I purchased a used but very clean P229 in 40ACP recently and could use some advice on identifying and correcting a small problem.

What would cause the gun to decock after firing?

I fired maybe 50 rounds rounds through the gun when I got it and it worked fine. I then installed the Sig SRT kit, and since it was a used gun decided to give it a new spring kit while I had it apart. Reassembly went well and when I went to shoot it the hammer decocked 4-5 times during a 100 round test. Everything about the gun feels right and the SRT works great.

When it decocked after the shot it fired the next round in DA as expected.

Since it's a trade in, and I only had maybe 50 rounds through it before disassembly, I can't say for sure if the problem existed before I replaced the springs and installed the kit. The gun is otherwise flawless. Not a single FTE or FTF.

Any help would be appreciated.

Damaged hammer or sear, broken sear spring, or sear spring disengaged from retaining pin.

So, the hammer following the slide fwd?

i had a 226 that the hammer would follow the slide some of the time. new sear spring put an end to that. the previous owner told me he replaced the whole set of springs / when i took the sear spring off, it had one of it’s legs bent as if the guy had used pliers to complete it’s install.

were the springs in the spring kit standard or reduced power?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tonelar,

Put the stock parts back in see if it works my guess is it will.

quote:

Originally posted by tonelar:
So, the hammer following the slide fwd?

i had a 226 that the hammer would follow the slide some of the time. new sear spring put an end to that. the previous owner told me he replaced the whole set of springs / when i took the sear spring off, it had one of it’s legs bent as if the guy had used pliers to complete it’s install.

were the springs in the spring kit standard or reduced power?

Yes on following the slide fwd. It doesn't do it often, maybe 5-10% of the time at most, and when it does happen it still fires in DA fine. I'll check the sear.

I replaced all springs and didn't manhandle anything that I know of but it won't hurt to check. Springs are all standard parts from Sig and it shoots like a dream. It's a very nice handgun overall except for that one little quirk. I can try sticking the old one in to see if that helps. I got the gun used in very good condition and didn't have any issues, but I also didn't put enough rounds through it to say for certain the problem wasn't already there. Since I didn't know how many rounds had been through it I wanted to give it a refresh while adding the short trigger reset

TBH it hasn't been fired much since reassembly due to the ammo shortage. I've got plenty of rounds right now but like everyone else I don't want to shoot up what I can't replace.

Many thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to check\swap the sear spring again and maybe run 20-30 rounds through it.

If you believe you got the new springs on right, then I’d suspect the SRT first.



Does dry cycling a P series gun hurt the sear/hammer interface like with 1911?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tonelar,

Please allow me to tell what I have run into that answers what is wrong here.

With the SRT installed, and the hammer is back like for the second shot, pulling the trigger causes the Hammer to decock, and the pistol fires in double action. The Hammer does not follow the Slide back forward until the next time the trigger is pulled. I bet that is what is happening here. With fairly rapid firing, you cannot tell when the Hammer decocked, only that it was inbetween shots.

What causes the pistol to decock when the trigger is plulled? If the SRT is installed and the trigger is pulled for single action, the sear is released but the Double Action has not released yet. The rear end of the Triggerbar holds the hammer and when you let up on the trigger the hammer decocks.

How do I fix it? Look at the SRT Sear. It has a new protrusion sticking out to the right that normally the triggerbar releases. The very rear face of that protrusion needs material removed so the sear is released after the Double Action is released. Remove a small amount on the face that that tiny tab hits when firing single action with the SRT. (about 0.002") Two thousands inch

I also had a bad case of hammer-follow directly after Sig Custom Shop installed one of their SRT kits in my 229. I shipped it back to Sig with an explanation of the problem, and it came back working just fine.

Instead of posting a new thread, I wanted to see if my problem is similar.

I have a P229 in 9mm which has the German all stainless 229-1 frame (takes SIG P229-1 factory 15 rnd mags) with 229-1 slide. Serial AM 171651. All factory parts to the best of my knowledge.

With an empty mag installed, I can rack the slide (empty mag requires manual release of slide as it should) and dry fire in SA with hammer dropping as expected. Repeat this cycle with no issues.

Now, remove the mag and rack the slide (no mag allows slide to release as expected) and dry fire in SA with hammer NOT dropping as expected. Instead, the SA pull results in hammer "de-cocking" as described by OP.

To clarify the meaning of "de-cocking" in that statement above, the following is what is taking place:
When the hammer is cocked from racking the slide, and then the trigger is being pulled for SA, the trigger bar is pulling the SA sear to allow the hammer to drop. When the SA sear breaks the hammer DOES NOT drop because the end of the trigger bar at the DA sear is NOT clear from the DA slot in the hammer. So what happens is, the hammer stays connected to the trigger bar and slowly drops as the trigger is slowly released to the resting DA position.

My conclusion for my specific problem is that the trigger bar is a stamped part and NOT perfect and it works as expected only when the mag is installed. The installed mag keeps the trigger bar in a position where it works as expected. Without the mag the trigger bar is able to flop to a position that prevents it from clearing the DA sear when pulling trigger in SA.

In my situation I would opt to take the trigger bar and tweak the end that engages the hammer slot for DA pull.


Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lot_45,

My advice is not to tweak the rear end of the Trigger bar. That tweaking will make the Double action weaker and there may be light strikes in Double Action.
I first saw this decocking problem when pulling a single action trigger when everybody was installing the new Short Reset Trigger Kit. Back then people would remove the Trigger bar to install a new trigger along with installing the SRT kit. The Trigger bar would get bent and that is what helped cause the decocking problem. Actually the cause is a defective SRT Kit and/or a bent Trigger bar.

Removing a little steel from the rear of the SRT Sear Release tab makes the Short action delay its release and gives the Double action time to get out of the way.

Your P229 does have the SRT installed, correct?

Are you trying to make a Single action only?

Do you like to fire your P229 with the Magazine out?

[quote]My advice is not to tweak the rear end of the Trigger bar. That tweaking will make the Double action weaker and there may be light strikes in Double Action.
I first saw this decocking problem when pulling a single action trigger when everybody was installing the new Short Reset Trigger Kit. Back then people would remove the Trigger bar to install a new trigger along with installing the SRT kit. The Trigger bar would get bent and that is what helped cause the decocking problem. Actually the cause is a defective SRT Kit and/or a bent Trigger bar.

Removing a little steel from the rear of the SRT Sear Release tab makes the Short action delay its release and gives the Double action time to get out of the way.
I totally understand what you are saying about "delaying" the SA break to allow the trigger bar "clear" the DA slot in the hammer. The amount of material I would need to remove looks more than 0.002 to accomplish this when the mag is not installed. If the design of the trigger bar requires that a mag be installed to work as expected then I would agree nothing is wrong so don't "fix" it. I know that some folks use the legacy 228 mags in a 229-1 frame with no issues. This is something I would nor do, but may explain why the legacy 228 mags sometimes do not work in a 229-1 frame.

Your P229 does have the SRT installed, correct? Yes, as it left the factory.

Are you trying to make a Single action only? No, everything is the way it left the factory.

Do you like to fire your P229 with the Magazine out? It was just a freak occurrence when I was spot checking for correct operation and happened to have the mag out.

Thanks for the help in explaining the "de-cocking" problem, it really helped me to asses my problem and figure out what was going on.