Quote:
Originally Posted by funkychinaman
The guy with the P226 decocked right before surrendering his pistol. Since it was in his left hand, he had to move this thumb to the left, which looked a bit awkward. I'm guessing lefties would be more likely to use the thumb and trigger method.
I've never used the decocker on a SIG-Sauer, is it safe to just flick it with your thumb? With my P38, I read someplace that you were supposed to hold the hammer back with your right thumb while flicking the safety/decocker with your left hand. I'm not sure if that's for all pistols with decockers or just the P38 because it's old.
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With Sig pistols you push the decocker down with your thumb and it drops the hammer a fraction, and then as you take your thumb off the decocker it lowers it the rest of the way. if you were to just flick the decocker it would drop the hammer quickly rather than lowering it slowly, but it is still safe due to the firing pin block which is only released when the trigger is pulled. When you put the safety on with pistols with a safety/decocker like the Beretta 92FS it just drops the hammer like when it is fired, but due to the firing pin block nothing happens.
The reason the P38 decocker is not trusted is that on guns like the Beretta 92 the firing pin rotates out of alignment with the hammer/chamber as you push the safety down, meaning that when the hammer is released when the lever is in the safe position it drops onto the side of the housing rather than the firing pin itself meaning that there is no chance of a discharge. On the P38 the firing pin is not blocked or rotated out of the way, it is just locked in position. It is possible that this lock could fail (particularly if the hammer is dropped onto it with full force) hence why it is best to control it with your thumb. In fact, this is exactly what the manual for the Walther P1 tells you to do.