Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles AR Safety on or Safety off for storage?

Only step beyond that is a chamber flag with BCG resting against it.

Of course not, all the NDs happen when the hammer is dropped!

WTM45 You got me on the flag, but what does BCG stand for; I know I'm showing my ignorance, but I'm curious.

Which brings us to clearing barrels.

Dropping the hammer brings the potential for a loud noise and seems an unnecessary risk.



ECIs are a good plan in may situations and the selector should be on safe when on is in the chamber.

Not if the operator follows the proper clearance procedures, Function Check or Inspection Arms/Ready, Order Arms moves BY THE NUMBERS.

BCG is the bolt carrier group.

That is EXACTLY how a weapon is turned in to the arms room, open chamber, bolt locked to the rear, handed to the armorer butt first.

The armorer then drops the BCG and hammer after verifying a clear chamber, closing the ejection port cover, NO MAGAZINE, leaving selector in SEMI and then placing the rifle in the M12 rack.


Safe and proper storage.

Hammer won't be dropped without the muzzle being stuffed in a clearing barrel.

I don't have a clearing barrel.

What now?

Build one. Whatever floats your boat. It's up to you.

There were no clearing barrels inside the arms rooms I managed. None.

Hammers got dropped all the time on parade fields, parking lots, in unit formations, in closed ranks and in the damn hallway while performing inspection arms, clearance drills and function checks. Clearing barrels were only required in specific locations and conditions. Muzzle discipline is part of performing by the numbers.

Dropping the hammer with the upper and lower separated is to be frowned upon. Some of us know why.

Fair Point but I am pretty sure the selector is in the safe position when turned in..

I just decided to quit pulling the trigger to see if there was a round in the chamber and instead decided to keep the selector on Safe.

I try to follow Rule #1 anyway and treat all guns as loaded so it was a natural progression in safe gunhandling.

If you carry a hot gun, and if you use the safety ever- use the safety always. Do not have one set gunhandling for when it’s loaded, one for when it’s unloaded, and one set for when it’s stored.

For me/where I am- the trigger does not get pulled unless I’m aiming at target, and before my face breaks cheek-weld, the safety goes back on. If it can’t go back on, it is fixed, and then immediately the safety is applied.


Just because the military does something, does not mean it’s correct. Point in fact, the military breeds mediocrity. I question anything the military does, as it’s almost never done because that’s the best way.


Empty guns, clearing barrels, sometime use of the safety and sometimes not, and guys habitually dropping the hammer without wanting to fire (dry or live) are the greatest cause of ND’s in the military.

WOW this all gets a little convoluted for me..........in the sport of benchrest you never even have your bolt close to your rifle rendering it nothing more than a pipe......the ultimate safety.

Not that simple with AR's , I always store mine with hammer dropped, no magazine. First thing when I pick it up pull bolt back visually and physically inspect chamber,
Never use the safety unless round in chamber and I am on the move.

Despite a few getting emotionally invested... everyone is free to do as they please, however for those on the sidelines-



Dropping the hammer gets us nothing other than getting in the habit of pulling a trigger when you don’t mean to fire. It’s an administrative action. Eventually it leads to a distracted action. I don’t care who you are- at some point you are going to unload or handle a firearm while distracted. When part of your administrative procedures is to arbitrarily pull the trigger: you’ve just set yourself up for an ND. And it was for no reason. There is no mechanical or safety reason to arbitrarily pull the trigger. You have to (should) clear it/check condition to handle it, so instead of pulling a trigger for no reason- apply the safety and give yourself one more layer to add some margin of error built in.




If you ever have loaded firearms around you, do yourself a favor and add redundancies to save yourself from a “bang” when you wanted a “click”. Or don’t.

Now the problem is use of the safety is NOT a part of your sub-conscious gunhandling. It is a conscious act, and done enough times with enough stress and/or distraction there will be a time where you forget, and now you are running around with a rifle that is loaded and off safe.


No one is immune to this.

Lots of good in this post but I am going to snip to save some time.



Just this last week watched an experienced outfitter/guide muff a shot with a gun he knew was hot because he forgot to disengage the safety.

If you don't always engage the safety you will not always disengage the safety under stress.

When shooting sporting clays with friends is always worth a good laugh to engage the safety on a buddies shotty just for the Lulz.

Missed pair.

Of course he gets another pair as I am a dickhead and that is just a game.

Hot guns do not get put in storage. Ever.
They do not get stacked.
They do not get racked.


Pulling a trigger and dropping the hammer are done for more than just an administrative step, they are an integral part of determining if the rifle is functioning correctly. BY THE NUMBERS means no step is missed.
It is by far NOT done just to see if the chamber is clear. That was done visually.
And step one is attempt to place the rifle on SAFE.

Law Enforcement as well.

There are cops who hate to qualify (a lot of them, actually), because of their firearm skills level, including gun handling. Others just do the minimum to get by. The only intensive firearms training they get is during the academy unless they're part of a special unit, and they train, train, and train some more.

If you store your AR as I, and some others here do, the first thing you do upon picking it up is run the charging handle and put the safety on. THEN you do the other things, not before. Muzzle and trigger finger discipline are paramount.
If you are expecting a round to have been placed in the chamber when you ran the charging handle, do a "right load/left load" check of the magazine. That will tell you immediately if you have chambered a round or not. The safety never comes off nor the trigger finger gets close to the trigger.

It's really not any different than the method you were talking about insofar as safety is concerned, and it's not one way of gun handling when it's loaded (or so one would think) versus unloaded (again, so one would think) since the first step on picking it up is to determine, without a doubt, the status of the chamber and immediately apply the safety.
When downloading for storage, or to hand the AR to another person, the FIRST thing you do is drop the magazine, lock the BCG back, LOOK and FEEL the chamber to make sure it's clear, then, and only then, with muzzle control being maintained and ejection port left open, do you hand the AR to another person.

With all of these things, irrespective of your preferred method, always do it the same way. Unconscious competence is what you are after.

Ed

Never would have imagined this would be such a sensitive subject.

24HC members......

No kidding, this is crazy.

Some trap guns dont even have safeties, and for good reason. You may think it's a game to fu ck with someones gun, but i feel that type of behavior is unsafe. How someone safely stores their firearm should be left up to that individual as well. What did you do with the real John Burns?