M&P Shield 9mm Striker Issue Help

Joined
Aug 14, 2020
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Hi, so I just acquired this firearm from a friend who was bundling his firearms to sell. Decided to do some maintenance and some test, particularly the pen/pencil test to check the striker spring. Needless to say it did not shoot the pen capsule out. I then proceeded to dissemble it noticed there was some grease on the firing pin block; cleaned it and the spring (wipe down). This did it allow it to have some success more than before with it barely lifting the pen out of the barrel, however it wasn't very consistent let alone strong enough. I don't think it's normal unless it is, but I do know that the when I dry fire the spring/striker does go off. If the striker/spring is the issue, are there any other issues that I may have overlooked or I should check in case the spring wasn't the culprit? It was his CCW for a while, but I asked him about the issue and it may been a while since he recalled the issue because he had others in rotation. If anyone can help me resolve this issue or point me to a similar thread that would be greatly appreciated.

Tldr: Striker/spring does not seem to work and fails to extract pen/pencil from barrel.
 
Register to hide this ad
The striker assembly and channel should be clean and dry. Any sticky lube like grease or oil will accumulate carbon, etc, and impair function.

The "shoot the pencil out" test commonly used for heavy firing pins like the 1911 are less valid with lightweight strikers.
Suggest you clean and try with ammo.
 
2 thoughts came to mind. If you haven't already, you may want to do a really thorough cleaning/degreasing of the slide internals, to include the striker/firing pin channel. If there was gunk in the firing pin block, there may be gunk in the channel impeding the striker. If you don't want to disassemble the slide, you could try spraying some Gun Scrubber in there and let it drip out to dry.

Also, how's the tip of the firing pin? It's possible it may be damaged/broken. If so, it may not be able to protrude enough out of the breech face to strike a primer (or pencil) with sufficient force.
 
Try putting a live round in it and shoot at a target/backstop. If it goes 'BANG' it's working just fine.

But, just for s&g's, clean the striker/spring/channel anyway. You don't want any gunk in there at all.....ever.
 
Back
Top