Heckler & Koch P7M8 - some new pics I took
- Thread starter ghostie
- Start date
HK P7 is one of those gun I haven't owned yet but interested in. If they (PSP model) was the same price as it is in the states ($700) I'd probably buy it but $1200-1300 is a bit more than what I like to spend on an essentially used gun.
lineofsight
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Lower Mainland, BC
Nice photos. How about one with the removal of the firing pin bushing / assembly, very slick.
Restricted. That fixed barrel (and low trigger weight) also help a lot with accuracy.
I thought this might be kind of interesting to compare the "internals" of the P7M8 with the P7 PSP. Not surprisingly, they are very much the same! The mag releases are the main difference in these photos, but also the oversize trigger guard and heat shield of the P7M8. Interestingly, I just noticed through this experiment that there is more metal in the left side of the PSP frame. While I have never fired a P7 with the "wrong" slide on it (no need to risk anything and venture into realms I don't fully understand) it is my understanding that the slide assemblies of the P7 PSP, P7M8 and P7M13 are all interchangeable. The P7M8 and P7M13 in particular, the slide assemblies appear identical to me. The main difference in the slide assemblies is, of course, that you can take out the firing pin assembly without tools on the P7M8/P7M13, and you need the little fork tool to take it out on a PSP.
P7M8:
P7 PSP:
P7M8:
P7 PSP:
Here's the firing pin assembly someone was asking about (this is from a P7 PSP):
And here is a few more P7 shots for all you guys who (like me) love these little pistols:
German police duty holster cira 1980s:
"Action" shot in winter:
P7M13:
On the range with a P9S:
Total classics:
Oh man... Armtac Chris... please come back from Shot and give me my Belgian Police P7M13 I bought from you guys. I need another fix of P7!!
P7M8:
P7 PSP:
P7M8:
P7 PSP:
Here's the firing pin assembly someone was asking about (this is from a P7 PSP):
And here is a few more P7 shots for all you guys who (like me) love these little pistols:
German police duty holster cira 1980s:
"Action" shot in winter:
P7M13:
On the range with a P9S:
Total classics:
Oh man... Armtac Chris... please come back from Shot and give me my Belgian Police P7M13 I bought from you guys. I need another fix of P7!!
No kidding. Mine has come up with a few weird faults. Latest one is that the slide won't release from lockback when the squeeze cocker is engaged. Otherwise it works fine.
The only think I can think of there is a cleaning issue. I had this with my P7M13 awhile ago, as I was shooting it a lot and not cleaning it as much as I should have. The "snap back" (into battery) was being delayed by a fraction of a second. Then it got to the point that you could "lock" the slide back without the slide stop being engaged (so of course squeezing it makes no difference). But that was just crud built up in the "gas tube" or whatever you call it (piston channel?). I know it sounds dumb not to clean this, but since I cleaned that up it has worked perfectly. So I plan to just make sure I clean it regularly. The piston will actually get stuck in the crud build up in the channel when the slide is retracted all the way. This is after about ~1,500-2,000 rounds without cleaning. Sacrilege to not clean these pieces of art, but I was busy this winter
For all their good points, they are not GLOCKs that don't need to be cleaned. (I'm not giving you advice here. I'm sure you know all this. This is just a little anecdote I'm relaying for the board).If it is not the piston channel, it has to be something in the squeeze-cocker or slide stop, or how they interact. You can get an armorer's manual online. If it hasn't been detail stripped, I would definitely put my money on cleaning though.
My understanding is that the 9mm Luger cartridge is too strong for a straight blow-back design like you see on .380 pistols and smaller. That's why HK and Steyr developed the "gas retarded" (or gas delayed, gas break, etc.) blowback system for the P7 and GB pistols respectively. Both the P7 and the GB are out of production, so I don't know what that says about the popularity of the design. They cost more to produce. That probably explains most of it.
The only other one I've heard of use the gas delayed system was something Marstar used to bring in from Norinco.
There is also the "roller delayed blowback" P9S from HK (long since out of production). Not exactly a fixed barrel, but way less movement in the barrel than on a "Browning"-type of system.
Luger? Fixed barrel, but total apples and oranges, as they don't even have a slide.
Here are some more P7 pics I haven't gotten around to posting.
P7M13:
P7M13 firing Cor-Bon 124gr.+P:
Comparison of the P7M13 and P7M8 mags. The mags are a real work of engineering on the P7M13. They seem really tough too.
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In answer to "prproulx", there are other fixed barrel blowbacks, but they're not common. The Spanish Astra Model 1921 used a really stiff recoil spring. The Benelli B76 uses an odd sort of delayed blowback with a rigid barrel and is very accurate. There were also the Spanish Jo-Lo-Ar and the French Armee Modele. And there are others. All of the guns firing 9mm Para or similar ammunition use something to delay opening the action, whether it's the recoil spring or a gas piston or some other device. But those guns with barrels that don't move are real delights to shoot. The sad thing is that none of these is in production any more.
