Petrol & Powder
Well-Known Member
I could probably write a college paper on the former West German police pistols of the late 1970’s [P5, P6, P7] but suffice to say I have a strong interest in that segment of firearm’s history. After the terrorist attacks at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the West German government held trials to select a new police pistol. They ended up approving 3 designs that all met the requirements. The Walther P5 and Sig P6 utilized fairly conventional locking systems. The P5 used the same style tilting block as the Walther P-38/P1 and the Sig P6 used a Browning tilting barrel system. However, the H&K designers, true to their exotic engineering tendencies, went with a gas retarded blowback system. But wait………there’s more….
Just in case the locking system wasn’t unusual enough, they tossed in a squeeze cocking mechanism to show off their engineering prowess. The resulting pistol was the most expensive of the three approved types and therefore adopted by the fewest German states. But it was certainly quintessential German in every regard. Lots of engineering (maybe too much), worked beautifully and is well made. It also cost more than its competitors.
The P7 is slim, compact, accurate, reliable, and downright different. In the interest of brevity, I will not go into the intricacies of the gas retarded system, but I will say that it works. The system does require a fluted chamber to prevent the casings from adhering to the chamber walls. These flutes leave distinctive markings on the spent casings, but these marks cause no harm to the casings. Contrary to myth, the casings are reloadable, and they suffer no damage from the fluted chamber. The drawback of this gas retarded system is the location of the gas piston directly above the trigger. If one fires multiple rounds in quick succession (about two magazines worth) the frame above the trigger gets rather warm. H&K attempted to address this with a plastic heat shield on the P7M8 models. That was only partially successful. Bottom line, shooting a full magazine in a hurry is no big deal. But in shooting a 50 round qualification course, the pistol gets quite toasty about halfway through. The fixed barrel and low bore axis do help make the pistol very accurate and quick to fire follow up shots, despite its compact dimensions.
The squeeze cocking mechanism is the other departure from conventional trigger/safety systems. It’s complex in design but simple in operation. In a nutshell, when the cocking lever on the front strap of the grip is depressed, the action is cocked and may be fired with a single action trigger pull. If the lever is depressed, the gun will cycle when fired like any other SA pistol and be ready to fire with the next trigger pull. To render the gun safe, the user simply relaxes his/her grip to de-cock the action and render the pistol completely safe. The system is intuitive and simple to operate.
In addition to cocking/de-cocking the action, the lever also acts as the slide release. When the slide locks open after the last round in the magazine is fired, the user drops the empty mag, inserts a loaded mag and squeezes the lever. This will drop the slide and cocks the action in one step.
The P7 was undeniably a departure from the conventional. However, that uniqueness came at a price, and that price was mostly actual money. The H&K P7 couldn’t compete with its lower cost rivals. The last variant of P7 left the factory in 2008.
Just in case the locking system wasn’t unusual enough, they tossed in a squeeze cocking mechanism to show off their engineering prowess. The resulting pistol was the most expensive of the three approved types and therefore adopted by the fewest German states. But it was certainly quintessential German in every regard. Lots of engineering (maybe too much), worked beautifully and is well made. It also cost more than its competitors.
The P7 is slim, compact, accurate, reliable, and downright different. In the interest of brevity, I will not go into the intricacies of the gas retarded system, but I will say that it works. The system does require a fluted chamber to prevent the casings from adhering to the chamber walls. These flutes leave distinctive markings on the spent casings, but these marks cause no harm to the casings. Contrary to myth, the casings are reloadable, and they suffer no damage from the fluted chamber. The drawback of this gas retarded system is the location of the gas piston directly above the trigger. If one fires multiple rounds in quick succession (about two magazines worth) the frame above the trigger gets rather warm. H&K attempted to address this with a plastic heat shield on the P7M8 models. That was only partially successful. Bottom line, shooting a full magazine in a hurry is no big deal. But in shooting a 50 round qualification course, the pistol gets quite toasty about halfway through. The fixed barrel and low bore axis do help make the pistol very accurate and quick to fire follow up shots, despite its compact dimensions.
The squeeze cocking mechanism is the other departure from conventional trigger/safety systems. It’s complex in design but simple in operation. In a nutshell, when the cocking lever on the front strap of the grip is depressed, the action is cocked and may be fired with a single action trigger pull. If the lever is depressed, the gun will cycle when fired like any other SA pistol and be ready to fire with the next trigger pull. To render the gun safe, the user simply relaxes his/her grip to de-cock the action and render the pistol completely safe. The system is intuitive and simple to operate.
In addition to cocking/de-cocking the action, the lever also acts as the slide release. When the slide locks open after the last round in the magazine is fired, the user drops the empty mag, inserts a loaded mag and squeezes the lever. This will drop the slide and cocks the action in one step.
The P7 was undeniably a departure from the conventional. However, that uniqueness came at a price, and that price was mostly actual money. The H&K P7 couldn’t compete with its lower cost rivals. The last variant of P7 left the factory in 2008.
