"Clearing" or "showing clear" by dropping the hammer-ok?

[Captain Wheelgun]

In every USPSA match I've been in, the hammer drop after showing clear has always been done with the gun pointed at the backstop, not down at the ground near the feet. This is specified in the rules (USPSA 2010 Handgun rulebook)...

8.3.7 “If Clear, Hammer Down, Holster” – After issuance of this command, the competitor is prohibited from firing (see Rule 10.4.3). While con- tinuing to point the handgun safely downrange, the competitor must perform a final safety check of the handgun as follows:
8.3.7.1 Self-loaders – release the slide and pull the trigger (without touching the hammer or decocker, if any).
8.3.7.2 Revolvers – close the empty cylinder (without touching the hammer, if any).
8.3.7.3 If the gun proves to be clear, the competitor must holster his handgun.
8.3.7.4 If the gun does not prove to be clear, the Range Officer will resume the commands from Rule 8.3.6 (also see Rule 10.4.3).

This said, I certainly do understand JAG's point, and dropping the hammer may not be the best thing to do outside of match rules.

[Netpackrat]

With something like a Glock, if you pull the trigger after checking for clear, then the trigger being in the rearward position is a 100% reliable (barring something like a dud round or a snap cap in the chamber) visual indication that the pistol has an empty chamber.

[308Mike]

The rationale behind it is so the weapon won't be stored with the mainspring/firing pin spring under tension. From that perspective, I guess it makes sense.

That's the idea, but I'm not sure it's valid. I remember back when I went on English gun forums ( and got banned, regularly ) one guy did an interesting experiment where he took a spring powered airgun, cocked it so the spring was under tension and then left it that way for a year. He'd chronoed it beforehand and the results afterwards fell into the exact same spread of velocities. It's not definitive by any stretch of the imagination but from my own experience I don't reckon a well made coil spring will take a permanent set if left compressed.

Maybe the roots of 'easing springs' come from the days when spring making was done by hand and eye, with variable results.

I recall a discussion on this forum a couple of years ago that was about whether magazine springs "took a set" if they were stored for a long time with rounds in them. As I recall, the consensus was that properly manufactured and heat-treated springs would not, and the only way to tell was to stuff the mags with bullets and store them for a while.

From Chris' blog:

Once a good quality spring has taken its initial set, it wont detension merely from being compressed; unless it is over compressed beyond the limits of its set. A properly designed magazine filled to capacity will not cause this over compression; and the spring for that magazine will have been designed to take it’s set to the appropriate length and tension.

What causes detensioning, is either overcompression as mentioned above, or the gradual loss of internal stresses due to working the metal through compression/decompression cycles (work hardening). Generally speaking this takes at least tens of thousands of cycles for even the cheapest of springs, though corrosion and heat cycling can accelerate this process; and poor design and manufacturing almost certainly will.

Springs can be designed with hundreds of millions, or billions, of cycles life expectancy (like valve springs in cars for example). Of course firearms magazine springs aren't nearly as tough as cars valve springs, but it is reasonable to expect that with a properly designed magazine, manufactured to appropriate standards, a magazine spring should last for thousands of cycles.

[NVGdude]

Jag,

I agree with you. I think the pulling the trigger thing is an Army thing as I never experienced it until I was in theater at bases run by the Army.

This. And it makes sense in an Army sort of way. This is because when folks come back after an all-night patrol they tend to be dog-assed tired.

You show clear (shows it's safe)
You drop the hammer in the clearing barrel. (shows it's safe a 2nd time)

It's redundant. That's the point.

And yes, it's a lot of fun when one of your troops is so exhausted he does it in the wrong order and drops 30 rounds into he barrel.

[Yogimus]

That is called "Rack Safe"

[JAG2955]

And yes, it's a lot of fun when one of your troops is so exhausted he does it in the wrong order and drops 30 rounds into he barrel.

Sooo.....in other words, it's a bad idea, assuming he's going to follow the 4 weapons safety rules otherwise.