Which is more safe?

[brooTool]

So, I heard a story from my best friend which he said he was at the range and some one next to him accidentally popped off a round when manually decocking his firearm (no one was injured). As a result the person said he never uses the decocking mechanism because they are mechanical and do fail. So, what do you guys think is the more safe way? Also, can any one explain to me how a decocker actually works.

[kcheung2]

deja vu

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=862451

[Lead Waster]

I did that once at a match, the gun was pointed downrange and I was carefully decocking it (stupid USPSA rule, that DA/SA guns have to start in full decock, meaning you have to hold the trigger down to fully decock). I guess I was tired and there was a touch enthusiastic about oiling the gun the night before, but for my fingers slipped and the gun fired (downrage, of course since I would never decock unless the gun was pointed somewhere safe).

Personally, I'd use the decocker if the gun has one. Why? Most guns have a firing pin block, so the firing pin will not move forward if your finger is off the trigger. Using a decocking lever, leaves your finger off the trigger so that safety should still be intact if anything goes wrong and the hammer falls. If you manually decock, like I was doing, you must pull the trigger, which disables that safety! Now, if we were allowed to go to half-cock, then you would just need to pull the trigger just enough to ease the hammer off the sear...but still, you are pulling the trigger.

[Ritchie8719]

DA/SA guns have to start in full decock

Is it still that way? Stupid indeed.

[Lead Waster]

Oh and OP "Which is safer?" not "Which is more safe?"

Sorry, I have kids and I keep an ear/eye out for this kind of stuff. Yep, I'm a grammar nazi!

Though mow that I think about it, I guess "which is more safe" is not strictly incorrect, is it?

[Lead Waster]

Is it still that way? Stupid indeed.

Even dumber is that fact that many guns, when you use the decocking lever, actually put the gun in half cock not fully decocked.

[morrcarr67]

.... Yep, I'm a grammar nazi!

Though mow that I think about it, I guess "which is more safe" is not strictly incorrect, is it?

[Cool Custard]

Oh and OP "Which is safer?" not "Which is more safe?"

Sorry, I have kids and I keep an ear/eye out for this kind of stuff. Yep, I'm a grammar nazi!

Though mow that I think about it, I guess "which is more safe" is not strictly incorrect, is it?

Hold on mow! You playing the cat game? What's so funny mow?














Mow!

[Lead Waster]

See what a bad example I am to my kids? I correct them, but incorrectly!

[CK_32]

Sounds like another typical rook mistake leading to a ND, with a followed but never forgotten "MY GUN WENT OFF BY IT SELF!?"

[Bill Steele]

[whipkiller]

So, I heard a story from my best friend which he said he was at the range and some one next to him accidentally popped off a round when manually decocking his firearm (no one was injured). As a result the person said he never uses the decocking mechanism because they are mechanical and do fail. So, what do you guys think is the more safe way? Also, can any one explain to me how a decocker actually works.

Yes, yes it does. (Actually work) I've had a few guns with de-cockers, and when I wanted to de-cock them I used, you guessed it... the de-cocker. So far, no ND's.

If I'm reading this correctly, (I hope I'm not) this person has a gun equipped with a DE-COCKER but chooses not to use it because they fail, so he manually de-cocks and ummm... FAILED, and ND'd a round with a bunch of people around him?

"Knock-Knock"

"Who is it?"

"It's Darwin, I just wanted to make sure I had the right place. I'm a little busy right now, but I'll be back."

[IVC]

Modern decockers will not rely on the firing pin block as the primary safety. Instead, there are layers of features that prevent the handgun from going off while being decocked.

Consider Beretta PX4 where the firing pin is rotated out of alignment when the lever is pressed, or Sig-s where lever holds the hammer as it is lowered, or HK-s that decock to the half-cock so the hammer doesn't reach the firing pin. All of them use firing pin block as the last resort should the main mechanism fail, and even with the failure of both the primary mechanism and the firing pin block chances are the gun wouldn't fire (pin out of alignment, half-cock sear, etc.).

The only thing to worry about is if the decocker is not designed properly, which could happen on no-name guns. The safety consideration would be akin to condition 1 carrying (some designs don't support it even if it's possible) or carrying a revolver with hammer on the live round (modern designs all alow this, but old designs with the firing pin on the hammer don't).

[CAGLS]

If you refuse to use the decocker then to me the only safe way to place the hammer down is to drop the mag, then empty the chamber by ejecting the round by racking the slide while pointing down range.

[HPGunner]

Although the de-cocker is mechanical - It's still a lot safer than not using the de-cocker. My preference is to only lower the hammer on a live round in the chamber if the gun has a de-cocker and it's a DA/SA gun. I never de-cock a SA gun (i.e. a 1911 or Hi-Power) on live round. For SA guns, I either keep it cocked and locked or drop the mag and unload the round from the chamber.