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Pistol decockers

2K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  Jim K 
#1 ·
Until recently I'd never owned a pistol that had one so I am concerned about safety. When you are cocked and locked with one in the chamber, is it absolutely safe to decock it say in your home? I don't mean while pointed at someone, but just pointed at the floor? Something about hearing that hammer drop when a round is chambered, gives me the willies. I don't want any holes in the carpet or getting the neighbors all worked up because of an ND.
 
#3 ·
Absolutely. I have a Sig 226. It has no external safety at all. The only way to make it "safe" is to use the decocker. I can't speak for other guns, but lowering the hammer on the 226 without use of the decocker is unsafe, as the decocker engages an internal safety that blocks the firing pin.
 
#4 ·
Decockers on modern pistols are listed as safe, but even so, I agree that the ideal of dropping a hammer on a live round sends chills down my back:eek:, Even if a pistol has a decocker I always use my thumb, just in case. On the milsurps, It is a very good ideal not to use the decocker. I have read of the decockers failing and I have seen a P38 fire when the decocker was activated.
 
#5 ·
Wartime P.38's did sometimes fail when the safety/hammer block broke, allowing the firing pin to go forward and fire the chambered round, after which the slide cycled, the hammer fell, firing the chambered round, etc., until the magazine was empty, which didn't take long at all.

Modern decockers are perfectly safe (lessons, after all, were learned), but there is no law that says you can't ease the hammer down with the thumb of your left hand as you use the decocker.

Jim
 
#6 ·
2 of my guns have decockers and yes they way they work is safe and I'm with Jim there is no rule that says your can't thumb a hammer down. What many worry about is the possibility of the hammer slipping out and going off. many guns have firing pin safeties to prevent this but not all do. I use the pinch method to drop hammers but regardless if using any method including a decocker, point it in a safe direction when you do so.
 
#7 ·
Thanks Guys. This is on a Bersa Thunder 9, just in case it matters. I'll have to check the owners manual again, but if I'm not mistaken, they tell you not to decock it by easing the hammer down. I live in a duplex and my neighbor (the owner) would have a stroke if he heard a shot fired in the house. I feel a little safer doing it now. Maybe decocking outside with a chambered round a few hundred times will give me a bit more confidence.
 
#8 ·
i have a sig p230.. as someone else mentioned about their sig. the 230 has no external safety. decocking it is the trigger disconnect.

I carry a fish in the tube all the time, decocked after loading of course.

I'm ashamed to say it.. but I have actually dropepd my gun while trying to holster it in my small of the back paddle holster one time.

poor baby hit the floor, made a mark on the grip... and that was it. I picked it up.. checked it out.. removed mag.. ejected round, reloaded mag, chambered on.. decocked it and then made sure it found the holster.

it's a safe design.. and i -accidentally- tested it.

PS.. as it fell, and hit.. I was looking down the muzzle in slow motion... there was about 400 nanoseconds of tenseness.. but all turned out well, and I have great respect for the sig designers...
 
#9 ·
Thanks Guys. This is on a Bersa Thunder 9, just in case it matters. I'll have to check the owners manual again, but if I'm not mistaken, they tell you not to decock it by easing the hammer down. I live in a duplex and my neighbor (the owner) would have a stroke if he heard a shot fired in the house. I feel a little safer doing it now. Maybe decocking outside with a chambered round a few hundred times will give me a bit more confidence.
my friend liked the look of my sigp230 so much that he got a bersa in .380.. quality gun as well.
 
#10 ·
When I suggested easing the hammer down, I meant in addition to using the decocker, not instead of. My practice with P.38's for years has been to have my right thumb on the decocker, with my left on the hammer to ease it down. (No, I don't wear belt AND suspenders!) I don't do that with any other decocker gun, though.

Jim
 
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