Half-cock on a Beretta 92FS

[doctorj]

What is the use of the half-cock position of the Beretta 92 hammer? It's billed as a safety device, but if the trigger isn't fully pulled the firing pin will be restrained by a passive firing pin block, no? And the manual says the weapon will fire from half-cock anyway.

 

[Handy]

Half cock is a safety device for use when the hammer is lowered manually. Doing so bypasses the pin block. It's just there in case you slip, not for carry.

 

[Kilroy]

Also, some LEO agencies that I am familiar with use it thusly...

After holstering, the hammer is cocked to half cock so as to create more resistance to the safety levers so they won't, at least not so often, get moved to the dis-able position. This keeps the pistol from being in the "not usable" mode if drawn in a hurry.

 

[berettaman]

It's just another layer of safety added to an already safe gun.Carrying at half cock is not recomended as it adds added wear to the hammer notch and in time can reduce the effectivness of this safety feature.Lots of people use it to stage the trigger to reduce the long trigger pull.I've found that it may help in this reguard but then I have the trigger travel issue to deal with before it engauges.