P64

[Chase.]

Hi,

I just bought a p64, $220 out the door. It has difficulty firing DA, only some ammo brands work DA, some need a double strike, some don't work.

I really like the gun otherwise.

Should I return it and buy a PPK (more expensive) or Bersa .380?

...Or just learn to live with it...

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[dwhite]

P64's are known for their heavy double action trigger pull. There are spring kits you can buy to help reduce it.

When you got it home did you field strip and degrease it? Might have grease from packaging in the firing pin channel. Check it out.

Gun-Scrubber is good stuff. So is NON_CHLORINATED brake cleaner from the auto parts store.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Guy de Loimbard]

What do you mean by difficulty firing DA?

The DA trigger pull should be at least 20lb, if it has not been modified. I think mine is 22.

I would tear the slide apart and look for crud in the firing pin hole, and/or broken parts. Maybe something is wedged in there.

 

[macadore]

I have had one for several years and never needed a double strike. I have been shooting Brown Bear. I agree with dwhite. If that's not the problem try different ammo.

 

[gearhead]

Was it bought as a surplus gun or was it bought from an individual or as a used gun from a pawn shop? If it was bought used I'll bet someone tried to lighten the trigger pull by just cutting coils from the hammer spring and got it too light to be reliable. If you can pull the trigger in DA without wishing for a second finger on the trigger it's been lightened.

 

[GLOOB]

^ This is my guess.

I don't know of any place to buy a new mainspring. But FYI, you can convert a P64 to SA, only, fairly easily. All it takes is some cutting on the disconnector. Those are in good supply for 15 bucks or so a pop, if you're interested in doing a conversion. All ya gotta do is look where the decocker pushes on the disconnector in order to drop the hammer, and remove that part.

IMO, this makes the gun safer from AD's, if not ND's. The fault of this gun is that it's not dropsafe with the hammer down and the safety off. If you're gonna have the safety on, it might as well be cocked, IMO. And if you're gonna have a decocker, it better be safe when decocked. The manual safety is the only thing blocking the firing pin, and when the hammer is decocked it's resting on a notch away from the firing pin. A hard blow to the back can break the notch and fire the round.

My friend had a Bersa. I shot and handled it quite a bit. It's a great gun, very light, and easy to shoot. But it doesn't CC as well as a P64. The P64 is a lot thinner through the grips and some bit shorter.

 

[macadore]

^ This is my guess.

I don't know of any place to buy a new mainspring. But FYI, you can convert a P64 to SA, only, fairly easily. All it takes is some cutting on the disconnector. Those are in good supply for 15 bucks or so a pop, if you're interested in doing a conversion. All ya gotta do is look where the decocker pushes on the disconnector in order to drop the hammer, and remove that part.

IMO, this makes the gun safer from AD's, if not ND's. The fault of this gun is that it's not dropsafe with the hammer down and the safety off. If you're gonna have the safety on, it might as well be cocked, IMO. And if you're gonna have a decocker, it better be safe when decocked. The manual safety is the only thing blocking the firing pin, and when the hammer is decocked it's resting on a notch away from the firing pin. A hard blow to the back can break the notch and fire the round.

My friend had a Bersa. I shot and handled it quite a bit. It's a great gun, very light, and easy to shoot. But it doesn't CC as well as a P64. The P64 is a lot thinner through the grips and some bit shorter.

Not sure what you mean by mainspring, but you can get hammer springs here. http://www.gunsprings.com/index.cfm?page=items&cID=1&mID=49

 

[GLOOB]

Mainspring = hammer spring. Cool. I didn't know Wolff carried them. But the springs that are most likely to break on you, IME, are the trigger and firing pin springs. Too bad they don't carry those. At least the trigger spring on the P64 is a simple coil. They're easy to make, yourself.

 

[Robbins290]

Here is a website just for the p64. I would try the forum there. I ordered springs from there before, good website.

http://www.p64resource.com/

 

[Chase.]

To clarify, the hammer just clicks DA. It's as though it is not striking the primer, or not striking it hard enough to fire. I'm not sure how to check which, safely.

The double action is not too heavy, empirically, perhaps I should get a gauge to check the weight.

The ammo I was using is: Lellier & Bellot.

I had the gun smith at the store look at it. He said the spring did not look cut... although I didn't think to ask if it was a replacement spring. The gunsmith tried some milsurp laquer cased ammo. He said the milsurp worked fine DA... but I haven't seen it. I don't completely trust what he is saying though, he refused to check the gun with my ammo (purchased from the store) and he was trying to sell me the gun. What he says, though, sounds completely true.. and I'd like to believe him.

The hammer doesn't seem to go back as far DA as SA. Is this normal? I've shot a lot of semi-autos, but this is the first one I have owned.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[GLOOB]

With most DA/SA guns, the DA will drop the hammer slightly sooner, before it has a chance to reach the SA sear notch. It's not uncommon to notice light strikes in DA that do not occur in SA.

If you didn't notice the trigger pull to be particularly heavy, then your gun is probably not stock - or the DA sear notch is releasing too early. Or you have some strong and calloused fingers. For me, it was painful to the dryfire the gun DA more than a couple dozen times, at first. The pressure of the trigger rubbing on my finger made it sore. A good many adults can't even fire this gun in DA, at all. The pull weight is around 25 lbs after it's broken in. Out of the box it can be higher than 35.

The DA sear/trigger bar interface on this gun is very, very small. It's a near razor's edge. It is not unheard of for DA mode to fail on this gun. (This is another reason to convert it to SA, IMO, but that's a separate issue. Obviously, you don't want to accept a defective gun from your LGS.)

 

[macadore]

The double action is not too heavy, empirically, perhaps I should get a gauge to check the weight.

Then it's been modified. The P64 has the heaviest DA trigger I have ever experienced.

 

[PabloJ]

Then it's been modified. The P64 has the heaviest DA trigger I have ever experienced.

The best option is to buy late production ones with triangular end of hammer spur that can be pulled back and gun fired SA for first shot. The SA trigger isn't all that bad. The original DA trigger pull is right up there with P-63. Not sure which is worse but both are pretty darn horrible.