HK USP .45, mags won't drop free

J

Josh D

New member
Recently acquired a HK USP in .45 ACP. Came with 4 10rnd factory magazines, all like new, and none of them will drop free. One of them tries, but doesn't make it. They will drop on a closed slide, but with the slide locked back, they will not drop.

The pistol had only 10rnds through it when I got it, and now it has about 60-70. Awesome gun, and will even feed empty cases. I love it to death, but I think the mags should drop free. It doesn't really matter now, but if I got into a shootout and hit the release, I want the well to be empty and waiting. All of the mags are clean enough to eat off of. Tried them dry and also lightly lubed, nothing worked.

Any ideas?

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Don't turn around, uh oh oh, der kommisar is in town, uh oh oh!
 
The hammer strut is bent. It probably got bent because someone racked the slide before unlocking H&K's genius locking device. This happened to my Tactical because the shop owner handed me the gun after he had taken the warning sticker off. Apparently it was an easy fix. Just take it back where you bought it and tell them this and they should be able to repair it. In the mean time it will cause no harm to shoot it. It will just annoy you that you have to pull out your mags.
 
I know precisely what's wrong, Josh. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you have a damaged pistol. It probably happened before you ever took possession of the gun.

HK, in their infinite wisdom, and concern about our litigious society, have included a device on the USP line, called a "lockout". This is actually a part that replaces the mainspring cap/lanyard loop assembly. When the lockout device is engaged( with the metal key that came with the pistol ), the hammer strut is blocked from going into the hole in the mainspring cap when you attempt to cock the hammer. This prevents the pistol from being cocked. HK ships the pistol with the lockout device engaged. If the gunstore employee unpacking the gun is not aware of this feature and attempts to rack the slide, the hammer strut gets bent. Since the strut is curved toward the front, the bending of this part continues in that direction. Since there is no separator between the hammer strut/mainspring assembly and the magazine well of the USP, the strut protrudes into the mag well when the hammer is cocked.( after the lockout is disengaged, of course ) The mainspring surrounding the hammer strut is contacting the back of the mag when the hammer is cocked. This is why the pistol acts differently with a closed or open slide( assuming that the hammer is down when the slide is closed )
This doesn't do any thing for the trigger pull, either. Not to mention you may notice a shallow groove is being worn into the back of your mags.
If that's not enough, many times when the pistol is damaged by the lockout as described above, the offending idiot has forced the slide enough that the sear spring also is damaged.

Call HK, and make arrangements to send your frame back. You don't have to send the whole pistol. The are quite familiar with this problem. There will be no charge for the repair.
How do I know about this? 'Cause it happened to me.,When I asked their service department why HK is putting this idiotic annoyance on their USPs, they responded that they "don't want to get sued". Great, in other words, it's there for their "safety", not yours.

JOnpod--saw your post after I put up mine. Hk stated that the pistol had to go back to them. That it was not a repair that could be done by an armorer. Was that the case with yours? And yes, I forgot to mention, you can shoot the pistol this way. But it bothered me so much. I immediately sent mine back for repair.

[This message has been edited by parabellum (edited May 26, 2000).]
 
This is a full sized pistol.

Thanks for the info. It was done before I got it, because I have never engauged the lock, and I even thought about having it glued in the "shoot" position, but I didn't want to tamper with it, so I left it alone.

Funny that the seller didn't tell me about this. Then again, he might have not known about it. I will contact HK USA ASAP.

Thanks

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Don't turn around, uh oh oh, der kommisar is in town, uh oh oh!
 
Josh, one guy posted that he simply gutted the damn thing. He said he carefully pried out that little tumbler part, and his gun works fine. The ideal would be if you could find an older mainspring cap and put it on the gun. HK didn't start this foolishness until last year. I doubt Hk would sell you one though, what with them being worried about "getting sued" and all...
 
My armorer attempted to replace the mainspring cap on my lock with the old kind while I was there in fornt of him and it won't work. They have changed the frame itself so as not to accept the older style lanyard/mainspring cap.

The only option is to have it replaced by a HK authorized service facility which, luckily, my armorer is.

Good Luck!

J.T.
 
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