Eagle 338, having the safety lock the bolt closed while on safe is not a really desirable feature to have on a rifle as it forces you to take the gun off safe in order to unload it. It is much much safer if the safety is engaged while unloading. The best safety is a three position as it allows you to lock the bolt closed while walking around in the woods but still be able to unload the gun with the safety engaged. Having the safety lock the bolt closed when it is engages is the least desirable safety feature you could have. At least as far as being safe is concerned.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and you are right 3 position safeties are nice and offer the best of both worlds as on win 70s & ruger 77s etc.Two positon safeties are a compromise, so you have to choose what you consider the lesser of evils. Personally I'd rather trust my own smarts to getthe cartridges out of the gun (30 seconds of identifiable focused task specific effort) with no screw upANDhave a bolt lock down safety thata personcan trust to make sure that duringthe course of a day of brush busting, tree branches, and slinging up against backpacks and backpack straps that you won'tend up with a lifted bolt, an open action, and your live round on the ground 200 yards back, and debris in your action.Now a shot opportunity pops up unexpectedly like they some times do, you unsling your rifleand whoops what do we have here an open action.Seen it happen. My revolver doesn't have any safety at all, trapdoor 45-70, old win 94 isprettycrude too, just hammer trigger muzzlecontrol. Both count on operator smarts but at least the action stays closed.I think I could handle unloading the rifle safely with NO safetyso I'll take the bolt lock down safety system hands down if we are talking 2 position safeties.