22July04

On CZ pistols from a friend who works there:

"The new, P04 series features a frame-mounted decocker, similar to SIGs, that lowers the hammer to half-cock.

The CZ85 has the traditional, ambidextrous, manual, two-position safety lever. These pistols need to be carried cocked and locked. The pistol is trigger-cocking, but there is no safe, convenient, or fast way to get the hammer down on a live round (ie, no decocking lever). The trigger-cocking feature is only useful for dropping the hammer for a second time on a recalcitrant round.

The CZ75DAO model is a service-sized, self-decocking pistol (DAO). We make them, but, frankly, they are not particularly popular."

Comment: Self-decocking (DAO) pistols, in order to be appealing to most shooters and gun carriers, need to have a short, light (no more than eight pounds) trigger, with a distinct and shallow to middle reset (link). Glock and SIG's DAK pistols both fit this description well, and neither company can make them fast enough to satisfy demand.

Conversely, self-decocking pistols with triggers that are:

1) too heavy (in excess of ten pounds), like S&W's DAO series

2) too light (less that five pounds), Like PO's LDA

3) too long, like Beretta's 96D

4) too deep of a reset, like both S&W and Beretta,

are never going to sell well.

With regard to the last item, a positive trigger reset is, in my opinion, extremely important to serious shooting. Auditory exclusion and other stress-related phenomena make positively perceiving the fact that your pistol just fired dubious. People can't count their shots, because they, literally, can't hear them. Thus, in gunfights, a positive trigger reset is the only true indication to the shooter that his pistol just fired. There is no other way for him to know for sure.

Accordingly, trigger reset that is:

1) deep

2) indistinct

3) mushy

greatly detract from any serious pistol's usefulness.

Self-decocking pistols are the current trend in American law enforcement. Manual safeties and manual decoking levers are on their way out. If they want to sell guns, manufacturers need to worry less about superfluous rubbish like "loaded chamber indicators" and "magazine safeties" and more about legitimate consumer features, like good triggers that enable users to shoot accurately, confidently, and fast.

/John

22July04

From a friend and instructor in OK, on the new Ruger 45ACP:

"After your quip on the subject, I made an opportunity to examine, in detail, the new Ruger 45ACP pistol. Ergonomics are the best this pistol maker has ever managed. Levers are nicely contoured and flat. The pistol would be comfortable in a holster. Much improvement over earlier generations of pistols from Ruger.

The deal-buster is the magazine safety. Magazine safeties on S&W pistols simply make the trigger go slack, which is sensory input to the shooter that the magazine has become unlocked or is not inserted at all. Either way, the shooter instantly knows what to do to correct the problem and get his pistol running. On the Ruger, the magazine safety, when activated, will still allow both trigger and hammer to function normally. It simply blocks the firing pin! Upon hearing a "click," instead of a "bang," the shooter knows little, because the pistol has told him little. Chamber might be empty. Might be a dud round. Magazine may be unlocked."

Comment: A rapid TRB should still fix the problem, but, when the hammer falls, the gun should fire. Simply blocking the firing pin and letting the rest of the mechanism function normally is not the way any safety device should work. My opinion of magazines safeties is widely known, but this one is clearly the worst of the lot. Design engineers who lack the experiential base to understand what serious pistols are for shouldn't be designing pistols upon which someone's life may depend!

/John