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Old 03-10-2014, 12:27 PM
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Fastbolt Fastbolt is offline
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Originally Posted by Autococker07 View Post
I dig it too.... we have a very good SWAT officer here in town that had a ND with his Glock 22 duty gun one night (he was distracted while putting the gun on the bench, but after removing mag). He came back short stroked to get the takedown lever set, and put one through his reloading bench into his leg. All is well, and he recovered fully, but his mistake taught me to FULLY lock back the slide and VISUALLY check the chamber/magwell.... I am sure there are some high speed guys here that feel thats silly, but it is the only foolproof way with a gun that must have the trigger tripped....

OP-- breakdown while pulling the trigger may damage your gun... after 50K cycles or so.... its like dry firing.... you are not going to do it enough to see significant wear....
The sear deactivation lever feature was designed in the gun after receiving input from LE during early R&D. Proper use of it requires the user/owner lock back the slide, which provides for an opportunity to make sure the user/owner has done a safety inspection to make sure the chamber is clear and no magazine remains in the pistol.

The XD uses another method to help let the user/owner confirm the gun is clear, and the older Ruger P-series used another way. I remember the first time I realized I had to lock open the slide on my P90, and push the ejector plate forward in order to field-strip the pistol. It seemed odd at first, and an unnecessary additional moment's work, but it did make for an extra step to ensure the gun could be checked for having been properly cleared.

Lots of folks like to say that firearms safety should primarily remain between the ears of the owner/user, but in the real world people are often lazy, inattentive, complacent, etc ... and it doesn't hurt anything to add in a minor manipulative step for field-stripping to help make sure someone hasn't set themselves up for a ND.

BTW, the original deactivation lever was curved/folded over, and it was changed to having a straight tip. The reason? Cops are still lazy and sometimes inattentive.

It was found that if the curved lever was left in the upright position during reassembly, the slide's pick-up rail would hit it as the slide was reinstalled. This stopped reassembly and could potentially result in damage to the lever if the user tried to force things. The revised lever puts the tip out of the way of the pick-up rail if it's left in the upright position.

It never hurts to remember that issued users of regular equipment - which means guns for cops - really does need to be kept simple and as foolproof as possible.

It's an insult to have a sear deactivation lever designed into the gun ... which sometimes seems to be how some folks seem to look at it.
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