Compact with user friendly thumb safety

[JTMcC]

I'm looking for compact or sub compact pistols that have a "user friendly' thumb safety.

My Daughters have been raised on DA revolvers and 1911's and they demand a thumb safety. One Daughter is happy in Glock land, the others (and Wife/Chic) aren't.
If you think that's dumb OK, this thread's not for you.
Looking for personal experience vs "this should work".

No big brand affiliation, needs to be pretty small, pretty reliable.
I'm looking at Shield +, I have no problem with reliable Rugers, my 9mm polymer striker fired small pistol knowledge is low level.

Prefer American made if possible. If I can't find what I seek, I'll buy 1911's but I'm looking at furnishing 4 Girls so if price is too high I'll just go 1911, they know and understand those, but more mag capacity wouldn't hurt in their world.
Not able or going to rent a bunch of guns, going to figure the best bet, buy a few, and see how they work out. My kids shoot respectfully a wide variety of hand and shoulder guns with little or no preferences except that "thumb safety".

Everybody is happy with what they carry right now, Dad is just looking to maybe upgrade their hardware size & capacity wise. No urgent need.

No problem making small modifications ie a aftermarket thumb piece.

So what (if any) current thumb safety in that segment is actually user friendly??

[Lunker]

The Sig P365XL with a minor mod because I don’t think it comes with a safety option like the smaller P365. I bought the Wilson Combat grip module with safety cutouts. Then bought the manual safety from Sig and installed it on the FCU. That is my carry pistol. And small enough for pocket carry.
Also, the M&P Compact has a nice safety, but it is Glock 19 sized. Unfortunately, the M&P Shield has a tiny non-ambi safety.


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[Ichiban]

I'm a 1911 guy so I'm also a fan of thumb safeties.

I have a Sig 365XL that I'd really like to make a summer carry but the Sig thumb safety really kind of blows. I tried the Armory Craft after-market safety (https://www.armorycraft.com/product-...xtended-safety) but was disappointed with it. It is a little thicker and that is it, so it is an improvement but not that much.

Just a data point for you.

[Joe in PNG]

One of our members here (Unk) is selling a very useful thumb safety for the Shield.

[TOTS]

The factory shield safety is (I find) impossibly difficult to use. Im a 1911 guy as well and every thumb safety is measured against a 1911 as the standard. Almost everything I have has a thumb safety. The best Ive used, after a true 1911 safety, is the M&P thumb safety. A distant third would be the P365 XL or Macro, which is what I currently use for carry. It’s usable at best but I’d never say enjoyable. And I wouldn’t expect it to break in and get any better; mine hasn’t. I will say the Armory Craft definitely makes it easier to get better leverage on it.

[MandoWookie]

M&P9c, or I guess with the 2.0 it's now the SC, subcompact.
1.0 M&P9c was my first handgun, it's a magnificently soft shooting gun for it's size, the backstraps are easy to swap, trigger is much easier to manage than a standard Glock.
Only compact gun I could get either my mother or sister interested in shooting at all.
Thumb safety is very well done, my only issue was always finding holsters that worked with it, but JM Custom solved that, it's molded to keep it in the up position while holstered(might have to request that feature).

[Default.mp3]

No personal experience, but I'm thinking of the USP Compact. I know, I know, you said personal experience only, but I distinctly recall the USP Compacts I've played with to be very similar to the HK45 and P30S safeties, which I do have extensive experience with. Some folks do find that the H&K safeties sit too high; I personally tend to think that 1911 safeties sit a bit too low, so make of that what you will.

[JTMcC]

All helpful comments, much appreciated.

[frozentundra]

My daughter and I have been looking at pistols lately. We recently handled a S&W Equalizer and we were both verry impressed. It is quite like a small polymer 1911 in many regards. Grip angle is supposed to be modeled after the 1911, I think. The thumb safety was the best I've felt on a polymer 9mm. The ergonomics felt amazing, and the controls seem particularly well suited to people with smaller hand size. The slide is also much easier to rack than most small 9mm pistols.

However, we weren't able to shoot it, so we're not sure if the gun store ergonomics would translate into shootablility. Comfort and function of the grip safety would be my main question mark. I would try to handle or shoot one for your stated use case. It has made it onto our short list. I may just get one to see how well it shoots, the form factor being so promising.


Good luck to you.

[TheNewbie]

The Equalizer or 80x seem like quality options.