Posted on 04/17/2010 5:48:48 AM PDT by marktwain
Washington, DC – -(AmmoLand.com)- When the private ownership of handguns was banned in the UK in the late 1990s, a friend of mine, who also just happens to be a lawyer, paid me a visit. He arrived with more than his holiday clothing; he also came with a couple of boxes of handguns.
“Take these and hold on to them,” he said to me. “They’re claiming political asylum.” The boxes contained all of his handgun collection, and he left them with me with strict instructions not to sell them unless he gave permission.
If he had left the guns in England, he would have been forced to hand them in to the police, and he would eventually have been paid the full market price for them. He preferred, however, to bring them to the Land of the Free, where they would be guaranteed to have a good home, and could be kept well-fed with the best ammo.
As an aside to this, the police in the UK were also taking in holsters, magazine pouches, and every other type of shooting accessory, so he and most of the shooting fraternity there were handing in tattered old holsters, of a type that couldn’t even be sold for ninety-nine cents in this country, and receiving the full retail value for them. Many shooters who were resentful of the government’s decision to ban handguns made quite a bit of money out of this!
That was over ten years ago, and the handguns have languished in my safe ever since then, with only a rare outing. However, I recently saw in the USCCA forum a letter from someone who was asking if an ex-police 9mm HK P7 M8 PSP (Police Service Pistol, or, as it’s called by its owners, the ‘pneumatic squeeze pistol’) would be a worthwhile buy. That letter made me think, so I went to the safe and took out one of the pistols my lawyer friend (known to all his friends as ‘Shyster’) had left with me.
It was a Heckler & Koch P7 M13, the high-capacity version of the M8. It had been given a coating of electroless nickel, and had been fitted with a set of Tritium night sights. There were three 13-round magazines with it, so I decided to see just how well it would perform at my local range, the Scottsdale Gun Club.
Before taking it to the range, I stripped it and made sure that everything was clean and lightly oiled, and then did a few dry fire exercises. To prepare the M13 for firing, the grip has to be squeezed, which takes about ten pounds of pressure. However, once it is cocked, the firing pin indicator protrudes from the rear of the frame, and only about three pounds of pressure is needed to keep it cocked. In fact, the grip can be kept depressed by the pressure of just one finger. If you decide not to shoot, simply release your grip, and the gun is immediately on safe.
The trigger is a dream: light, yet positive in its action. This particular model’s trigger broke at around three pounds pressure. A trigger stop had been fitted to stop any over-travel, and this worked perfectly, allowing me to keep a quarter balanced on the front sight while I pressed the trigger.
At the range, I loaded the magazines with a mixture of rounds which included military hardball and a variety of hollow point rounds. I even loaded one magazine with alternating hardball and hollow point, throwing in a couple of old handloads just to see if the M13 would digest them. I needn’t have worried. The slide strips rounds from the magazine at a perfect feeding angle, almost in a straight line from magazine to feed ramp, and the M13 fired everything without missing a beat.
Next, I rolled a combat target out to ten yards, and fired a few double taps. The necessity to keep the grip squeezed seemed to make my shooting better than it normally is, because the bullet holes were far closer together than when I shoot my P35 Browning.
The 4-inch barrel of the M13 is fixed to the frame, which gives it far greater inherent accuracy than could be had from a pistol with a Browning or SIG-style barrel linkage. At twenty five yards, I had no difficulty in keeping my shots in the ten ring of the target, with just under half of them blowing out the center ‘X’.
The first models of the P7 had a European-style magazine release, in the heel of the pistol’s butt. Later models, designed with the US market in mind, were fitted with an excellent ambidextrous release using a small paddle on each side of the rear of the trigger guard. This was simple to use, and magazines were ejected all the way, every time.
The M13 is certainly no handgun for anyone with small hands. Because of the heavy-duty recoil spring, people with not much in the way of upper body strength will find pulling back the slide a little difficult. There is no slide lock on the pistol, so if the slide is locked back, the grip must be squeezed to release it.
Like German cars, the HK P7 M13 does perhaps suffer from a little Teutonic over-engineering, but at the same time, the M13 does stand as a monument to ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’ — ‘Progress through technology’. It’s well made, it’s a jewel of engineering, and if you are lucky enough to own one — hang on to it, as prices are rapidly rising.
Now … how can I persuade the Shyster to sell me his M13?
Rules
—I’m curious as to how the guns were transported here-
>> —I’m curious as to how the guns were transported here-
Not sure it was a big deal, prior to 9/11.
Remember when you could check locked baggage and if anyone wanted to look in it they’d have to ask you for the key?
Let's not talk about such terrible experiences. The important thing is that they are safe now.
Is this the confession of a crime that could be used against him in court?
I know there are rules for importation of firearms in commerce, but I don’t know about personnel, non-commercial transfers.
If that's the case, wouldn't it be safer simply to lay your index finger alongside the trigger guard instead of wrapping it around the front?
If you comply with the FAA's rules, you can transport firearms in checked baggage, at least within the US.
My memory of the rules:
I shoot Cowboy Action Shooting with a local club. 3 guys here who are like the 3 amigos are from Europe 1 Scott, 1 Englishman and 1 Pole. they set up matches and shoot together under what they laughingly call themselves ‘Eurotrash’.
These guys really appreciate what it means to be free in America. Something 52% of the voting public did not know back in the 08 election.
Wonder how they perform after 10 years...
What's the half life of tritium anyway? (he wondered, wonderingly, which prompted him to do a google search that turned up a figure of 12.32 years)...
The P7 confuses me.
Do you have to release and squeeze between each shot or just continue squeezing?
I’ve been under the impression that you have to release/squeeze each shot.
When you pick the gun up, hold and sqeeze. This is what cocks the gun. Squeezing the it also serves as the slide release. Once you release the sqeeze cock, the firing mechanism is disengaged. So, you have to keep tension on the sqeeze cock as long as you want to keep firing.
I have one and love it.
>> There are TSA-approved locks, which have an override that only TSA is supposed to have. So, you can put that lock on the outside of the bag.
HA HA HA!
Yes, there are. Have you ever seen or used them? They are the cheesiest pieces o’ s___ you’ll ever see.
And, anyway, in a situation where you have lazy TSA who don’t feel like hunting around for the key, they just CUT THEM OFF anyway.
“TSA APproved” locks are WORTHLESS. Yet another abuse perpetrated on law abiding citizens by our arrogant Homeland Security agency.
The man brought the guns here for a hunting trip and then simple forgot to pack them for his return trip! ;-)
No, you just squeeze the front strap once then it just takes a half pound of pressure to keep it down and it is just a single action semi auto at that point. I sold my M8
Cool gun! I wonder what its auction value is?
Remember watching on TV during Katrina. A little old lady was forced to hand over her gun to the police officers.
They were rough with her.
At least a large part of America has smartened up and respects the second amendment.
We need that amendment now more than ever, to protect us from our government.
I hope they pass a Firearms Freedom Act here; similar to the one NH proposed where any fed agent or fed contractor that tries to enforce fed gun laws concerning weapons manufactured in state.... is guilty of a Class B Felony! And, I would like it if they would include in state manufactured full-autos as weapons not applicable to fed law.
A Castle Doctrine law would be nice too.
One step at a time though.
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