Is there that much difference between the hammer/sear engineering in the two pistols? I thought the Ruger was identical except for a slightly thicker slide and a slide stop. Why is the Ruger firing on drop-impact and apparently our P3AT doesn't?
Because ruger just copied the design and parts schematic. Drop safety is a function of how everything works together. Spring strength, resistance, etc.
To my knowledge there is no set standard as to how much of a drop a pistol must endure to be labeled "safe". The Ruger may have been safe at a 3 ft drop but they wanted 5 feet instead (or any other height of course.) Kel-Tec may feel safe with where theirs is and Ruger may have wanted a little extra margin. I will add that I have no idea what each brand will tolerate as far as dropping.
I feel that the new hammer blocks that Kel-Tec is releasing is in direct response to the LCP recall. The P3 does have a block preventing the hammer releasing w/o the trigger being pulled; the ruger did not. You could overcome the spring pressure and force the ruger hammer forward on the origional design.
But the new hammer blocks were designed and started shipping before the LCP recall, if I remember right.
The original KT P3AT would not drop fire from 9 feet, even with the firing pin spring removed, I personally tried this a long time ago. http://www.1bad69.com/keltec/droptestresults.htm the only way I would think that any pistol of this design could drop fire, would be because the hammer fell off the hammer block.
Cause Ruger owners drop them? I own them both and do not drop them. I have not sent the LCP in for "repair" , and I plan on keeping my Kel-Tec original as well.
FWIW the Ruger does have a hammer block. They call it a "hammer catch", part #27. ALSO the slide lock is only a manual slide hold open. It is NOT a "lock back on an empty magazine" feature. I think from what one of the KT engineers posted the KT hammerblock change was something they found they could do to improve the gun without much if any real redesign of the weapon. This eliminated the ability of the gun to drop the hammer without letting the trigger fully reset forward. Dropping off the hammer block causes light strikes.
KT released the new hammer block some 6 months before the Ruger recall. The two events are surely totally unrelated. The KT redesign had nothing to do with drop saftey. As yzguy stated earlier, the P3AT is and always has been extremely drop safe. I have no idea what the deal was with the LCP, why it drop-fired, etc. Perhaps the hammer could somehow slip off the hammer block, I don't know.
