Posted: 5/3/2010 3:35:38 PM EDT
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I was checking out a PPK at the local gun store this afternoon and I had a question about the safety. With the gun cocked, when you put the safety on is the hammer supposed to drop? I've never seen that before. Will this cause the round in the chamber to fire? I'd love to pick one up to replace my P3AT but this worried me. Thanks in advance.
Dan |
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It is technically not a safety in the traditional sense, but rather just a decocking lever. In use, if the weapon is cocked (ie. after the first shot is fired)and you wish to reholster the weapon, you would use the decocking lever to drop the hammer, and then return the decocking lever to the fire position. The weapon is then employed pretty much like a DA revolver - no safety per se other than the double action operation required for the first shot. IN the PP, PPK and PPKS series, there is not much leverage and the DA trigger pull tends to be high - in the 12-15 pound range, so you have to work at an accidental discharge.
So in short, you would not have the decocking lever in the "safe" position with the weapon holstered as ergonomically it is not designed to be used with the decocking lever left in the "safe" position. In general, the custom among police in Europe at the time the PP and PPK were designed was to carry the weapon with an empty chamber, racking the slide to chamber a round and cock the hammer when the weapon was put into use. In that circumstance, the heavy DA trigger pull was never an issue as it was always freshly cocked just before firing the first round, nor was the lack of a "safety" an issue as a round was not chambered until you were ready to fire. Decocking was then used prior to dropping the magazine and operating the slide to eject the unfired round. Presently, that type of carry (Condiiton 3) is very much out of fashion, especially in the US, but carrying the PP, PPK or PPKS with the hammer down on a loaded chamber with the decocking lever in the fire position works fine and is the method recommended by S&W. |
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It also has an inertial firing pin, so even if the hammer gets struck in the down position, the weapon won't fire.
Theoretically, like a 1911, a round with a very sensitive primer could fire if the pistol were dropped from a significant height muzzle down on a hard surface, but like the 1911, the odds are extremely low that anyone would ever get hurt if that very unlikely occurrence ever actually happened. People like to talk about how modern pistols like the Glock are easy to operate with a short learning curve, but they really don't have much if any advantage over a PP/PPK/PPKS. They are simple to operate with simple controls and very straight forward operation In my opinon, they are also in the sweet spot in size and weight - light enough to be easy to carry all day, but heavy enough not to be unpleasant to shoot on a regular basis, and suitably sized with enough barrel lenght to be fairly accurate. You can get smaller and lighter carry guns but very few if any of them can be comfortably and accurately shot to anywhere near the same degree as a PP, PPK or PPKS. |
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Quoted:
Thanks for the replies everyone. I had never seen anything like that before, but then again most of my experience in handguns has been limited to Glocks, 1911's, and a Desert Eagle. I have a PPK/S and I like the hammer drop/manual safety. I would suggest the PPK/S over the PPK as the plastic grips on the PPK tend to crack. The PPK/s has a full steel frame that the grip panels attach to. |