-----Original Message----- From: owner-cypherpunks@lne.com [mailto:owner-cypherpunks@lne.com]On Behalf Of Matthew Gaylor Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2001 11:12 PM To: Tim May Cc: cypherpunks@lne.com Subject: Re: Choices of small handguns
Mr. May indicates:
* H&K P7, the famous "squeeze-cocker." I had wanted one of these since reading about them in 1980, so when H&K was selling a bunch of reworked and remarket P7s at a good price ($550 or so), I bought one. Very elegant, very unusual. Mine is in 9mm. Very safe, but takes a bit of getting used to.
Click, clack is how I describe the P7. I wouldn't want to reveal my position to say a burglar with such a pistol- Any of the other pistols mentioned along with other conventional DA/SA pistols seem to be a better choice.
Not that this has even a touch of relevance to cp's but- I refuse to use anything else. Ancient German P7 secret: You can decock the pistol silently by disengaging the squeeze cock mechanism under the trigger guard and flush with the depressed squeeze-cocker with the thumb on your free hand and slowly releasing pressure on the cocker. It's pretty easy to engage the cocker silently as well, but why bother? I consider it like a set trigger. It only gets cocked when the target is acquired, identified and in the sights anyhow. If you really need that first shot to be deadly quiet you can hold the trigger down while you prowl and use the squeeze cocker as the trigger instead. (Sort of like a Steyr SSG set trigger). They are interchangeable. You can pound them to death and they deliver first shot accuracy every time. I put my first one literally through the wringer as a tester before buying my second. I doubt my torture testing was as official as the series done on the p7s by the German army, (which includes an encounter with an APC) but I was awfully satisfied. They chew up +P+ ammo with ease. They are one of the few well manufactured pistols that have properly balanced tolerances with a fixed barrel and still aren't subject to a lot of jamming or ammo pickiness. It loves being dirty and will shoot on and on regardless of what its been through. (Fluted chamber helps here). Combined with good ammo, like say Golden Saber, the gun, if not the user, will outshoot about anything that isn't designed specifically for competition (i.e. impractical for real use). More importantly it is simply the fastest, most accurate handgun from draw to target to fire that I've ever used. Best concealed carry around, in my view. Like I said, I don't bother with anything else anymore.