HK Rifle Safeties

[Socrates3000]

Does anyone else think that the safeties on HK rifles are horrible or is it just me. They are very hard to manipulate. I can't disengage the safety with the weapon shouldered. They don't move as fast as M-16 type safeties. They don't work well with people with small hands.

If anyone disagrees with me, I'd like to know why.

[rn22723]

If you do not like it then sell the gun! Otherwise you have to live with it, obviously the 9X series is dead with respect to engineering changes! Just keep the finger off the trigger till you can engage the safety!

[44 AMP]

Personal experience with an HK 91, and AR 15. AR safety is easily reached by the shooting hand without changing your grip. HK is not. The hand must be shifted around the grip in order to reach the safety. I did not have any difficulty operating the lever once I could reach it. I have slightly longer than average fingers, so I can see where the HK would be even more difficult for someone with small hands.

One possible idea to explain the difference might be, that an American designer realizes that you take a shooting grip, then disengage the safety, while a German designer apparently believes that you disengage the safety, THEN take a shooting grip.:D

[Destructo6]

I don't have any trouble flipping a HK's safety off without moving my firing hand. Re-engaging the safety is another story.

[444]

Yes, you are right, and that doesn't mean I have to sell the rifle.
Ideally, you want to be able to reach, and manipulate all the controls on the weapon without moving your hands from the firing postion. As an example: if you have the rifle at the low ready and a target presents itself, you need to smoothly bring the rifle into a firing postion while disengaging the safety. After firing you need to be able to bring the rifle back down to the ready while re-engaging the safety. If you have to shift your hand from a natural firing postion, or use the other hand, it is going to cost you time and/or accuracy.
Many people seem willing to defend or at least put up with very poorly designed contols in a rifle: but imagine a semi-auto handgun with a safety that required you to draw, then shift your grip out of a good firing position to disengage the safety or it required you to use your other hand to disengage the safety. Nobody would buy it because it isn't practical. But, if it is a rifle, then it's OK ?
The AR15/M16 rifle is definitely the best out there in terms of ergonomics. You can run the selector as well as the magazine release while maintaining a near perfect firing side grip on the weapon. The M14 and M1 are close seconds. The FAL is decent: the mag release could be a lot better (like the AR15). The AK is the worst in terms of ergonomics and the HK is not much better.