A Deal-Killer From H & K

When I was hard-shopping for my “using” collection, the priciest pistol I looked at was the H & K “P30L” in .40, and studied its features. I really appreciated its ambidextrous controls, including the thumb-safety, and its backstraps and grip-panels gave you the ability to “build” a truly customized grip. And then I saw…WAIT for it…here it comes…the UPITA installed next to the hammer - a SEPARATE de-cocker these hammerheads just HAD to have on this gun. This was an immediate deal-killer - do you hear me, Lewis Black? JAK!

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Why the dislike of a decocker?

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:man_shrugging:
And others really appreciate this feature…

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I don’t want to depend on a mechanical device to uncock ANY gun over a live round - a positive, frame-mounted thumb-safety - like a 1911’s, that blocks the hammer - would be a better choice I’d prefer, making you manually uncock the gun over that live round. I’ve become more interested in striker-fired pistols, since I’ve seen Smith 2.0s offered with these in .40 and .45 versions. Too bad these are absent in the Beretta “Storm” and the "Baby Eagle III’, as well - but I have no choice, here.

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Now we’re talking :smiley:

The S&W M&P 2.0’s are nice

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I’m with Kurt17 on this one and I am a lover of 1911s

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If one wants to carry a double action pistol with the hammer down, how else does this happen other than relying on a mechanical device to uncock the gun over a live round?

And if you don’t want the ability to carry hammer down in double action, buy a different variant. The P30 for example has V0, V1, V2, V3, V4 and another V4 so you can pick what fits your needs/wants

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That’s true and I do own one of those you listed. If I carry my 1911, which isn’t often because it was used during WWII, I keep it in the Half Cocked position. As a sidebar, the term “Half Cocked” comes from the 1911 feature. As they say 'Don’t go off half cocked" so I usually don’t. :sweat_smile:

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There are a lot of phrases that come from firearms

Don’t go off half cocked.
Loaded for bear.
Give them both barrels.
Shotgun approach.
Flash in the pan.
Keep your powder dry.

What else?

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Riding shotgun, which referred to the security guard on stagecoaches who was usually armed with a shotgun.

  • line of sight
  • straight shooter

Just a question, does the statements “A man has got to know his limitations” or “Dying ain’t no livin’ boy” come from firearms? :rofl:

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Shoot from the hip.
Hair trigger.

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When I was looking for a pistol, I wanted a DA/SA as I prefer DA for that first round. The decocker on the H&K pistols dropped the hammer much more violently than the decocker on the Sig products. That gave me cause for concern (probably unwarranted as H&K makes some really reliable firearms), so I bought a P229 instead.

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Oddly enough between the two, it’s Sig that has recently manufactured guns, in mass, proven to not be safe from accidental discharge. See P320 drop safe issues. I don’t recall any such shenanigans from H&K

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Look at CZ cal 40 models. :wink:

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I took a Sig class earlier in the year. The Sig rep described the P320 issue as the weight of the trigger, which moves to the rear with just the right drop. Not something that the H&K VP9 suffers from, apparently.

When I was a cop, one of my fellow cops decided that he did not like the S&W Model 19 issued by the department, so he bought a Colt Python. One day, while responding to a complaint about a balloon fight on a local campus, he stumbled on a curb, his fancy Colt fell out of his custom holster and discharged when it hit the ground, shooting him in the calf. I still remember him screaming in the background of the radio call for his ambulance.

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My Beretta PX4s have de-cockers, it turns the last, about 1/8" of the firing pin 90º up, even before the hammer begins to fall. I load a round with the decocker down, then load the mag, that way the decocker isn’t falling on a loaded chamber, even though I know that by design it cannot hit the firing pin.

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I know from experience that Smiths use a firing-pin block, because of the hammer design. You’d expect the Python - with all the special hand-ops and finishing to have had at least a transfer-bar for SOME level of drop-safety - the story sounds like an inherent failure or design-flaw. What was the verdict on the Colt, if any?

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And don’t forget to notice the price-tag on it, too.

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Yeap… you pay for quality. Otherwise you stay with Glokish Family pistols. Simple, single design, no options and no whining. :slightly_smiling_face:

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You’d think that a firearm with a premium price and premium reputation would be drop safe. But you’d be wrong, at least in the Stone Age when I was a cop. He got rid of the Python. Lucky it was only a hole in his calf.

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