Pistol Choices

07 Oct 09

Manual decocking:

In our Courses, we see many manually-decocking pistols, mostly SIGs, but H&Ks, Berettas, and S&Ws also. I own several but now carry them only for demonstration purposes.

Last weekend, during an Urban Rifle Course, I required students to rapidly transition from rifle, to pistol, then back to rifle. This required that pistols be draw quickly (one-handed), immediately fired several times at a close target, then re-holstered quickly, so rifles could then be reloaded and fired immediately, all as the student is moving aggressively.

Several times, I was compelled to physically stop students from holstering cocked SIG/226s! Their response was, upon looking at the cocked pistol about to go into their holster, "Oh ... Oops!... I almost forgot!" Like someone using the pistol for the first time!

However, for these same students, the 226 was their "carry gun."

Thus, who insist on carrying manually-decocking pistols need to practice with them extensively, so the foregoing doesn't happen. Even then, we occasionally see it, even among ostensibly experienced shooters.

In my opinion, when your goal is to impress everyone with high scores, a manually-decocking pistol may be at least arguable.

When your goal is to emerge victorious from fights, with all the stresses therewith associated, you are better served with a self-decocking (DAO) pistol.

Hence, the current popularity of the SIG/P250, SIG/DAK, Glock, Kahr, S&W/M&P, H&K/LEM, Beretta PX4/C, et al, and the declining popularity of S&W's, SIG's, Beretta's, and H&K's line of manually-decocking pistols.

We, of course, can train students to correctly carry and operate any pistol, but I consider the addition of a manual decocking lever to be more an impediment than a benefit.

I know, full-well, there are die-hard proponents of manually-decocking pistols, many among my circle of friends. But, last weekend yielded yet another confirmation of the inherent defect in that system.

New shooters don't need to be encumbered with it!

/John