't believe for a second that there could ever be a NO-TIME-COST safety, but Armies strike a balance between speed and a variety of other factors. For the guys who are trained and carrying a pistol as their last ditch insurance policy, speed should really be the only consideration, as long as it doesn't compromise
their safety. I would never accept putting my life at risk by an added 1/10 of a second just so that some hesco hobbit at the airfield can be 2% less likely to shoot themselves in the foot.