Hammerless vs Hammered autos?

S

Satanta

New member
I've never been real big on hammerless auto's...owned one and it seemed kinda cheap to me. Anyone got any thoughts on these vs the 'old standard' hammered auto?

Someone posted a link on another post to the Republic Arms .45 auto. The price is about right and the size but it's hammerless. :(
http://www.republicarmsinc.com/index.htm

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Satanta, the Whitebear
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i'm not a big fan of DAO autos but my glocks don't have an external hammer and i love them. and they don't feel cheap at all to me.
 
Greetings Satanta, I don't have any knowledge with regard to this particular item but I would advise you to step cautiously whenever you are thinking about buying something that you are unsure about regardless of the quality of the item. Even if the quality is great (and I don't know one way or the other), you may OR you MAY NOT develop a liking for the gun -- I speak on experience on this. Best Regards,
FUD
fud-nra.gif
 
With all autos except for a Glock, I prefer an external, cockable hammer. It makes that first round so much more accurate and gives so much peace of mind when carrying with one chambered.
 
Hammerless autos make me nervous, also certain rimfires like the ruger cannot be decocked, which means the chamber has to be cleared and then dry fired to release tension on the firing pin.
I know that certain firing pins will break if
dry fired often.
The status of a pistol can be visually checked (cocked or uncocked) if it has an external hammer.
Just my preference, thats all.
Regards,
Anand
 
De-cocking a Glock and a Ruger MrkII, always makes my cringe. It cant be good for the firing pin to do that, often.
 
OT, but (since we're talking dry-firing ...) - you know how bad it is to dry-fire a rimfire (much worse than for a centerfire)? Well, Ruger Standard/Mk I/Mk IIs require it for disassembly. Tough guns (then again, they're such a pain in the backside to disassemble that no one bothers, anyway).

I've been happy with my Glocks and with my Heritage Arms Stealth 9 mm (of which the Republic Arms .45 reminds me - tho I can't speak of its quality). When you think about it, in a life-or-death situation you shouldn't be using ammo that's going to require a second strike on the primer - so that's not a realistic basis for needing an external hammer. PreserveFreedom has a good point: if you can cock the little beastie, you're probably better off in the accuracy department. I dunno, the Glock works fine for me.
 
Santana,

I know exactly what you mean regarding striker fired pistols. I've owned a few (none of them a Glock) and every one has broken. I'll stick to traditional pistols with external hammers.

Who knows, one of these days I might get a Glock and it might change my mind on the subject. It's just not a priority right now. The object of my desire right now is a CZ-97 which is, you guessed it, a traditional external hammer pistol. :)

Joe/Ga
 
Trust me when I say that you won't hurt a Glock firing pin by dry-firing (nor most other modern name-brand autos, for that matter).

Every night in my room you can hear:

ka-chick... *spoink*
ka-chick... *spoink*

during commercial breaks on "Law & Order". Sometimes during the show, if the bad guy is particularly loathsome.

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!
 
My 9mm Walther P99 has no hammer, but rather is striker fired. It does, however, have a pin sticking out the back which tells you whether the striker is cocked. It also has a decocker mounted on the top of the slide. Finally, it is a traditional DA/SA so you can carry your first round for a DA shot, and follow with SA shots.

While an exposed hammer (and a hi-cap clip, 9mm, safety and decocker) was a requirement for my first gun (a stainless Italian Beretta 92; still have it), I now have several guns which fly in the face of all those requirements. Love 'em all!
 
Joe:

I own five striker fired guns: two Glocks and three Kahrs. I've put thousands of rounds through them, without any of them breaking. While there may be some bad striker fired pistols, that doesn't mean that all striker fired pistols are bad.

Jared
 
Hammerless single action guns are one thing and striker-fired Glock action (for lack of a better term, single and a half action?) guns are another. Glocks are meant to be dry fired.

My Browning Buckmark is different since it has no exposed hammer and it's a true single pistol. I pull the trigger on a spent case, just to be kind to the firing pin, to relieve the tension on the spring. Are guns like the Buckmark, Ruger MkII, etc. meant to be kept cocked all the time? What about the old .32 ACP Colt that John Browning developed ~1903 (it's really flat, collectors like it, I forget what it's called)? Was it meant to be dry fired? Was it meant to be kept cocked and locked all the time?

How about a Luger?

I've always wondered...
 
Jared,

Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. It was not my intension to say that all striker fired pistols are junk. Just that my experience with them has been less than satisfactory.

To each their own. For me, I'll stick to what I'm comfortable with.

Joe/Ga
 
Ruger MK II's incorporate a firing pin block that keeps the pin from striking the chamber. It is OK to dry fire them. Now other rimfires are a different matter. It is possible to blunt the firing pin and that may cause failure to fires to occur. In the disassembly instructions for the Ruger they are explicit that you make sure the firing pin blocking pin is in place otherwise you may cause damage. It is not a part that is easily lost, but I am in the habit of looking for it anyway....

- Makarov
 
All my autoloaders have hammers, its what I am used too and goes with the saftey training I am also used to. If a person feels fine with one ok but for me no way. I like the "opps hammer is up" visiual aid. :) I used to get very peeved trying to chamber a round in the luger with the action uncocked,only need to work the toggel a fraction to cock on a loaded chamber. But getting a round in and uncocked is a project. :) :)I guess I will just have to be a "Hammer Head". :) :)
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by makarov:
Ruger MK II's incorporate a firing pin block that keeps the pin from striking the chamber. It is OK to dry fire them. Now other rimfires are a different matter. It is possible to blunt the firing pin and that may cause failure to fires to occur. In the disassembly instructions for the Ruger they are explicit that you make sure the firing pin blocking pin is in place otherwise you may cause damage. It is not a part that is easily lost, but I am in the habit of looking for it anyway....

- Makarov[/quote]


You got the idea, but not the facts. Its a firing pin STOP, not a block. But almost all guns having firing pin STOPS.

The disassembly instructions say NOTHING about having the block in place. Its called the firing pin STOP, its internal, you can't even see it, and adjusted at the factory.

The instruction only say to remove the mag, check that the chamber is empty, release the bolt, put the safety in the "off" position, point the gun in a safe direction, and pull the trigger, releasing the hammer (which is internal, too.)
 
I've used external hammer, internal hammer, and striker fired guns. As long as the individual weapon is one of quality I don't think that there is a problem anyway you look at it.

My carry gun right now is a 1911, and one thing that I like about the external hammer is when I take it off at night and whipe it down I like to place my thumb on the hammer just in case I do something massivly stupid. I also put my thumb on the hammer when I reholster. I do this for an added measure of safety, I remember reading about some guy who, in a fit of stupidity, went to reholster his (hammerless, manual saftyless, auto pistol which will remain unnamed so as not to offend any fans of that particular gun :) ) and caught the trigger with the edge of his holster and put one into his leg. So I don't think it can hurt to be able to make sure that hammer doesn't go anywhere while you are manipulating the gun.
 
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