I read the "Rifle Lessons at the Zimbabwe PH proficiency exam. had to agree with what he said about about rifles. Made me think about what a fine rifle my 1948 Model 99 300 Savage was. My M70 has a good safety, but it's extremely clumsy to operate. The older M70's are even worse, with the odd-ball safety on top swinging back to fire. After reading the Don Heath article, I tried a LH M70, throwing it up to my shoulder. What do you know, the thumb pushed the safety to the fire position naturally, and dropped into position on the rifle's wrist in one smooth motion. What a revalation! One smooth natural motion instead of two or three jerky fumbling ones. Even smoother than the shotgun style safety of my old 110 H Savage. The thumb dropped into place with out reversing direction. So, my question is this-- Is there any mechanical reason that the gun can't be built with the safety on the oposite side of where it is now? Walex

It should be noted that after I described the "thumb on strong side" grip to Don Heath upon reading the article to which you refer, he agreed that it was a reasonable technique and amended his opinion that right side safeties were on the "wrong" side for right handers. Also, placing your thumb over the wrist of the stock can earn you a bloody nose with heavy-recoiling rifles because it places your thumb's knuckle in rather close proximity to your nose.

The problem arises in the position of the sleeve lock. The sleeve lock must be on the opposite side of the lever to contact the rear bridge properly. The design that we came up with for MRC must follow these same guidelines, even though the sleeve lock moves front to back, instead of side to side. I suppose it would be possible to make such an alteration, and I've heard of people doing it, but frankly, I've never entertained the idea long enough to come up with a reliable system for it work. Maybe someone else will chime in here that has some experience in this field.
I can't say that I've ever had a problem with a properly adjusted m70 safety of recent manufacture though FWIW.

I looked at Don's recommendation too, and I agree with Eric and Jeff Cooper that the operation of the safety on the right side of the current M70 is a training problem for the shooter. When you keep your thumb on the right side of the rifle, safety operation is quick and easy. If you wrap your thumb over the wrist of the rifle, you will have a problem -- and more than one as Eric wrote above.

I shoot a Kimber (M70 copy) and a BRNO (converted to M70-style safety)with no problems. Also my Steyr rifles with the shotgun-style roller safety are pretty good too.

I looked at the safety mounting position hard in the design for my "JimSquare" PH working rifle. It uses the M99 action in both left hand and right hand versions. I decided to call it the "JimSquare" because I developed the requirements and Jim Brockman is doing the building.

jim dodd

From Walex, probably a personal thing, individual thing and I know they can't mass produce safeties to fit every one. Too many options. It would be a custom job if possible. I think the M70 safety is the best from a safety standpoint. I like the tang safety if only it would lock the firing pin also, if it was a 3 position safety and did all that the M70 safety did. Jack O'Connor said the thumb along the stock came about because of the short stock of the old 03 Springfield. If your thumb hits your nose your stock is too short. He say's the thumb across the top of the stock gives better control of the rifle and aids in smooth let off of the trigger. I have two editions of his Rifle Book and 1 of Keiths gun-notes none of which shows anyone holding guns with the thumb along the stock. There's a photo of old Elmer Keith with his thumb wrapped around a 500 Nitro Express on a bench rest, nose right up on his thumb, so I,m assuming he knew how to hang on to his rifle and keep it under controL during recoil. I think ones shooting style, how he learned to shoot and his body proportions have more to do with it. Any way thanks Guys.
Walex

What was wrong with tang safeties? I picked up a ruger at the show a couple of weeks ago and that seemed much more natural to my hand than anything up on the bolt. My next favorite is the 1917, that safety works better for me than anything on the bolt shroud.

Red

The BIG question is what action do you want the Left Hand M 70 type safety on??

A Left hand M 70 type saftey can be fitted to a Right hand action on the following.

Remington 600, 7, 700

Sako, med and long actions

As explained in another post by Mr Williams the Winchester Right hand action can not be changed due to the sleeve lock. This is also true regarding the 1903 Springfield.

Most of the actions can not be changed from one side to the other because of the shape of the rear bridge, and or position of the sleeve lock.

In the last 18 years I have designed and produced over 20 different M 70 safetys for various actions. There is only so much you can do, given the amount of room needed to put the components into the required space.

Jim Wisner

Thanks jim I have a m70 SS classic in 375 ouch &ouch, no big deal on changing it, I was more curious than anything about whether it could be done or not, after reading the PH exam article by Don Heath. Mechanically curious. Getting too old and lazy to take it apart to find out why like I would have when I was younger and didn't know any better than to mess with stuff.
Going to play around with how I mount the rifle and slip the safety off, smooth up my fast draw tecnique so to speak. Any one got any pointers? walex