Its abundantly clear that as times have changed, so have firearm preferences. This year saw the adoption of the Sig P320 as the next US Military sidearm, ending a 116 year period of using hammer fired sidearms as the “official” sidearm. I’m not much one for nostalgia, but I do find the trend interesting. It’s clear that the market demand for striker fired guns is at an all time high, with CZ, Beretta and FN introducing new models in the past 6 months alone. We also have Sig, Walther, HK, Canik, Steyr, Ruger, Remington, (insert favorite brand here) that have all introduced their ideal version of the “Glock killer” striker fired handgun.
I’m curious how many of you in here still carry and prefer to shoot hammer fired guns? I’m not limiting this to one category; it could be a 1911, a DA/SA (any brand), HK LEM, whatever. If you do carry a hammer fired gun, regardless of what it is, I’d be curious to hear your specific reasons why.
On the same token, if you carry a striker fired gun, regardless of brand, I’d also like to hear why as opposed to a DA/SA or 1911. I’d like to leave “fanboy-ism” out of this thread if possible.
If all you’ve ever shot is striker fired guns and have never tried a hammer fired gun please post up as well.
I personally grew up shooting Glocks, and I began seriously training about 4 years ago. I dipped my feet into DA/SA Berettas, and now they are my primary carry. I still own Glocks, but prefer a hammer gun for day-to-day carry and competitive shooting. I like the extra safety margin I have with the long DA first shot, and I like how every shot after that is a nice, crisp SA break. I like thumbing the hammer as I reholster (I carry appendix). I incorporate the press-out into my draw and like that I can be more aggressive with my DA first shot as I have a longer trigger travel, as opposed to a striker fired gun. Those are my reasons and I’d like to hear yours.
^ This pretty much sums up my thought process as well.
Cocked and locked 1911 style may be safe enough, but requires manually flipping off the safety, something that could be screwed up in a panic situation. (even though men that carry .45 don’t panic)
Striker fired is ready to go and even a t-shirt getting caught in the trigger can result in the loss of your favorite parts when carrying AIWB.
DA/SA strikes a nice balance of no external safety to manipulate and long first trigger pull from a decocked hammer.
Thumbing the hammer makes it impossible to fire.
The combination is very safe, yet very easy to deploy.
You didn’t put up the option for a mix of carry so I selected “Yes” because I carry a hammer fired pistol along with striker fired from time to time. I have a blend of Sig/1911/G19 in rotation and really feel that I am confident with each firearm in any situation. For a while all I carried was the G19, but I am more accurate with my 1911s and the decision to rotate them back in was made.
I started shooting with DA/SA Rugers, got 1911, then moved into the striker-fired world and mostly shot Glocks for 5-6 years. I am now moving back to DA/SA for exactly the reasons underlined. Also, I hate plastic triggers, and only a few striker-fired guns have metal triggers.
Although plenty of DA/SA guns have terrible DA pulls, a good selection have very good to excellent pulls. In my experience the discontinued Ruger P-series have really great DA pulls. The CZ-75, quality clones, and Beretta 92 all seem to have very good DA pulls as well. I’m not entirely a fan of how the CZ-75 doesn’t have the hammer fully down when decocked using the lever (on my CZ-75BD or a P-07); I prefer the hammer fully down so it can’t snag or get something wedged between hammer and firing pin.
There is more to trigger pull than just the weight to break. The smoothness of pull, friction and bumps or lack thereof, trigger shape and stiffness all seem to matter for accurate shooting. I hated the flimsy hinged trigger on a M&P even though its pull weight wasn’t too heavy.
I like 1911s for range use but prefer not to carry cocked and locked or to worry about the grip safety, and I’ve finally fully rejected chamber-empty carry for all the obvious reasons.
I don’t think it really matters if you commit to training and proficiency.
On a commercial side, obviously Glock’s success is something many companies want to tap into so they intro their own competing products to siphon off Glock sales.
I’m sure the simplified manufacturing and new mags or increased demand for existing mags with new striker pistols increases company margins as well.
Personally I happen to like CZ DA/SA pistols and largely don’t give much thought to the striker or hammer debate.
I was introduced to shooting in Law Enforcement and my first pistol was a Glock 31. Since then I’ve been able to shoot Sigs, 1911s, and a few other manufacturers’ guns. I appreciate them all for different reasons, but I still run a Glock 17. I must be the rare human they designed the Glock grip for, because it suits me perfect finger grooves and all. I’ll probably run a Glock 17 with talon grips and Warren Tactical fiber optic sights until laser guns are a thing. I prefer the consistent trigger pull and the simplicity of it. I run my concealed carry at 4 o’clock. I can understand why appendix carriers would want to run a DA/SA gun, although I think striker fired guns are fine in that position too with due diligence from the shooter.
I voted yes even though I really dont carry a hammered gun very often. Not because I think my Glock is better, but more that my Glock is my duty gun and if I shoot someone off duty with it (as long as it’s a good shoot) I will be covered by the department. Hell I just picked up a H&K USP9 Compact today.
The 'ol P226 probably won’t ever fall out of favor with me, but I do like the G19. Picked one up last year, fed it all kinds of ammo eats it all just like my Sig which is great. I don’t recognize any benefit over my Sig simply b/c of muscle memory at this point ~ 25 years. I think if I used the G19 for as long as the Sig it very well could become my go to. I didn’t buy the Glock b/c I have any reservations with my ability to perform with the Sig, but rather b/c of a sweet deal. If I ‘had’ to carry one or the other I’d feel just as confident. Both great handguns.
I started with striker guns. Had some hammer fired along the way, but mostly carried striker. I really started to get into tda guns for carry. I prefer the redundant safety and the smoothness of a good da pull. I have moved to the px4cc and it is awesome. Everything I want in a carry gun it does. I just could not shoot striker guns as well.
I’m the same way. I find the Glock grip, especially the 19 perfect…finger grooves and all.
Started with Ruger P89 in 2001 didn’t know anything about guns. They were all the same to me so I picked one that was priced right. Couldn’t hit shit with it. Today when I pick one up I don’t know how I even bought it. Feels all wrong in the hand and horrible triggers. Anyway, had a bunch of different random guns untill I finally stopped accumulating them and started to get more serious about carrying and shooting. Bought a G19 in 2008 and since then all my striker fired guns have been Glocks. I own a few hammer fired guns but I can’t just go and order one like I would with Glock. They all feel inconsistent to me, even in the same brand. Pick up a dozen different Sigs and one or two will feel smoother and lighter than the rest. Same with CZ and Beretta. For a while I was into 3rd gen S&Ws. Had the 5906, 4566/06, 1006/26. I found them to have the best trigger pull. Despite being rated at 10# they didn’t feel like it. Sold them all eventually. I still have HKs, P2000 40sw LEM, USP9 LEM, and a few other USPs that I’m hoping to turn into LEM. I find them to be the closest to striker fired. I’d really like to find a P2000 9mm in light LEM. And I have an old 226 along with a 2022
Although my preferred sidearm is a 1911 cocked and locked I still edc a striker fired pistol without a safety. Mainly due to one reason that for some reason a lot of people don’t consider. While my wife is a fairly advanced shooter with many training classes and hours behind her (along with many quals with duty gun and level III holster) a thumb safety / decocker just isn’t her thing. Although she carries her own pistol I still want her (or my adult daughter) to be able to use my pistol in the event I’m down and out of the fight. In a stress situation either one of them would be more than able to return fire instantly with a striker fired Glock/M&P/320 etc… Anything with a safety, not so much. The same goes for a DA/SA gun, although again proficient enough with them, the practice of de-cocking is foreign and just not practiced. Now a DAO hammer fired gun could fit the bill if I really wanted to carry a hammer gun.
I carry a 1911 either government or officers size. I shoot them well and have trained a lot with them. I have entertained carrying my G19 off and on for the past several years due to the increased capacity, but I can’t shoot it anywhere near as well as a 1911. I have medium size hands and for the life of me I can’t get my hand comfortable on the grip and always shoot well to the left (6 inches). I have been focusing on training with it more for the past month and plan to continue to do so. I’m also contemplating doing a grip reduction and finger bump removal on it as a last ditch try to get better with it. For me it comes down to having 8+1 rounds that I can hit with vs 15+1 rounds that I can miss with.
I have both and prefer both (Glock, CZ, Sig, HK). I carry my Glocks because I’ve trained with them and am more proficient with them. Going to training later this year and will bring CZ P-07 and will start carrying that depending how I feel with it after the class.
Through my shooting style, plain and simple, I shoot hammer guns better than striker guns. However, I am not a big fan of DA/SA so I always carried/trained with an HK in condition one. That is, until I discovered LEM. To me it’s the best of both worlds: consistent trigger pull every time; no safety to worry about; and hammer fired. Now I carry a P30 and train with a P30L.
I still like condition one type of pistols, though, over striker. One of my current favorites is my 226 SAO. Will hopefully be adding a 226 Legoin SAO one of these days.
I’m the opposite, I prefer trigger press to be consistent, be it DA or SA, but not a fan of DA/SA. I CCWd, competed, etc 1911s for a decade or so, and love the platform, but made the switch to polymer wonder pistol via the M&P with APEX kit, which I suspect was the set up that finally drew more 1911 shooters over to the dark side than any other.