Hello all. I just got a brand new SD9VE a couple of weeks ago. It is my fist pistol purchase, as well as being the first striker fired gun I have ever fired. As soon as I got it home, I field stripped it to inspect it and give it a good cleaning.

I took it to the range last Thursday. I ran 250 rounds through it flawlessly. My accuracy wasn't all that great at 10 yards, but since this was the first time out with what I would call a "challenging" trigger. I resigned myself to lots of dry fire practice while balancing coins and empty casings on the gun.

With all the live fire and dry fire I have done the trigger is a lot smoother than when I first got it. There is one concern I have though. If I apply very slow pressure to the trigger (say a 5 count or longer,) as I approach the break, it gets very "sticky." It feels as if I'm scraping plastic with an xacto knife. Instead of a smooth squeeze, as I apply more pressure it goes like this: stick...more pressure...slide..stick...more pressure..slide until it breaks. Each time the friction is overcome it introduces movement, especially on the break. If I squeeze faster, it seems perfectly smooth, but since I'm trying to learn proper trigger control, I'm trying to go slow first.

In my initial cleaning after I had taken it home from the gun store, I had noticed a small sliver of white plastic sticking out of the striker channel, between the "hook" on the firing pin, and what Smith apparently calls the "striker assembly rear guide." I removed it with a small pair of tweezers and bagged it (just in case) It measures around 1cm in length. I chalked it up to being either left over from manufacturing, or part of the break in when it was being test fired at the factory.

Today I took off the slide and moved the firing pin rearward with my finger. The same thing happens as when I pull the trigger. As I approach the end of the channel it get's very difficult to overcome the friction in the channel.

Since I have no other striker fired pistol to compare it to I figured I'd ask here. Is this normal for an SD9 trigger? Is this going to get better over time? Did anyone ever find shavings from the rear striker guide in their gun? If I look down into the striker guide I can see 2 channels cut into the firing pin that ride on rails inside the plastic guide. One side has rails that fit quite well into the channels on the pin, the other side's rails barely contact the pin at all. Could the guide be out of spec and causing it to bind as it moves rearward? If anyone could check out the tolerance on this guide in relation to their pin I would greatly appreciate it.

I hope I'm just experiencing a common break in issue. I really don't want to have it sent in already. Being a newb I have no idea if there's something actually wrong with it, or if I'm just expecting too much out of a trigger on a sub $400 gun.

Thanks for reading, any help would be appreciated.

I would contact S&W and see if they'll send you a striker guide

I suppose that would be worth a shot. Unfortunately I have a feeling S&W would not be inclined to send one. In my research before buying this gun I neglected to look into replacement parts. From many threads in this forum, I've seen S&W time and again refuse to send out parts as they are "restricted" and "factory only install." Even if I did wind up sending it in, from a recent post in this forum regarding a sear block that cracked, it appears their turnaround time is running 4-6 weeks.

Hence, I'm seeking opinions from other owners of this series of pistols. Hopefully some folks will chime in with experiences with their striker liners. For all I know the liner is exactly as it should be, with loose tolerances to improve reliability. Hell the friction I'm feeling could be the striker spring gaining tension. I just don't know what it's supposed to feel like. Hopefully I'm making much ado about nothing.

I'm getting to the point where I can get the trigger to break with a dime balanced on the sight...but man it's tough. 5x in a row is my record lol. Only made it once so far with an empty 9mm casing.

Watch this video. There is a section in it on how to remove the striker assembly. Follow it and compare yours to what you see in the video. Also, once you take it apart, snap some pics of your liner and post here.

SD/Sigma Kit install - YouTube

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M&P40c/15-22/SD9VE/Mossy500

Thanks for the suggestion and link. I have watched that video and I did use it earlier to remove the assembly. I should have snapped a pic then, but the liner itself is small, the rails inside even smaller, and the whole thing is made of translucent white plastic. It looks as though it would be very hard to photograph. The material looks very similar to the polymer used in the followers of the sd magazines. Someone at the factory had to use a sharpie on it to read the 9mm designation molded into it. It's truly a terrible material to look at when searching for defects, as shadows don't cast very well on it. I'll try to snap a pic when I get back home tonight.

The more I think about it, the more I feel I'm just making something out of nothing. When I removed the striker assembly, there was no sign of any more shavings in the channel. If there was something wrong in that respect I think I would have found something in there. When I think about the way the liner sits in the channel when the pistol is in use, the "rails" are at the top of the slide. The striker would not be riding on them per se... they may just be wear points. I really should pull the striker back with the slide right side up and see if I get the same result.

Something else I should mention...when I removed the striker assembly, the entire front of the striker was soaked with oil. I use clp as a cleaner and have been very careful to make sure not to get anything into the striker channel. It seemed exactly like the preservative oil that was all over it when I got it. I had read a thread somewhere with at least one M&P owner having an oil soaked striker in a new pistol. I can't eliminate the possibility I got some clp in there, but since the last cleaning was Thursday, it would have thickened up by now. This was still free flowing and smelled like the factory oil.

See if you can compare your sleeve to mine. Also, clean that oil off of the striker and also clean inside the channel with a Q-tip. Get that stuff out of there.

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M&P40c/15-22/SD9VE/Mossy500

Thanks so much for the pics! I think I have it figured out. Here's a pic of my rear guide/striker...



As you can see what had me concerned (besides the shaving I found) was how loose the striker seemed to sit in the channel. As I was disassembling this time, I think I figured out what was happening. Compressing the striker spring like this was perfectly smooth. Every time I took out the assembly the front guide came with it. I didn't notice it the first time I took it out, but that front lining seems to be the cause of what I'm feeling...



That is what the inside of the front lining looks like. That scraping/friction I feel is the spring cups/spring rubbing against those ridges. Maybe it's me..but shouldn't that sleeve be smooth inside? Also, when I removed the front lining from the assembly, the lining seemed to get tighter around the spring cups as I removed the striker. Are those ridges there to trap fouling so the striker moves freely? Maybe they are designed to reduce friction by reducing the surface area of contact between the spring cups and the lining? Whatever it is, I hate the feeling lol. Does your front lining have the same kind of texture?

Regarding the oil, I already cleaned the striker itself, I need to do the channel later. I should have left by now, but I saw your pics and just had to check mine out to compare. Thanks again for the pics!

My front lining is just like that. And one end is slightly thicker than the other end, which is why the spring cups rub when pulling the striker assembly out. However, I do not get such friction when pulling the trigger and dry-firing or live-firing. Try inserting the front sleeve so the loose end is closest to the striker pin head, that should eliminate some of the friction you're getting, since the spring cups won't touch the sleeve as much.

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M&P40c/15-22/SD9VE/Mossy500

Wow! How do you guys know the names of all these tiny pistol parts? Is there an "exploded view" chart available somewhere, with all these parts identified? I have a new SD40ve, my first pistol. Rook

There's not an exploded view parts list out yet. As far as knowing the part names (though I don't claim they're all entirely 100% accurate), it's years of experience, coupled with other people's knowledge, coupled with watching videos online.

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M&P40c/15-22/SD9VE/Mossy500

I think part of what your feeling with the trigger is the long drawn out trigger pull, the firing sequence wasn't made to take 5 seconds or a 5 count, it was made to be a continous motion with purpose.

You know, I was focusing on the striker sleeve as you mentioned in the original post, and not on the feeling of the trigger you're describing.

Usually that kind of friction (gritty trigger) is due to the trigger bar, sear disconnect, and/or the striker block.

At the end of that video that I linked, they show you where you can polish in order to make the movement smoother.

CGhelofxr - whether long and drawn out, or quick and dirty, trigger grittiness will still be there unless you wear it down over time or polish interfacing parts. Some shooters prefer to go slow on the take-up until the break. This is not wrong in any fashion, as it lets them focus on maintaining sight alignment and trigger control.

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M&P40c/15-22/SD9VE/Mossy500

I think you are right Jyezahn, the striker lining may be a red herring. After many more dry fires the grittiness does seem to be lessening. Those areas are something I will be looking at more, esp the disconnect and the trigger bar where it engages the sear. The disconnect seems to be already highly polished, (well one half of it is, the other looks like it was freshly cast.) It leaves a very distinct mark on the slide as it goes up and over the hump next to the channel. I'm not sure if that polish is factory, or if it's from break in. I can definitely feel some grit where the trigger bar engages the sear, but it seems pretty minor. I suppose that could be magnified when the tension of the striker spring is added to it, as it isn't too bad when I try it with the slide off.

I don't want to mess with the sear, or where the sear engages the striker. I think it would be best to polish that the "fun way" at the range and during dry fire.

Obviously this isn't designed as a target pistol. The long slow press I'm doing is just to get used to the feeling of a straight back press on this trigger. I will speed up as I get that nice press down. I'm getting pretty good at balancing a dime on the front sight post while breaking, even got a couple of good presses with an empty casing up there. It's hard for me to even raise the gun with one up there, let alone press the trigger without it falling off

At the very least this all led me to discover that oil inside the striker channel and clean it out. Last thing I want is to start getting light strikes, or worse, get the striker stuck forward and get a slam fire. I should be able to get back to the range on Thursday. Hopefully my groups will have improved. Thanks for all the help!

Watch this video (it's for the M&P, but could help with your issue) regarding the striker block. Pay attention to the 2:00 and 3:50 marks.

Gritty trigger

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M&P40c/15-22/SD9VE/Mossy500

Thanks for all the help. Unfortunately this has turned into a much larger problem. SD9VE, from gritty trigger to broken striker

That is definitely a problem. S&W will cover that. Send them pics.

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M&P40c/15-22/SD9VE/Mossy500