New Safeties

Say this today, an AR style AK safety, made by Sniper Handle. In general I tend to think of these style safeties that allow for thumb or index finger tabs as "training wheels" but if it is what you like check it out. For me though, I'm comfortable with the AK safety as is. Also the other things that would steer me clear of it is having to drill a larger hole for the safety post on the receiver, making it more difficult for FCG disassembly, it not working with side rails, underfolders, and thicker than 1mm receivers (although they are working on that last one). However if your AK fits into that niche and you like AR style safeties, this could be for you.

Awhile ago I blogged about the Black Horse Safety that I have dubbed the "teeter totter" style. Well Krebs came out with their own style of this a few months ago. The exception is that it doesn't have the index finger tab. It is marketed as a Saiga safety if you are keeping the standard stock on it. One other "advantage" depending on how you like to run your AK would be that it allows you to use it as a thumb safety left handed with a pistol grip and stock.

Ambi Safety producer

Through some creative googling I found the producers of the new ambi AK safety (and the whole Spec K Saiga), Black Horse Arsenal, a.k.a. Confederate Arms of Philomath, OR.

http://www.akfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?p=565739#post565739

RAAC: Ambi Safety delayed, still coming

In February I talked about the "teeter-tooter" safety that was seen on Russian American Armory Company's Saiga-12 "Spec K" that was orginally reported to be a month or so away.

http://ak47talk.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-teeter-totter-ambi-safety-coming.html

Clyde over at RAAC says they are still working on hem but they should be coming eventually.

I'm looking to get one of these to replace my Blackjack Buffer's SWIFT lever.

New Teeter-totter ambi safety coming out in about a month!

Check out what Nutnfancy recorded but didn't talk much about (probably because he isn't a big time AK guy and realized what it could mean). RAAC is doing with a new Saiga 12 at about at time 24:08.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q69lNr4C25U

It has the same features as the Krebs and Blackjack safety but then takes it one step further and adds a back plate for lefthand thumb or even triger finger on a uncoverted Saiga for those that are stuck in not so free states (I live in a free State but I was dreaming up a similar mod if I bought a Saiga and left it unconverted for awhile). This should be drop in throughout AK models unlike the Galil style safety that Kreb's adds to some of his AKs

I think that you still need to be able to work the traditional AK safety, but I think this has a lot of merit on your fighting rifle. I'm using a Blackjack SWIFT lever (Krebs and Dinzang have similar options now that Blackjack doesn't sell these) on my go to AK already and can't wait to change it out to this. I'll still keep normal configuration on others that are traditional AKs and train with them still. I also must say that firing left handed is still plenty easy with standard safety too just hitting it with your right hand, but I'm ok having centeralized safety operations on the pet rifle I'd grab first.

One other issue I see is that in left thumb versus right fingers moment are opposite (thumbs up, fingers down) so it is a slightly different mental/physical process. Definitely not as simple for training, but the solution is mechanically simple on the other hand and I shouldn't take too much practice to overcome.

If you put it on an unconverted Saiga, then it is going to be opposite still with your right fingers. However instead of having the safety waaayyy out there on it I think it still would be a good option if you can't convert your Saiga where you live.