[twoblink]

I am studying to "hopefully" design my own pistols and rifles later on. I have studied a few "family" of designs; and I have to say that the Steyr bring a few old ideas onto the table, while incorporating a few new ones.

First, my biggest complaint about the Steyr with regards to safety is the description and terms used. The "sear" in the Steyr is not like a traditional sear, and so to use "sear" is really incorrect; it has multiple functions; it's wedged up REALLY high about 2.5mm into the path of the firing pin; and thus it's a firing pin safety; the style of trigger is really interesting; not unlike a Mauser; where there's a drop block.

As I had said in a private message; a few things have to happen for the Steyr's to fire.

#1) Pull the trigger; this action moves the sear platform rearward, and then drops downwards, and thus you have a completion of cocking and then a release.

#2) The sear and firing pin have 2.5mm missing total on it. This would mean a non-engagement, I am not sure if the primer will fire because the spring is not fully cocked. But if this happens, I fully believe this gun will SLAM FIRE AND GO FULL AUTO. But folks, please name me a gun, that will allow for a 2.5mm errosion on a sear or firing pin, and NOT be dangerous???

#3) The slide has a 3mm play. Again, no gun (glock or otherwise) with 3mm's of play on the slide in the VERTICAL direction, can be deemed safe. It is SOOOOO far out of design spec that it's a crapshoot at best.

#4) You drop or hit the gun SO HARD that something internally breaks. Well, if you are breaking things inside a gun, then you are on your own there. Again, Break a few parts in ANY gun's inner'ds and there's no guarantee of safety.

It's just like when people say "xxx guns suck, they go full auto on you, trust me, I have one and it did.." and forget to mention little details like "I filed down the sear with a dremel last night".

If the safety pin tab on a glock broke off, then the plunger firing pin block that Jimmy Mac and company love so much, becomes useless.

The system is safe because it's a drop-block action. The sear moves rearward to complete the cocking, and then drops off. That requires movement in two planes, rearward, and then down. There is a drop safety, which looks like a little rail, that forces the sear platform to not move vertically until it has moved horizontally. There is a trigger safety, to prevent movement of the underblock until the trigger is depressed.

Because the sear acts also as the firing pin safety, an out of battery Steyr cannot fire, because the engagement is not there, thus there is no tention on the spring. This is apparent in the safety of the design, the cocking happens ONLY in full battery; this is not by accident folks, this is by DESIGN. Hard to slam fire a Steyr, because if the situation was that the sear was worn out and thus didn't catch, it would never cock the firing pin, and thus the gun wouldn't fire. This design is called a "reset" because you have to reset the sear platform in order for the next firing. It's like those dunk tanks at the carnivals. Hit the target, guy goes in the water, but someone has to reset the platform. I think this means that this gun cannot be made to go full auto (like say a Glock 18) but I don't think full auto is all that useful in a pistol or part of the desires of the original design.

Again, like my LONG LONG LONG thread before; a good safety system requires two planary movements; and hopefully multi-axis movement as well. Even better if there are sequence requirements. Steyr satisfies this; the sear has to move rearward, THEN downwards, so you have multi-plane movement requirements in sequence. Add to it a trigger safety which requires a linear rearward movement that causes a slight movement about an axis (multi-force type, rotational vs. linear only) and you have a very well designed pistol.

Jimmy Mac only proves one thing; Pistol design isn't done by rednecks with no college education; and that not everybody can design a gun.