AP-84 Duty

The standard issue pistol of the AAF. Designed in 1980 and entering service in 1984, the AP-84 is a steel frame pistol using a short recoil, tilting barrel action. It features a front blade and rear square notch ironsight for quick target acquisition, which are fitted with tritium for night time shooting. The AP-84 has a thumb safety which can be quickly engaged and disengaged by the shooter, and a crisp trigger pull. It is renowned for its reliability and ease of use, and is in service across all branches of the Astronean Armed Forces. The AP-84 has seen success in both the civilian and military markets, being widely exported worldwide. It is renowned for its reliability, erganomics and low cost.

Design
The AP-84 is a short recoil operated, locked breech pistol. It uses a linkless cam locking system, where the barrel and slide are locked together on firing, using locking lugs milled into the barrel mating with recesses in the roof of the slide. An enclosed cam track integral with the barrel is actuated by the slide release lever's transverse pin. After the first few millimetres of the recoil stroke, the barrel is cammed downwards at the rear, enabling the slide to continue the recoil stroke and eject the spent cartridge.

The AP-84 uses a manual safety which allows the pistol to be carried with the hammer cocked with safety applied and a round chambered, ready for use simply by switching the safety off. The trade-off of this configuration is that to uncock the hammer for a double-action first shot, the hammer must be dropped manually by pulling the trigger while lowering the hammer with the firer's thumb under control. Once lowered in this manner, a double-action first shot can be achieved in a similar manner to other double-action pistols without actuating any controls. Subsequent shots will be single-action unless the hammer is again manually lowered.

the slide rides inside the frame rails, similar to the SIG P210, rather than outside. This provides a tight slide-to-frame fit and a very efficient barrel lock-up, both of which contribute to its accuracy.

On current models frames are cast and slides are machined from forgings. The six-groove barrel has traditional land-and-groove rifling with a higher-than-standard rate of twist (1 in 9.5).