Well, after lots of research, I picked up a NIB HK45c V1 and I love this gun. I can see what you guys all rave about. Does anyone know if I switch to the light LEM, can the safety / decock lever be taken out completely? This would allow for an even higher grip for me.
On another non-related note… do the newer HK’s (P30s, HK45s) have a lower bore axis than the Sigs? I was holding a P226 and it SEEMED a lot higher than my HK45c… is this the case? Who generally has a higher bore axis… sig or HK? I’m asking cuz I was told they are about equal… but man the new HKs don’t seem as high to me.
Thats cool. Can I do this mod myself? Or do you guys recommend bringing the gun in to a smith? I really think they lowered the bore axis on these things! Awesome…
I would advise taking it to a smith. I have heard stories from our smith who have brought their HK’s in pieces thinking they could do it based on a Youtube video.
I would say install it yourself. Sorry I don’t like to be dependent on others to complete my projects, I think of it as part of the experience of owning the firearm. The install is super easy - I vote you keep the SA/DA FBS & TRS and install the LEM hammer spring. This will give you an improved break feel when compared to the DA/SA hammer spring. This is due to the long sear engagement surfaces designed in the H&K .45 series pistols; the higher strength LEM hammer spring will allow the surfaces to slip much more deliberately and eliminate any feeling of trigger creep sometimes present in the stock DA/SA trigger.
Agreed. No need to waste money on shipping and installation unless you want the parts polished (also unneeded IMO).
I didn’t watch a YouTube video, I used a step by step with pictures that has been online for a bit.
I am an idiot, and if I can do it (took some yelling, 2 phone calls and 45 minutes), you can.
Having learned this the hard way, I would NOT let him touch my HK handgun. While others may be satisfied, about a year ago, he ruined a bunch of my HK pistols, requiring them to be returned to HK for parts replacement so they would function reliably.
Your LEM trigger will improve with shooting. If I wasn’t inclined to do it myself, and I am not, I would send my 45C back to HK for the LEM installation. Travis and Sam at HK are top notch.
If it is idiot proof, I might try it. I think my major concern would be f’n it up… or doing something to it where it makes it dangerous. Does this mod make a court look at you differently if you were to be convicted?
So as dumb as it sounds, I was still wondering about sig vs HK with the whole bore axis thing… any takers?
it’s not that hard. just read the instructions on hkpro.com and be familiar with the parts and the instructions. I did it in a few hours having never worked on a gun besides the basic maintenance. Just requires patience.
no pics yet! However I shot it tonight…100 rounds… flawless. One thing I did notice as I use a thumbs forward high tang grip… is my left support hand rode the slide release… but the slide release had some play in it. Meaning, if I applied pressure to the slide release, i pushed it in and after every shot it loosened out a bit. Is this normal? Its almost like the slide release lever would come out ever so slightly and my thumb would just press it back in. Just seemed a little loose?
Also, I def want the light LEM. Is there a difference between the German and American one? Also, is the 5.5 lb one the “light LEM”? Here is what I’m about to buy… is this the “light” LEM kit?
I found the LEM conversion on a USP and P2000SK to be a trivial matter, but then again I have a background as an armorer.
Really though all it consists of is drifting a few pins and swapping a few springs and parts. The only thing I have found on HK pistols that can suck is swapping the trigger return spring, which is not required with the simple LEM conversion.
Congrats on the purchase! An HK45C LEM is on my very short list of gun wants at the moment.
Yep - that’s the correct kit. Not sure I’m tracking what you say when you ask if there is “a difference between the German and American one”. Do you mean ‘a difference between the trigger pull weights of the German and American LEM mechanisms’ (is/are there two?), or something else? Or did I somehow miss that there are two alternative kits offered?
At any rate, I just installed this one on my HK45 and, after some knuckle busting, swearing, and an email exchange with a question back to HKParts (answered quickly), it went fine. (By way of background, I am far from a gunsmith or wannabe - my previous experience consisted of field stripping Glocks, Sigs, H&Ks, etc. for cleaning, and building up a few lowers.) I took my time and had multiple copies of the installation instructions open (particularly the parts diagram) in different windows on my laptop for easy reference. I was also extremely careful to lay out the kit parts beforehand, on one end of the table, and to lay out each part taken out of the frame on the other end of the table, so as not to mix & match. There are multiple copies of the instructions available online; the best version I found (clearest text & photos) was here: http://hk.mattvanderhoff.com/html/hkleminstall.html
The toughest step is the swap of the trigger return spring (the smallest spring in the kit parts diagram) with the one in the LEM kit. However, the good news is that you leave the original V1 TRS in place in order to get the “light LEM”, so if that’s the trigger pull you want, then you avoid that set of steps.
ON EDIT: I (of course) ordered the kit for the full size HK45, not the HK45C, but received multiple baggies with multiple parts, in at least one case with what appeared to be duplicate LEM parts. By way of example, I received both the full size and compact size LEM hammer springs, which caused me some confusion at first.