Well I LIKE all 6 of my B3's. They all shoot accurately and are worth the small amount of money I paid for them. Of course they are as dangerous as break barrels when it comes to cocking them as you should hold the barrel down on a break barrel also when loading.
Well a ding on the forehead, smashed finger , I have seen these on break barrels, I have heard about fingers being smashed and cut off by B3's. Neither one can be trivialized. I guess if I drop an anvil on my foot and smash my instep, or cut it off by accident, it really doesn't matter which one is worse. All that matters is there is trauma involved. Take it any way you want, and I will take it my way.
+2. I've had a bunch of old chinese under and side levers and they all had a anti-bear trap. I've got two old Peak B4-2's. They look kinda'a like a B3 but a different trigger mechanism. And a BAM or SMK B4 that's similar but bigger and an old B3. All four guns are so old they don't have scope grooves and have metal spring guides. They all had the same type anti-bear trap. I had weaver rails put on all of them for $50 a pop.I always shoot setting from a bench and put the lever against the inside of my right thigh, hold the back end of the stock with my left hand and load the pellet with my right hand.I think some people grind a little to much sear off or can't get the anti-bear trap back on. You got to push on the sear a little to line up the slot in the anti-bear trap and hole in the compression chamber to get the end of the cocking lever in correctly.
Yes, that's it. The piece right under the receiver in your pic. It works. But as you said I don't trust it. In my post I said I block the lever.I don't trust the anti-bear traps on my QB57's or my Diana 56th or 470th and they're idiot proof. It seems the unspoken thread running thru this thread and other similar threads in this blog is anyone who shoots B3's or similar guns are reckless dummies. That is far from the truth.My answer to the op's question is B3's are as safe as any gun that's handled properly. Any new B3 I've bought, the manual explains holding the cocking lever while loading for safety.
For any of you that own these and didn't know, Tom Gaylord did a 7 part series and review on one he bought used. Here is the web address showing part 7, and you can click on the previous parts from there:https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/?s=B3&btnGo=