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G26ster wrote:

JALLEN wrote:Ever heard of a decocker?

I had a Sig 226 Navy for years. When you rack the slide, a round is loaded, the pistol is cocked, hammer back. You press the decocker, the hammer goes down, now you are ready to go D/A. No problem!

I've only had one pistol with a decocker. It always made me nervous dropping the hammer with a loaded chamber. Sure, any part of any pistol can fail, but a failure of the decocking mechanism always entered my mind when decoocking. Just me I guess, but I didn't like doing it.

That's one of the nice thing about a Sig decocker. If you keep pressure on it, you can ease the hammer down.

It's not the same as the safety/decocker on my old Ruger P-89 or my Walther P1. both of those just let the hammer fall.

tbryanh wrote:Press checking pistols in these conditions is extremely dangerous.

Just a note that, like so many things, it's largely a matter of technique and care. If a gun (I carry 1911s predominantly) has been out of my sight for any period of time and I subsequently intend to carry it, I always check the magazine and perform a press-check...even if I put it in a safe the night before and know that no one else has had access to the safe since.

Training and habit. It's essentially the reverse of making sure a firearm is empty and cleared and no ammo present prior to cleaning or maintaining the gun. The latter, you want to be absolutely, positively certain nothing will go bang unexpectedly; the former, you want to be absolutely, positively certain something will go bang when expected.

A proper pistol press-check does not involve the same manipulation as an abbreviated slide rack. You don't try to do a combat slide rack and just stop it halfway. Done correctly, your dominant hand is not in its master grip; there are no fingers anywhere near the trigger guard. Just FWIW, along with a caveat that some tiny pocket pistols, like my Seecamp, are simply too small for correct press-check technique, and you do have to resort to a partial slide rack.

G26ster wrote:

JALLEN wrote:Ever heard of a decocker?

I had a Sig 226 Navy for years. When you rack the slide, a round is loaded, the pistol is cocked, hammer back. You press the decocker, the hammer goes down, now you are ready to go D/A. No problem!

I've only had one pistol with a decocker. It always made me nervous dropping the hammer with a loaded chamber. Sure, any part of any pistol can fail, but a failure of the decocking mechanism always entered my mind when decoocking. Just me I guess, but I didn't like doing it.

I'd say it's just you.

I wonder how many Sig P226s have been sold over the decades? It is the same design as the P220, and the P228 and P229 operate the same way, I am told. Those pistols are used by countless law enforcement and militaries, including SAS and SEAL. Those have been regarded as among the best, most reliable, semi autos ever made. Millions of pistols which have fired billions of rounds would not be much of an exaggeration.

I've never heard of the failure you describe. I don't have mine anymore and no manual, but I don't recall any caution in the manual about it, either.

I don't know why a person would think press checking is dangerous. If done properly, the grip safety is always engaged and your fingers should be no where near the trigger. A 1911 has four safeties engaged when cocked and locked, the thumb safety, the grip safety. your index finger safety out of the trigger guard and the one between your ears.

As far as a decocker goes, my H & K has a decocker. I always step outside, point the muzzle to the ground and then press the decocker.

I cringe when I see NRA or Glock stickers on vehicles because I know when talking to thugs in the jail they look for those as it's a good sign of a gun could be inside. I put my stickers in my hard gun case or shop tookbox. I don't wanna advertise that there may be a gun in my truck.

nightmare69 wrote:I cringe when I see NRA or Glock stickers on vehicles because I know when talking to thugs in the jail they look for those as it's a good sign of a gun could be inside. I put my stickers in my hard gun case or shop tookbox. I don't wanna advertise that there may be a gun in my truck.

I've been sticking mine on my gun cabinet.

I forgot about the grip safety on a 1911. Anyway, Sigs have no safety at all when the hammer is cocked. Press checking a Sig requires the hammer to be cocked. Again, I believe it is extremely dangerous to press check a Sig. Other guns might be safer to press check. Glocks have trigger safeties, 1911s have grip safeties, etc.

I understand the tendency to want to press check, but I never give into it. If there is a big concern that the gun might be unloaded, then you can drop the mag, rack the slide, watch the round come out of the chamber, then reload.