The Click Test

Take a Browning Hi-Power.

Cock the hammer.

Engage the safety.

Pull the trigger.

Release the trigger.

Pull back on the hammer like you were cocking it.

Did you hear a click?

If you did, then your pistol has failed the "click test".

You can also look into the back of the gun where the hammer meets the sear.  If the sear moves when you pull the trigger, then you've failed the click test too; even if there's no audible click.

The field manual allows for zero movement of the sear with the safety engaged.

Here's what a new sear should look like:

Picture taken from: Midway USA

Here's my sear:

The area of concern is here:

You might notice that the new sear has a tiny little step where I'm pointing my pointer.  That's where the nub of the safety is supposed to be touching the sear when it's engaged.  My sear has no step and there's evidence of someone filing there.

My gun is ex-Israeli police, so some parts mixing is guaranteed.

There's two accepted paths to fixing the problem.  One is replacing the sear (and sometimes the safety too).  The other is putting a glob of weld where the step should be and filing it back down for perfect engagement.

I'm going to try replacing the sear now that Midway has them in stock again.  I opened things up to see how worn the lug was on the safety.  It's never even touched the sear except for the times I've click tested it.  It was a brand new safety when installed on an old sear...  GO GO IDF!

There's still a lot of debate of whether passing the click test is mandatory, as long as the gun doesn't go bang with the safety on and doesn't go off when you disengage it, is there really a problem?

PS:  Obsessively DOING the click test will wear the parts and cause it to fail said test.  Check once in a blue moon only.