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Thread: Pistols with Slide-Mounted Decockers

  1. #1

    Pistols with Slide-Mounted Decockers

    I have a weird question on Beretta 92s, or any pistol with a slide-mounted decocker that is not a safety. If you push down the decocker while pulling back the slide, but release the slide at the rear, will the gun be cocked or decocked once the slide closes?

    It seems like it would depend on whether the decocker can flip back up before the slide closes, right? Does it reliably go one way or the other?

  2. #2
    Member olstyn's Avatar
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    First off, is there some reason this is important? It seems like a nearly purely academic question on the face of it.

    Second, there are quite a lot of different decocker mechanisms which are slide mounted, and I imagine that all of them work differently from each other, so there is probably no universal answer.

    For example, my Walther P99 and P99c have a slide-mounted decocker which acts by placing a portion of itself in front of a lug on the upper side of the striker in order to prevent the striker from traveling forward far enough to strike the primer while also tripping the sear to release the striker. (There is also a spring-loaded plunger-based striker block actuated by the trigger bar similar to a Glock.) I'm not sure how those pieces interact with the slide back. My *guess* is that if you were to simultaneously release the slide and the decocker button, the fact that the slide is heavy and the decocker button is light would mean that the decocker would be disengaged long before the slide moved in any significant way, leading to the pistol being cocked afterward. Next time I have occasion to handle one of them unloaded, I'll have to take a careful look at it moving the pieces slowly and carefully in order to attempt to understand it better.

    I would be VERY surprised if that system isn't fundamentally and completely different from what exists in a Beretta 92 or an HK USP or any other DA/SA/decocker gun.

  3. #3
    I probably made this confusing by making the question too broad, so let's stick to the Beretta style then. If I overhand the slide on my 92fs, I have a hard time not engaging the safety. If I converted it to a G (decocker, no safety), I want to know if this would result in decocking it after racking it. While that is a better result than the gun being on safe when I don't want it to be, I personally would find it kind of disorienting if it's in double action after I just cycled the action.
    Last edited by GlockenSpiel; 10-08-2020 at 08:38 PM.

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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by GlockenSpiel View Post
    I probably made this confusing by making the question too broad, so let's stick to the Beretta style then. If I overhand the slide on my 92fs, I have a hard time not engaging the safety. If I converted it to a G (decocker, no safety), I want to know if this would result in decocking it after racking it. While that is a better result than the gun being on safe when I don't want it to be, I personally would find it kind of disorienting if it's in double action after I just cycled the action.
    The G conversion is supposed to eliminate the issue with the gun being on-safe when you didn’t mean for it to be, and because the decocker pops back up as soon as you don’t have pressure on it, it *should* go back into battery normally, with the hammer cocked.

    My 2 remaining 3rd gen S&W and Beretta 92 are not set up as decock only, but I also usually use the slide release when reloading them, as I do with every semiauto I am currently in possession of.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Duelist View Post
    The G conversion is supposed to eliminate the issue with the gun being on-safe when you didn’t mean for it to be, and because the decocker pops back up as soon as you don’t have pressure on it, it *should* go back into battery normally, with the hammer cocked.

    My 2 remaining 3rd gen S&W and Beretta 92 are not set up as decock only, but I also usually use the slide release when reloading them, as I do with every semiauto I am currently in possession of.
    That does make sense, as (as I understand it) the decocker pushes the sear down to drop the hammer, which can only happen when the slide is almost back in battery. It does seem more likely that the decocker would flip back up enough to avoid that before the slide returns all the way forward.

  7. #7
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    I think it will. Half way back up will be same as all the way up because the lever will keep traveling in its upward arc. I have played with Beretta variations since before the brand was adopted and that includes the one mentioned here. I don't see your concern being something to worry about.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by GlockenSpiel View Post
    That does make sense, as (as I understand it) the decocker pushes the sear down to drop the hammer, which can only happen when the slide is almost back in battery. It does seem more likely that the decocker would flip back up enough to avoid that before the slide returns all the way forward.
    Yes, it will. Pistol will be in SA mode when slide returns to battery

  9. #9
    I just pulled my 92g out of my desk drawer to test this. I purposely moved the levers to full decock position and kept them there while pulling the slide back til it stopped. Then I let go of the slide. The gun ends up in SA mode. Since there was a full mag in the gun it is in SA mode and there is a round in the chamber. This is exactly the reason why, after buying an ex police 92f 20+ years ago and occasionally finding it in safe when I didn't want it to be, all our other 92s since have been Gs. Edit to ad; Between now and when you are ready to install a G kit, save a clear plastic bag from the drycleaners. Take the old safety out while it's in the bag. This way the little springs and plungers that fly out will be contained. Gather all the old parts up and put them somewhere away so you don't inadvertently mix them up w/ the new parts. The kit comes w/ a double set of the new springs and plungers just in case you launch one.

  10. #10
    Excellent, thanks everyone.

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