Cz 75B compact carry on half-cock ok?

Walt Sherrill said:

Accidents while manually decocking a gun almost never happen, because people doing it practice it with an empty gun and learn to do it well before really trying to do it with a loaded gun. (And keeping the gun pointed down range or at the ground in front of you as you decock also makes the likelihood of harm even less likely

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But they do happen, no matter how many hundred times you do it the "right" way.

I'm living proof, luckily as you noted the gun was pointed in a safe direction and nothing was hurt but my pride (and floor).

I'll personally never decock a semi auto without a decocker over a live round again.

My Vaqueros? Sure, outside pointed down range with that huge spur hammer, even then I'm extra, extra, careful.

Negligent discharges CAN happen while decocking, but the two negligent discharges I've been guilty of had nothing to do with decocking. (Both were with guns with magazines removed that were empty.. Or so I thought.) The first one was many year ago, and I thought I had learned a lesson. The other one was a few years ago. Same issue. No excuse. Just dumb. But the gun was pointed in a safe direction and there was nobody nearby who could have been hurt.

Have you had a ND with your Vaqueros? If you had one with your semi-auto, you obviously didn't have a finger between the hammer and slide when you decocked, or didn't hold the hammer with the other hand as it was lowered. The fact that it was pointed in a safe direction removed the risk of harm to anyone else . If you have a ND while decocking a weapon, it can be an embarrassing event, but that's about the worst thing that will happen.

Fear of somebody being hurt seems to be the main reason so many individuals are wary of manually decocking a handgun. But many of them are new to handguns and are also uncomfortable handling a loaded weapon. I guess that's probably good.

The next time you go to an indoor range, check the walls and ceilings. You'll seen many more signs of negligent discharges there than you'll see when looking at the floors. I don't think that most of those marks and holes were decocking accidents. I think they were people doing things they ought not be doing (like practicing presentations, if it is allowed at the range.). The stuff that led to those many bullet holes or marks were probably far more dangerous than a decocking accident, but nobody ever mentions that sort of negligent discharge.

I haven't shot IDPA for a number of years, but for 5-6 years I was one of the safety officers at our local club matches. Except for the guys shooting Glocks, most of the guns had to be decocked before starting a new string. A lot of 1911s, and few CZs (a few with safeties and one or two with decockers), and a few SIGs that had decockers and a couple of revolvers..

Never observed a negligent discharge while someone was decocking in all of those IDPA matches over the years. Could it happen? Yes. But I'm pretty sure that nobody'll be hurt.

Walt Sherrill said:

Have you had a ND with your Vaqueros? If you had one with your semi-auto, you obviously didn't have a finger between the hammer and slide when you decocked, or didn't hold the hammer with the other hand as it was lowered.

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Vaqueros? No. BUT, I didn't own them until after I had my ND so there certainly have been changes to my handling since. Namely, I don't pull the hammer back on the SAA style unless I intend to fire, so decocking is less of an issue.

As for the auto (in this case it was a 1911 that I used to store in the bedside safe hammer down, but it could have happened to the CZ 75 I had at the time just as easy). I can't actually recall exactly how it happened, it's all muddled in the event. Best I can tell I just have moved my thumb covering the firing pin in a sympathetic movement when my thumb slipped off the hammer, or something.

Normally it was thumb over the pin as I release the hammer, then finger off the trigger as I slowly lowered the hammer. How I screwed it up so bad that one time, as I said, I just don't know. Another lession was post cleaning, make sure to fully dry oily hands prior to administrative handling.

FWIW when I owned a CZ75B I lowered the hammer by putting a small screwdriver through the ring on the hammer then using it as a handle. It was a bit of a PITA but the odds of the hammer slipping out of my fingers were just about nil.

Deanimator said:

I just didn't see the benefit in practice. Of course if I bought one, it'd be converted to single action before it fired a shot.

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What you say?

Got a couple years EDC firearm is a CZSP01 tactical decocker with cajun gun works pro carry package.

Carry it on half cock which is where the decocker sets it.

Deanimator said:

I just didn't see the benefit in practice. Of course if I bought one, it'd be converted to single action before it fired a shot.

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Some years ago, the senior gunsmith at CZ-USA told me the process of converting a decocker model to single or double action, which requires a number of new parts -- including a new hammer, a new safety lever and possibly a new trigger (installing one adjustable for overtravel and takeup) is not cheap and may not be something that most owners could do by themselves. While most of the parts are the same, there were apparently some subtle differences (like the detent for the safety lever) that made the conversion almost impossible if you started with a decocker model. (Omega models might be simpler and more easily done.) Perhaps CZ has changed the design slightly since then.

Just the cost of parts could be quite expensive.