As noted on the recent thread on the Greener side safety, the Manufrance Ideal is a top contender for the most awkward, useless safety out there, enough so that Jean-Claude Mournetas in his book on the Ideal reports that it's common to find examples in which the thing has been disabled altogether. Having shared the frustration first hand, a partial improvement if not a solution comes to mind, and I'm curious to hear what others think about it.
The problem with the MF Ideal safety seems to be in part conceptual and part execution. Conceptually, the designers, brilliant as they were, could and should have looked to decades of experience to realize that the top tang, push-forward-to-shoot safety is about perfect for its intended function. As Mountetas points out, about the same time they were finalizing the perverse Ideal safety, the same team were equipping the cheap, rustic MF Robust with a top tang safety that operates directly on the sears rather than simply blocking the triggers as with the Ideal. So let's grant that the Ideal's safety is poorly conceived and that it's location and operation are inherently problematic.
Those problems are made worse by execution of the design. The twin safety "buttons" on either side of the trigger guard are thin, flat discs, slightly convex and scored on the bottom where the trigger finger is supposed to engage one of them before moving inside the trigger guard to engage either trigger. So your finger has to somehow find this thin flat disk and then exert some amount of upward pressure in order to push it backwards into the live position.
Wouldn't in be better if the disk were built up into a short stud, maybe 3-4 mm (around 1/8 inch) deep? Then a crude backwards sweep of even a gloved finger would be able to engage it. The problem of getting used to having a backwards moving safety button next to the trigger guard would remain, but at least the thing would be easier to find and engage. Just a thought. What do you guys think (besides get a damn gun with a proper safety!)?
