Interesting striker break

[vluc]

Any idea on what caused this one?

I was cleaning my G34 after a weekend match, and saw this on the striker - a chunk gone.

Original striker from the G34 - about 24K rounds with it.

Edited August 11, 2008 by vluc

[Jman]

Vluc,

I'm thinking metal fouling in the channel. Check to see if your striker spring is missing a coil or two. Doubt copper fouling could do that. Replace the channel liner and striker if you haven't already and check closely behind the breech face for junk. That metal ended up somewhere.

Have you used reduced power striker springs? Wonder if it just gave up the ghost...anyway, food for thought. Let us know if you discover more evidence.

Jim

[get2now]

I found this in an email I got in September last year.

I'll try to post the pictures soon but they look just like your pitcure.

During a routine inspection of a Glock Model 22 pistol, we discovered damage to a firing pin (6861 above). Approximately a week later, we found a second damaged firing pin (6869 and 6872 above). A spot check of 21 other Glock Model 22 pistols produced four more damaged firing pins. The Glock Model 22 pistol is our primary duty weapon for patrol officers. We have not experienced any malfunctions with these pistols. One pistol has a serial number designation of DAU and was one of two purchased in 1999, the rest have a serial number designation of EPL and we purchased 125 of these in January 2002. The DAU serial numbered pistol has fired less than 3500 rounds; the EPL serial numbered pistols have fired less than 3000 rounds. The number of rounds fired was a calculated estimate rounded up from the estimate.

We have been in contact with our Glock District Manager and Glock is now aware of our problem. There have been no other reports of this type of damage by any other agency or source at this time. This problem could be unique to our weapons at this agency. The damage appears to be caused by the firing pin striking the firing pin safety; we have not found any damaged firing pin safeties at this point. This problem could be caused by soft metal in our firing pins.

Firing pin and more

Edited August 11, 2008 by get2now

[mscott]

Looks like it might be hitting the safety plunger on it's way to the primer. Is the plunger stuck or maybe the trigger bar is worn enough to not lift it completely out of the way?

[vluc]

I found this in an email I got in September last year.

I'll try to post the pictures soon but they look just like your pitcure.

During a routine inspection of a Glock Model 22 pistol, we discovered damage to a firing pin (6861 above). Approximately a week later, we found a second damaged firing pin (6869 and 6872 above). A spot check of 21 other Glock Model 22 pistols produced four more damaged firing pins. The Glock Model 22 pistol is our primary duty weapon for patrol officers. We have not experienced any malfunctions with these pistols. One pistol has a serial number designation of DAU and was one of two purchased in 1999, the rest have a serial number designation of EPL and we purchased 125 of these in January 2002. The DAU serial numbered pistol has fired less than 3500 rounds; the EPL serial numbered pistols have fired less than 3000 rounds. The number of rounds fired was a calculated estimate rounded up from the estimate.

We have been in contact with our Glock District Manager and Glock is now aware of our problem. There have been no other reports of this type of damage by any other agency or source at this time. This problem could be unique to our weapons at this agency. The damage appears to be caused by the firing pin striking the firing pin safety; we have not found any damaged firing pin safeties at this point. This problem could be caused by soft metal in our firing pins.

Firing pin and more

Those pics are the spitting image. No other damage at all to the gun, trigger bar, cahnnel or firing pin safety.

Guess I'll contact Glock and get a new one!

[Jman]

Man. You got to love this place.

Jim

[Harmon]

its caused by the firing pin safety not being depressed all the way when the gun goes off

harmon

[jobob]

its caused by the firing pin safety not being depressed all the way when the gun goes off

harmon

Exactly! Some of the after market trigger kits have the head of the firing pin safety overly rounded. On one of my guns it was enough of a problem to be causing light strikes and missfires. Replacing the part with the OEM (properly polished, but not rounded off) solved the problem.

[vluc]

Great responses, many thanks! Not sure about the rounded safety as I doubt the police have that done on their guns. No trigger kit in mine either.

Regardless, I have a backup in there now. I did contact Glock, they - naturally - want the whole gun sent in. Had a chuckle as they would not send me the part as I was not a certified armorer. Jokingly told the customer service rep that I took it all apart to take the striker out and that I think - after all the times I have torn the gun down, that I could safely put it back in.

He agreed, but policy is policy....

[Micah]

Vince,

Since asking is always free, call Glock back and ask them again for the part, offering to mail in the damaged striker. I had a chipped striker a while back, and they send me a new one without shipping my gun. I explained to them that I compete on a weekly basis with my Glock and cannot afford to have my gun gone for that long.