Glock 1926 / 2611 AKA Cominolli Range Report

[FranklyTodd]

I know many (most) of you would never put a safety on your Glock, and I totally understand your position, and do NOT seek to change your mind. I personally decided I wanted a subcompact with a manual safety, and that's a very hard thing to find! I explained my reasoning here (so I won't repeat it):

http://glocktalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9599133&postcount=24

I finally got out to try my Glock 26 with a Cominolli safety installed, and wanted to give an honest report. I had it installed by Ronnie B at http://www.boomboomtactical.net/. He does some crazy "bling" customization too, for those into that. Good guy, easy to work with.

For those unfamiliar, it looks like this:

On Safe:
http://i16.tinypic.com/6jasrir.jpg

Ready to Fire:
http://i3.tinypic.com/716wked.jpg

First the good: It performed exactly as advertised, no gun-related problems of any kind (admittedly with only 200rds so far - a few hundred more will go through it before I trust it completely). With the safety on, you can rack the slide (convenient for loading/unloading), but not pull the trigger. All the factory safties are still functional. The position of the safety is such that in the process of gripping the gun to fire, your thumb (for a righty) hits it, so sweeping it off will be no problem, and plenty fast. Here's an article by Massad Ayoob about how it affects speed of draw: http://www.cominolli.com/images/AmericanHGart2.pdf

It is fairly easy to turn the safety off with your thumb (but it is tight enough, and there is a "click"); it's actually quite stiff the other way, which is good - would seem to reduce any chance of the safety engaging when you don't want it to. :wow:

Also good, for me, is it made carrying with one in the chamber more comfortable. I know the safety is between my ears (if I only had a nickel...), but the safety between my ears works in conjunction with the Caminolli; you can actually have both "safeties" functioning. :tongueout:

The Bad: As you can see from the picture, you must cut (or have someone cut) the frame. This doesn't bother me much with a Glock - I love 'em, but they aren't exactly works of art... If I take it off, it will be perfectly functional, just with that notch. It is also going to wear a line on the frame next to the notch - again, I don't really care.

The only bad thing to me is that the lever is kind of sharp and gets in the way. I haven't decided whether to tuck my thumb under it, or leave my thumb on top of it like some people shoot a 1911. It will take some getting used to, but so far I think it's a keeper. I shot it just as well even with the adjusted grip. It does not impact carry with any of the holsters I have - although I suspect the lever might wear a spot on my Nemesis pocket holster, but I don't use that much anyway.

I can't think what else anyone might like to know - any questions, feel free to ask. Any criticism, feel free, but I've already heard how a Glock is like a revolver (no it's not) about trigger discipline and the safety between my ears, the four rules, how a Glock has never gone off by itself, how Gaston Glock intended it, etc., etc. All fine points, but really, already beat way to death.:faint:

To each his own, and safe shooting to all!

FranklyTodd

[FranklyTodd]

Seriously? A range report goes in "gun parts" because it involves an accesory??

Fine, I didn't care if anyone read it anyway... ;)

[NorCalHeroes]

Seriously? A range report goes in "gun parts" because it involves an accesory??

Fine, I didn't care if anyone read it anyway... ;)

I read it and I care, fwiw. Does it affect trigger pull? If it fails, is it a "soft" failure that leaves the gun operational, or a "hard" failure that makes in inoperable?

I definitely think there is a place for this and want to hear more, although the new Lone Wolf "safety bar in trigger" looks pretty nifty.

[FranklyTodd]

I didn't care if anyone read it anyway

I did care, really - I was just miffed that I put it in the Glock forum, and the mods moved it to the Parts forum which is 99% people buying and selling holsters and stuff.

Is that the Siderlock your are talking about? Definitely cheaper - I considered that, but I wanted to keep my guns as consistent as possible and thumb safety sweeping down is pretty common and feels natural. Pushing on the trigger from the side just didn't feel right. I tried the Safe-T-Blok first. It's actually pretty sweet, but with the holsters I use, it always was popping out on its own. If it stayed put, it's a great cheap alternative without any gun alteration. If you are interested, I paid like $23 with shipping. You can have it for $10 plust whatever it takes to mail it (couldn't be much).

Back to the Caminolli: It doesn't affect the trigger feel or pull at all. If you take the slide off, on the left side of the frame is a big plastic triangle, which simply gets replaced. There's only a couple moving parts, and if the safety is not engaged, none of the parts move. When it is engaged, of course, the trigger won't pull. Still can rack the slide, drop the mag, whatever, so it's handy that way.

It's such a simple device, I can't see it inherently failing. The risk as I see it is it getting looser over time and maybe disengaging on its own, or possibly worse, ENgaging when you are trying to fire! Haven't had it long, but it's very stiff right now, and has a noticeable click at each end, so I'm hopeful it won't get sloppy. I'm practicing firing with my thumb resting right on it, so there would be no way it could flip up accidentally.

If something inside actually broke, I'm guessing (maybe e-mail Ronnie at boomboomtactical.net - I'm sure he'd know better) you would lose the ability to change whatever position it was in - if the safety was on, you couldn't turn it off, if was off you couldn't turn it on. Again, if you could see how simplistic the device is, I really can't see it breaking unless one really muscled the trigger with the safety on, in which case it would likely break the safety and be a "soft" failure - safety wouldn't operate, but the gun would.

Hope that helps!

[heavyduty]

Now that you've had it for a few months, how do you like it?

I'm considering one for my G36, but having noticeable detents is very important to me. Does the safety still "click" on and off?

Thanks!

[AWMP]

curious as well, thinking about adding the safety to a pistol as well

[FranklyTodd]

Ok, OP here. I am still a big fan of the safety if one is going to civilian CCW a Glock. However, I just decided the thing didn't fit me - the grip angle was all wrong, and while I could get used to it, I got tired of trying.

So, the Glock 26 w/safety has moved on to a new home, and I replaced it with a DA/SA Sig P239. It's a little bit bigger and heaviers (but thinner). I love the DA first pull and external hammer - gives me just as much confidence carrying w/ one in the chamber as the Glock w/ safety. My thumb rides right on the hammer as re-holstering, which I think is one of the most common times for folks to AD/ND a Glock.

At the time I got rid of the Glock, it still functioned 100%. Very easy to deactivate the safey, hard enough to put it back on that I wasn't worried about putting it on accidentally. There was still the same detent/click at the top and bottom, but I think the place I had it installed (www.boomboomtactical.net) does a little tweaking to make sure that was the case.

I feel guilty trumpeting the Glock w/safety then later dumping it, but I want to emphasize that it wasn't because of the safety! I really like the Sig as a replacement...

Sorry I was slow to respond - as I am Glock free, I am mostly Glocktalk free, too! ;)

Best to all,
Ft