I'm left-handed and would like to reverse the safety on my BAR Safari rifles. Has anyone had any experience doing this in which they could let me know the process? Thanks!
Welcome to the Browning Owners Forum buckslayer5676 !! Not sure about that procedure... so I'll defer to someone who does...
Buckslayer, The safety is reversible. After this point all safety rules apply: ensure the weapon is unloaded first before attempting anything. If you are handy, you can drift out the two pins for the trigger group and remove the trigger group from the rifle. If you refer to the accompanying links and the schematic of the BAR, you'll see how the parts interact and which ones you need to work with. If the trigger is cocked when you remove the trigger group, place your thumb over the hammer bar, pull the trigger to release and ease tension on the hammer. There is a small silver bar above the safety. This is the retaining pin. Drift this out with a punch, holding a thumb over the top access hole because the spring will come out once no longer captive. (You don't want these tiny parts to get lost somewhere in your workshop.) Remove the spring, plunger tube if one exists, and push the safety and O-ring out and reverse it. With three hands, reverse the safety and put the safety in place, insert the plunger and spring and depress, then slide the tiny retaining pin back in its hole to keep the spring captive. Put everything back together. Test the safety to ensure it's working properly BEFORE putting the trigger group back in the rifle. You can see the tiny silver retaining pin at the rear of the trigger group above the trigger in this photo. The small access hole where you see the silver bar in the opening is where the spring and spring plunger (if one exists) will exit from. These bear pressure on the safety. Use this diagram as a reference for your work: http://www.midwestgunworks.com/schemati ... ht_sch.pdf Parts list for reference http://www.midwestgunworks.com/page/mgw ... ifle-parts
I reversed my safety today on my BAR Safari and it went really well and was fairly easy. Thanks again Setters for providing the instructions...they really came in handy and helped a lot!
Bravo! I'm glad it went well. You are now above the ranks of "kitchen table gunsmith." You were lucky, some guns have left & right-handed safety buttons that require purchase of a new part if you want to swap. (The Browning A5 is one that immediately comes to mind.) Ever since makers went to drop-out trigger units, they've simplified things and some of those changes are both cost-effective to the maker and consumer.
Good morning gentleman. I recently acquired a 1969 made BAR 30-06 from a friend. My friend never fired the gun but the original owner had switched the safety to the left side. Does this process work on the older, non safari models? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thank you. I may just give it a shot and see. When I get around to it I'll post my findings. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
