Where is the drop safety?

Even the LEMs have the firing pin block, ergo, unless the trigger is pulled and held to the rear the firing pin is locked and cannot be driven forward into the firing pin. That is functionally the same as a drop safety.
There are three safeties, the half cock notch the hammer rests in when decocked (that is why you do not lower the hammer by pulling the trigger, that causes the hammer to be lowered past the half-cock notch), the manual safety, and the firing pin block safety. Of course the LEM normally does not have the manual safety or the half cock notch, but since the hammer goes forward between shots, even if for some reason the sear slipped there would not be enough force for the hammer to drive the firing pin into the primer, plus you still have the firing pin block that would prevent the hammer from driving the firing pin into the primer even if it did have enough force.

Good info Big Bore, I've wondered the same thing as the OP.

Thanks

Thanks for chiming in BigBore. Your input is invalueable

The rubberizing of the hammer, which was was changed in the USP series in 95/96 also contributes to drop safety by absorbing impact force.

Big Bore said:

Even the LEMs have the firing pin block, ergo, unless the trigger is pulled and held to the rear the firing pin is locked and cannot be driven forward into the firing pin. That is functionally the same as a drop safety.
There are three safeties, the half cock notch the hammer rests in when decocked (that is why you do not lower the hammer by pulling the trigger, that causes the hammer to be lowered past the half-cock notch), the manual safety, and the firing pin block safety. Of course the LEM normally does not have the manual safety or the half cock notch, but since the hammer goes forward between shots, even if for some reason the sear slipped there would not be enough force for the hammer to drive the firing pin into the primer, plus you still have the firing pin block that would prevent the hammer from driving the firing pin into the primer even if it did have enough force.

Click to expand...

I'm certainly not the most experienced HK guy around, but in all of my LEM pistols (a couple P series LEM from factory and a few converted USPcs) the hammer rests away from the firing pin after the slide has been racked, on the 'catch' I believe? I didn't go pull out my V1 USP to compare but I don't remember changing the catch when doing LEM conversions (thanks again for the great walkthrough post Big Bore). Is there some other half cock notch on the DA/SA pistols I'm blanking on? Really just curious; always like learning more about these weapons.

-424D57

The hammer rests on the catch in LEM and DA modes. The firing pin is blocked by the -- er -- firing pin block.

The catch prevents the hammer from touching the firing pin no matter how hard you strike (or drop) it. The catch is pushed down and out of the way at the end of the trigger stroke at the same time the firing pin block is pushed up and out of the way. You can observe the catch movement with the slide off the pistol.

There is a nearly microscopic half-cock notch on the hammer (I have a V1 hammer sitting here) and it may correspond with where the catch holds the hammer but it's too small for any real safety other than engaging when manually cocking if your thumb slips off. The catch, not the half cock notch is what keeps the hammer back when the pistol is decocked or in LEM.

-- Chuck