p320 external safety

[chrisp51]

When I was comparing the P320 and the S&W 2.0 I noticed that none of the Sigs I examined had external safetys. I know that was a requirement on previous service pistols so have the rules changed? Will Sig be producing the P320 with an external safety?

[TunnelRat]

Yes. The model shown for the contract has an external safety.

[Water-Man]

Patience is a virtue.

[ShootistPRS]

The Sig P320 has an integral manual striker safety/disconnect.
I prefer a hammer so I can safely place the gun uncocked with a round in the chamber to be fired double action. Just personal thing based on the experience of police officers discharging their guns trying to use a decocker. The Seattle Police Athletic Association had to place a 55 gallon drum filled with sand outside the range office so guns would no longer be discharged in the office. The sign read: "Decock guns here".

[marine6680]

If they are discharging using the decocker... they are doing it wrong, or the pistol is broken...

Lowering a hammer manually is more dangerous than a decocker.

[GreyState]

"The Seattle Police Athletic Association had to place a 55 gallon drum filled with sand outside the range office so guns would no longer be discharged in the office. The sign read: "Decock guns here"."

This doesn't sound right on a couple of points, I've never had a decocker fire a round on my Sigs P226, P229. That being said...

Seattle PD's Primary Duty Firearms are:

 Glock Model 17or 19, 9mm
 Glock Model 22 or 23, .40 S&W
 Glock Model 21SF or 30SF, .45ACP

Special Duty (Plain Clothes) are:

 Glock Model 26, 9mm
 Glock Model 27, .40 S&W
 Glock Model 30SF, .45ACP
 Glock Model 43, 9mm
 Department-approved 2-inch revolver

There are other allowed (approved) firearms, but the majority I see are Glocks, and certainly not enough to create a decocker malfunction epidemic.

https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/Police/manual/09_030_ERC_Feb2016.pdf

For the OP, the P320 has had a manual safety version available (in catalog), for some time, but they just started hitting the street this last Fall.

[Bart Noir]

GreyState, perhaps you are also a non-police member of the SPAA range, and know that there are plenty of non-police guns taken there. In fact, within the last couple of years I did talk to an officer who was still carrying his S&W .357 Magnum on duty. He said that was rare.

I've never seen anybody taking a pistol over to the barrel, but on the bulls-eye range I have found some live rounds in the clearing barrel. So somebody uses those barrels.

Bart Noir

[Bart Noir]

Shootist, we may have been on the firing line together at some time, at SPAA. Cool, huh?

With one exception, all the pistols with decockers are hammer fired pistols. You have the option of using the decocker or the hold-hammer-pull-trigger method. Unless of course the gun has a bobbed hammer which ends up disappearing into the back of the slide. That complicates the lowering of a hammer.

I prefer the guns which have decockers. On the slide or on the frame, I just think the act of decocking is safer when those levers are used. Or button, I think one H&K gun has a decocking button on the back of the slide.

The only striker-fired pistol with a decocker which I have ever seen, is the very fine Walther P99 design. A button on the top of the slide will decock and give you the option of a long DA pull for first shot.

Bart Noir

[BIGR]

If they are discharging using the decocker... they are doing it wrong, or the pistol is broken...

Lowering a hammer manually is more dangerous than a decocker.

Yes the main reason for a decocking lever, to let the hammer down in a safe manner. I know a guy that was letting the hammer down on a Sig with his thumb and about shot his gonads off. I have never had the first problem with any of my Sigs while using the decocking lever.

[Destructo6]

had to place a 55 gallon drum filled with sand outside the range office so guns would no longer be discharged in the office. The sign read: "Decock guns here".
Probably for decocking their shotguns, which requires pulling the trigger. After which, you can load the magazine tube and place it in your vehicle. These are typically shared guns that are loaded and unloaded every shift.

Your pistol should remain loaded at all times, except when cleaning it. When you go to load after cleaning, you should use the barrel, too.

[ShootistPRS]

It was not for shotguns. It was installed because there were three incidents where officers discharged their pistols in the office trying to decock them.
I don't know what pistols the Seattle police department issues but I do know they had problems learning how to make the guns safe.

[BIGR]

It sounds like to me that department needed some extra classroom and range time going over the proper procedure on how to make that pistol safe.

Apparently it was not from using the decocking lever. I have never had any issues decocking any of my pistols that have a decocking lever. A lot of accidental discharges are from just flat out careless gun handling and from not clearing the chamber. Trust me I know of a couple of instances where pistols were discharged due to the person not clearing the weapon or they loaded one back and had a dumb brain fart and decided to check the trigger pull or do a function test. Careless gun handling once again as I will say is the cause of most accidental gun discharges.

One more comment from me on stupid careless gun handling. Once upon a time my cousin and I were out target shooting along our grandfathers property. We had a variety of guns, shotgun, rifle , pistols. We always liked to go down along the river and shoot stuff along the creek banks or in the water. That dumb A$# cousin thought he would test his 12 GA. Mossberg Safety while he was in close proximity to me. The DUMB A#@, because that's what I think he is, decides to pull the trigger on his shotgun and it is aimed in the air, just inches above my head. Stupid moron did not even have the safety on and when the shotgun went off, I felt a heck of a blast go over my head. Well, both of us were in a state of shock and it probably took every ounce of my mental reasoning and calmness, to not shoot him with my Ruger 10-22 or my .357 Magnum pistol. I got hotter than a firecracker. Needless to say that was the last time I ever went around him when guns were involved. I have an ole saying and it is Lucky to Be Here, it was not my time to go that day.

[L-2]

There are a couple of unrelated issues going on in this thread.
1. The military's forthcoming M17 pistol (aka SIG P320) will apparently have an external manual safety. The current commercial P320 does not (except for certain MA-compliant models).

2. Clearing barrels are common in and around police ranges whether or not any rounds were discharged at a particular location. A clearing barrel is a safer place to clear (unload) one's firearm as discharges might occur. A clearing barrel doesn't exist for decocking although I suppose a person may want to do so if not loading up on the firing line itself.

[ShootistPRS]

The sand filled barrel at the police range had a sign on it that read "Decock pistols here".

The Sig P320 has an optionally available safety. They don't force you to have it but allow you to have it if it makes you feel better. The only safety that is worth anything is the one holding the gun.

[BIGR]

Where I come from we did not have a clearing barrel, we just made sure the weapon was pointed down range when we charged it or made it safe. Generally down range was a big dirt bank backstop if we were outdoors or the backstop in the indoor range. Luckily all the times when I was on the range I never witnessed an accidental discharge, but I knew that it did happen now and then.

[Destructo6]

Seattle PD's Primary Duty Firearms are:

 Glock Model 17or 19, 9mm
I don't know how I missed this the first read through.

Disassembly of Glocks requires pulling the trigger to decock, which disengages the firing pin from the sear. It's surprisingly not uncommon for folks, LE and otherwise, to decock loaded Glocks when they are "cleaning."

It's pretty much impossible for a SIG, or any other modern pistol, to fire when using the deocking lever/device.

As stated above, every police station has or should have a barrel or similar device next to every exterior door to allow safe loading and unloading of service weapons. In a lot of agencies, loading anywhere else, save a hot range, is forbidden.

[paitobp]

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

[IrishGuy824]

You do have the option of ordering a p320 with a manual safety, and the United States Army's order via Sig Sauer will be produced with the manual safety.

[dondavis3]

I have a Sig P320 with a thumb safety

Great gun

:cool:

[raimius]

Dondavis, does it require different grips?

Also, can you confirm up is "safe?"

[dondavis3]

If by "safe" do you mean the safety is very positive (will not go on and off easily / accidently ) - yes it is very safe - I'm used to shooting 1911's and the safety works just like a 1911.

It comes with a medium grip module - I bought a large FDE grip module (dremeled out the slot for the safety) and it worked fine.

The grip modules that have the slot for the safety - do not work well for grip modules for non-safety P320 - because the empty safety slot allows a pin that is there on the non-safety model to vibrate out of place.

I hope this helps - I love the thumb safety model because I train and like the extra level of safety.

:cool:

[dondavis3]

As to using a gun with a decocker - I've never heard of a decocker not working & causing a discharge - All Sig's in the "P" line have decockers - so do older S&W's all Gen 3 - so do HK's & Beretta's

All of these guns are used extensively by military & police world wide - never heard of a decock causing a discharge in a maintained pistol.

:cool: