IDPA Mag Disconnect/Mag Safety Ruling

[BarryinIN]

From a committee member on the IDPA forum Mar 9:

Magazine Disconnectors

There is precedence in other action shooting sports for a magazine disconnector to not be considered a safety. Trigger reliability work and trigger replacement is currently allowed for ESP & CDP. Several aftermarket trigger kits have no magazine disconnector or any capability of accepting a disconnector. Based on this information, the rules clarification committee has ruled that a magazine disconnector is not a safety and can be removed as part of trigger reliability enhancements.

Those of you who shoot IDPA probably know what they are talking about, and why it matters. Those who don't probably don't care, but in case you want to know, here's the deal:

This mostly concerns Browning HiPowers. It's fairly common for the magazine disconnect (aka magazine safety) to be removed on these to help the trigger pull, allow the mag to drop free, prevent deactivation of the gun during a mag change, or a combination of these things.

A few years ago, IDPA ruled that since FN/Browning has called this part the "magazine safety" it is a safety device and therefore cannot be removed, altered, or bypass, just like a thumb safety or grip safety.

On the surface that may sound reasonable, but there are complications. Browning didn't always call it a safety, and was even known to call it a "safety" and "disconnect" in the same manual. Many guns have had them removed long ago and they are long gone. Many gunsmiths remove them as part of their trigger jobs. Some aftermarket triggers don't have a provision for them.

By far the least known little item is that not all HiPowers came with mag disconnects (I refuse to call it a safety). Browning would make them without it if so ordered. For example, as far as I know, no Israeli contract HiPowers have them. When they got such an order, FN/Browning would make extra and sell them on the open market. I have one I bought new in 2003 that has no place for one. I heard AIM Surplus sold a bunch recently that had no disconnect.

To me, the biggest problem was clearing the gun after shooting a scenario. The procedure at most clubs after completing a scenario is to unload and show clear, then drop the hammer. To drop the hammer, the gun must be dry fired at the berm, rather than just lowering the hammer. This is an extra bit of verification that the gun is unloaded.

Try doing this with a magazine disconnect.

With some of my older HiPowers, I can get a finger into the mag well enough to just move the disconnect and dry fire it, but not on newer ones. What usually happens is the shooter unloads, then inserts an empty magazine to trip the disconnect and dry fire. Believe me, speaking as a sometimes Safety Officer, this juggling of mags during this procedure is not a relaxing experience.

Given a choice of clearing a shooter who had the disconnect removed and can simply snap it at the berm, and one who has to keep a pile of magazines straight, I am more comfortable with the first. I can think of three of us using HiPowers around here, and one of them is as level-headed and safe as can be, but I still get a little antsy even when he goes through this procedure.