Racking the slide on a locked USP?

J

Jonpod

New member
The Tactical I ordered came in to the local gun shop. I stopped in to see it. I can't pick it up until next Tue. The owner handed me the pistol for inspection. I noticed that the slide was very tight. I didn't use brute force, however, I did pull harder than normal to rack the slide. This happened about three times before the owner realized the safety locking mechanism was still engaged. Does anyone know if this could have caused any damage to pistol?
 
I believe that the HK slides can be operated when the safety is on so don't worry about it. Plus, I seriously doubt you could have caused damage without using brute force . . . or a hammer with one of those brutes.
 
I have a USP full size 45 and racking the slide with the safety one will not damage anything. They are designed to be albe to do that. This is one of many features that I really like about the USP safety.
 
The safety was off. Inside the handle with the magazine removed there is a small screw when turned with a special tool it makes the weapon safer for shipping and storage. This is the safety locking that I was curious about. I'm not sure exactly what this does except the slide was difficult to pull back and the magazine could not be reinserted.
 
I had the same problem with my USP .45. I do not think that would hurt the weapon. I talked to the H&K dealer in my area and they agreed. Although they did not recommend doing it alot.
 
Jonpod: There has been a thread on this on several H&K forum. Racking the slide with the internal trigger lock on will bend the hammer strut within the mag well. It's apparent if the empty magazine will not drop free. This problem occurred to three people on the HK-Forum board and all sent their USP's back for repairs under warranty.

For more details try:
http://www.hk-forum.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000037.html

God bless.

Hugh
 
Hugh is right. This is a documented problem with the new 'safety-locks' on 1999 (August?) and newer USP's in all calibers.

They were originally shipped with large placards that denoted the presence of the lock and how to unlock it before racking the slide. Any attempt to rack the slide will result in the hammer strut being bent inward in the mag well and the hammer spring rubbing against the back of the magazine when inserted (thus not allowing it to drop free when released). This strut must be replaced on damaged USP if they have been 'racked' with the safety lockout engaged.

Dealers are the worst culprits of this type of damage, as they do not read the warnings printed in the manual and often taped to the gun when it arrives. The natural habit is to pick up the gun and rack the slide to check the chamber, but HK decided to ship them 'locked' from the factory - and is suffering through many returns and complaints about 'defective' weapons.

The HK forum has documented that one slide cycle with the lockout engaged can damage the spring enough to cause problems - check into it at your dealer. Sorry to be bringer of bad news. USP's are wonderful handguns and my USP45f has never let me down,
 
LongDuck & huge have it right.
The newer USPs have the damnable internal "safety lock", which, if locked, will allow the hammer strut to get bent when the slide is forcefully racked. Turn it "off", and just store the guns safely, I say!
The older USPs have no such foolishness, and one of the nice things about the system is being able to load a round from the magazine or extract a round from the chamber, while having the lever on "safe".

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"Potius sero quam nunquam."
 
This is a real bummer thanks for the info. Can I still use the gun with the hammer strut in this condition. I don't want to send it back right away since I haven't even fired it yet. Is there a charge for H&K to perform this procedure? Should I ask the dealer to split the repair costs if any? He got two in maybe he will let me buy the second while the first goes back for repairs. Thanks for the link Huge I couldn't get it to work though, is it right.
 
This lock out is realy just another failed attempt to make a gun smarter instead of the person who shoots it.

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Master Blaster
 
Jonpod: The link just worked for me. I think all the repairs were made under warranty and pretty quickly. I don't know that it is dangerous, just irritating. I think two posters named Roadking and Parabellum sent theirs back for repairs. Let me know if I can help. God bless. Hugh
 
Somewhat related, I'd read on the HK website that they will 'perform the upgrade' to older style USP's for $35 and it replaces the lanyard locking block in the lower grip with the 'new, improved' parts.

No thanks.

I'd rather not have to mess with the hassle of it being able to be 'turned off' without me knowing about it.

Nice of HK to offer, tho, huh?!?
 
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