Any Fractured Safety Prevention Advice?

[ecuman]

I have just ordered my P64 from SOG. Do you have any advice on how to prevent a fractured safety that some are having?

[abwehr]

ecuman,

There is no way to really without having the part magnafluxed or using the spray crack detection kits (a dye type material). My recommendation is to not dry fire the pistol. The repeated "hammering" to the safety is not good in my opinion regardless of the pistol make.

Yes, there have been several instances where the safety lever broke, but I honestly feel it is not an epidemic, but it can happen. There are certainly more safetys not broken than have broke.

Keep us posted when you receive your P-64 and klet us know the year of manufacture and how it shoots!

[ecuman]

Thanks abwehr!

What about the cracked grips? Is this happening often or just a few cases?

[dfunk]

I would say that to prevent the craked safety (not a very common problem, but does exist) you should refrain from using the drop-safety feature - lower the hammer with your thumb instead.

The cracked grips thing has happened, but it seems that it's usually rare. When we get replacement sets, it won't concern you one bit.

[abwehr]

Yes, "dickfunk" is correct about the drop-safety feature! I know the feature exists, but I never use this feature on new manufactured pistols. If you want to dry fire the pistol, get a Snap Cap cartrigel to practice with, the pistol will last longer.

Dry firing and using the drop-safety is like your automobile engine; there is a "red line" the engine is designed for and you can use this feature. But continued use to the red line will decrease the life of the engine. A pistol is a mechanical piece of equipment that has design limits and occasionally you can go to this limit without problems, but doing this on a regular basis will cause parts to fail.

I would not worry too much about the cracked grips either, but they can break. What we don't know is how the pistol has been treated since manufacture. Anyone that has handles them could drop them and cause a fracture in the grip that leads to a broken grip, but this is the world of Military Surplus weapons.

[ecuman]

Thanks for the great and clear advice! Dickfunk, are you aware of replacement grips that will be available soon?

[dfunk]

Sure am, brother! Go HERE: http://p64.proboards67.com/index.cgi?bo ... 1136251908

[amd6547]

You can still use the de-cocker, just lower the hammer with the thumb. I recently bought a Walther P1, and in my research, I downloaded a walther manual. I was interested to see that this manual explicitly instructs you to lower the hammer with your thumb while pressing the decocker with your offhand finger.
I think dry-firing may be the real culprit in the fractured safety problem.

[tunnelrat]

Yes, "dickfunk" is correct about the drop-safety feature! I know the feature exists, but I never use this feature on new manufactured pistols. If you want to dry fire the pistol, get a Snap Cap cartrigel to practice with, the pistol will last longer.

Dry firing and using the drop-safety is like your automobile engine; there is a "red line" the engine is designed for and you can use this feature. But continued use to the red line will decrease the life of the engine. A pistol is a mechanical piece of equipment that has design limits and occasionally you can go to this limit without problems, but doing this on a regular basis will cause parts to fail.

Forgive, me. I do not understand mechanical things very well. Does the dry-firing itself somehow damage the gun, like it does on a rimfire pistol? Or is the problem that some are using the drop-safety repeatedly while dry-firing?

[jbailey]

Dry firing, without a 'snap cap' to cushion the last bit of firing pin travel, usually damages the firing pin (ask any CZ-52 owner), as the pin slams into the interior of the tunnel and a metallurgical effect of that sharp shock eventually weakens the pin to breakage. Altho the impact of the hammer on the safety is the same (dry fire or shooting), people who repeatedly dry fire in an attempt to smooth the action are putting the same stress on the safety as an equal number of live rounds. How many dry fires is too many? You don't know until it's over!

However, the safety is in a different (and I think, WEAKER) position when using the hammer-drop feature and for all we know, one hammer drop is equivalent to 100 dry fires? Not withstanding all that speculation, habitually using (and trusting?) the hammer drop is an invitation to a unfortunate accident. Bottom line: dry fire only with a cap and don't use hammer drop unless there's no other way. Hope that helps.

[abwehr]

"jbaily" gave a good description of dry firing. I just don't like to do it, but many folks do and have no problems, but unless the pistol is designed to do this with special steel, heat treatment, etc., there is a lot of "hammering" on the parts. Even tools that are made for "hammering" eventually get peened, or crack from the constant shock to the parts. Firearms are made to take a lot af abuse, but any piece of mechanical equipment can break.

Snap Caps are very low cost and with them you can dry fire to your hearts content. They are cheap insurance.

[fjblackesq]

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