Jeff Cooper's Commentaries / Sig's Decocker

["DoubleAction"]

Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 1, June 1993
Lowering the hammer on the Sig Sauers

Jeff Cooper's Commentaries : "Perhaps you have noticed the warning from SIGARMS which insists that the hammer on the Sig must always be dropped by the decocking device and never by the thumb. This is curious in view of the fact that for many years the Walther people always recommended that the weapon be decocked with the thumb and not with the hammer dropper. This is still more evidence of a world in which we are to depend on machinery rather than upon ourselves. Dropping the hammer with a decocker is usually safe. (Just be sure the weapon is pointed in a safe direction when you do it.)"

"Lowering the hammer with the thumb is always safe if the operator is safe. Of course, if you must assume that the operator is inept, then decocking with the thumb is not safe. We dinosaurs prefer to put our trust in our own abilities rather than in any reliability of a mechanism which can fail."

www.molonlabe.net/Commentaries/jeff1_1.html

I have to stress that thumbing the hammer down on a Sig Sauer P- Series pistol disengages the incorporated safety lock work to the pistol, while allowing the hammer to rest on the firing pin. The decocker is not there to make life easier on your thumb; It's purpose is to safely lower the hammer, while disengaging the sear, and activating the firing pin safety block. Thumbing the hammer defeats this safety system.

[oldmanmontgomery]

SIG Sauer P series. Solid engineering, solid manufacture. Rotten ergonomics for my somewhat smallish hands and I object to decocker devices on principle. I've seen too many people who disdain 'cocked and locked' carry, proceed to move with a cocked and unlocked pistol because the alternative was to lower the hammer and then fire the next shot double action again.

Not a bad pistol, but the controls don't cut it.

[Callahan]

Oct 28, 2009 21:39:20 GMT -5 oldmanmontgomery said:

SIG Sauer P series. Solid engineering, solid manufacture. Rotten ergonomics for my somewhat smallish hands and I object to decocker devices on principle. I've seen too many people who disdain 'cocked and locked' carry, proceed to move with a cocked and unlocked pistol because the alternative was to lower the hammer and then fire the next shot double action again.

Not a bad pistol, but the controls don't cut it.

Welcome, OMM. Well, the controls don't cut it for you, at least. So, tell us a little bit about yourself, in as general terms as you like. What part of the country do you live in? Do you own firearms? If so, what make and models? Ever belonged to any other forums? You sound like you may be a 1911 and/or revolver man...

["DoubleAction"]

I've been fortunate to have these piano like fingers, which allows me to manipulate things, when working with my hands. The Decocker on the Sig was the first thing that I learned to understand about the pistol, and form a unconditional habit about it's intended purpose.

I don't know many people which don't understand about hammer safety, it's know wonder how the Colt Single Action Army made this far without having a safety bar incorporated into it's lock work.

["DoubleAction"]

..Manually Lowering The Hammers, on Pistols that Features "Decockers" :

.....The Sig's Decocker system not only lowers the hammer, it also safely disengages the sear and activates a hammer block, which prevents the hammer from coming to rest on the firing pin. Even so, the firing pin has a firing pin block on it as well ( Some refer to this firing pin safety as a Passive Firing Pin Safety ). Pressing the trigger to the rear, deactivates the Passive Firing Pin Safely.

....Manually lowering the hammer, by the thumb or finger, defeats the safety lock work in the trigger...... Lower the Hammer by the Decocker.

...Many cops had complaints about the Sig Sauer's Decockers, because the cops would form the habit of manually lowering the hammer before reholstering the pistols. This defeats the lockwork safety mechanisms on the Sig Sauers. So, Sig Sauer began producing Double Action Only triggers for the cops.

...I know that some will say that the first round would be double action, and after this, the following rounds would be fired on Single Action, and this would throw off the accuracy of the older Sigs.....Nope.....It was the trigger getting snagged on the holster, when the user failed to deploy the decocker lockwork.This is the reason why Sig Sauer began producing "Double Action Only" duty pistols for police.

["DoubleAction"]

..I brought this topic back up, to help answer this question : Why did Law Enforcement Quit Carrying Pistols with Hammers ?

...There are many reasons as to why many Law Enforcement Agencies Quit Issuing Duty Pistols with Hammers, This may be one.