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Old November 20, 2011, 01:08 PM   #7
James K
Member In Memoriam
 
Join Date: March 17, 1999
Posts: 24,383
The Radom, like JMB's original pistol design, has a half cock as its only manual safety. It does "lock the trigger" in the sense that the trigger cannot be pulled while the sear is in the half cock notch.

The manual safety was installed on what became the M1911 at the request of the U.S. cavalry, who wanted a means of making the pistol safe while trying to control an unruly horse. The Polish cavalry thought the better alternative was to drop the hammer, then re-cock the pistol after the horse was brought under control. So the Radom has a hammer drop lever, but not a manual safety. The Radom can be safely carried with the chamber loaded and the hammer down, since it (like the 1911) has an inertia firing pin. The half-cock was not normally used.

In late Radoms, the takedown latch was eliminated. Its function of retaining the hammer and sear pins was eliminated by using rivet type pins, and its function of positioning the slide for takedown was taken over by a clever combination of the takedown latch and a notch in the top rear of the hammer.

Jim
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