Hi, guys,
I finally got to the range to try my new H&K P7M8, ex-German police. I have fired one before, but not as extensively. It has some good features, but I can't imagine any police force adopting it. I am sure it is somewhat related to training, but that squeeze cocking is absolute hell for the first round. After that, the front mounted lever requires very little force to hold in, but I wonder if the designer ever heard that the first shot is the most important one. Incredibly, the New Jersey State Police used them for several years; that should have made the crooks feel safe.
It has a couple of neat features, like the cocking lever serving to release the slide after inserting a fresh magazine. There is no external slide stop. The gun is striker fired, like the Glock, but the trigger pull is (IMHO) a lot shorter and better than the Glock. The sights are excellent, and the pistol sits well in the hand.
H&K did the gas retarded blowback business right, with two ports at the front of the chamber exiting into a cylinder below the barrel, plus a fluted chamber. The piston is attached to the slide, so gas impinging on the piston pushes the slide forward while the gas pressure in the chamber is trying to push it back. Other systems using the same idea have been less successful, the late unlamented Rogak being the worst. The cartridges showed no sign of damage or scoring as in some other guns with fluted chambers.
One problem, which might somehow have been my inexperience, was that in firing one box of ammo, the pistol would suddenly change, in the middle of a magazine, from an easy hold in on the lever to the full tension. That was disconcerting and could have been fatal in a gunfight. In examining the gun later, I could find no way that the pistol could have fired and loaded a fresh round without fully cocking, but that appears to have been what was happening. It happened at least once in every magazine, and only with that one box; three other boxes of another brand worked fine.
My evaluation: A nice collector's piece, but forget about it for a carry gun unless you win bets by crushing engine blocks with your shooting hand!
Jim
I finally got to the range to try my new H&K P7M8, ex-German police. I have fired one before, but not as extensively. It has some good features, but I can't imagine any police force adopting it. I am sure it is somewhat related to training, but that squeeze cocking is absolute hell for the first round. After that, the front mounted lever requires very little force to hold in, but I wonder if the designer ever heard that the first shot is the most important one. Incredibly, the New Jersey State Police used them for several years; that should have made the crooks feel safe.
It has a couple of neat features, like the cocking lever serving to release the slide after inserting a fresh magazine. There is no external slide stop. The gun is striker fired, like the Glock, but the trigger pull is (IMHO) a lot shorter and better than the Glock. The sights are excellent, and the pistol sits well in the hand.
H&K did the gas retarded blowback business right, with two ports at the front of the chamber exiting into a cylinder below the barrel, plus a fluted chamber. The piston is attached to the slide, so gas impinging on the piston pushes the slide forward while the gas pressure in the chamber is trying to push it back. Other systems using the same idea have been less successful, the late unlamented Rogak being the worst. The cartridges showed no sign of damage or scoring as in some other guns with fluted chambers.
One problem, which might somehow have been my inexperience, was that in firing one box of ammo, the pistol would suddenly change, in the middle of a magazine, from an easy hold in on the lever to the full tension. That was disconcerting and could have been fatal in a gunfight. In examining the gun later, I could find no way that the pistol could have fired and loaded a fresh round without fully cocking, but that appears to have been what was happening. It happened at least once in every magazine, and only with that one box; three other boxes of another brand worked fine.
My evaluation: A nice collector's piece, but forget about it for a carry gun unless you win bets by crushing engine blocks with your shooting hand!
Jim
