Lesson today with cleaning and lubricating

Lucifer

Lucifer

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Today I decided to brush up on my shooting with my CCW pistols, a Shield 45 and a Shield 9mm.
I had failures with both!
The Shield 45 would have a FTF on the last round when shooting, not every time but often enough to cause concern.
The Shield 9mm would often not cock the striker when shooting...
Very distressed, I took both pistols and magazines apart and found that the magazines for the Shield 45 had a lot of internal black residue built up around the top of the magazine. I determined that the followers were sometimes unable to navigate up and through the residue causing the FTF.
On the Shield 9mm, I removed the striker assembly and it was dry as a bone, so I generously lubricated the striker assemble.
Promptly fired 100 round out of each pistol and the problems were gone. Needless to say, I am now a happy camper that both pistols performed 100%! Amazing what a little cleaning and lubrication will solve.
 
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Need to ask, how often do you clean your guns?

As far as the "generous lubricated" striker, guessing next time you have a FTF after not cleaning it a while you'll find that the lubrication has trapped a bunch of residue and is gumming things up.

I've seen more than one firing pin/striker that was lubricated causing problems, where the worst one was someone decided to put grease on a firing pin and had it "freeze" up in cold weather.
 
Regular cleaning does wonders for firearm performance. Magazines are one of the most overlooked firearm accessories where cleaning is concerned, and one of the most important. A 1911 with bad mags is just a bad 1911. A bad 1911 with good mags can become a good 1911.

As Tu S said, the striker should be dry. A thoroughly cleaned and dried striker and channel will perform well for a very long time. There is normally a poly channel liner, and the poly striker bushing and keeper which combine to provide adequate lubricity. Adding oil holds dirt and debris, plus when shooting, the heat, if sufficient, will turn the oil to carbon and gum up the works again. I'd bet if you clean it again, dry that area thoroughly, and take her back to the range, it will perform as it should.
 
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Lucifer said:
Today I decided to brush up on my shooting with my CCW pistols, a Shield 45 and a Shield 9mm.
I had failures with both!
Click to expand...

This - CCW and failures - is a wake up call. We should all be so lucky as to find any failures during a range shoot instead of in other circumstances.

I think I'll go do some cleaning and inspection . . . .
 
Tu_S said:
Need to ask, how often do you clean your guns?

As far as the "generous lubricated" striker, guessing next time you have a FTF after not cleaning it a while you'll find that the lubrication has trapped a bunch of residue and is gumming things up.

I've seen more than one firing pin/striker that was lubricated causing problems, where the worst one was someone decided to put grease on a firing pin and had it "freeze" up in cold weather.
Click to expand...

It was 4 months ago I gave a good lubrication. With that said I always clean and do a light lube after every range visit.
I was probable 4 years ago I took the magazines apart and cleaned them.
Cleaning the magazines fully apart and cleaning was a big opener...
The grease I used was common white lythamium, after after my session today, I sprayed WD40 and cleaned out all the grease...
 
Wow...WD40, Lithium grease in mags, 'generously lubricated' the firing pin channel...just wow. Some of you guys need to take lessons on how to properly clean/lubricate a semi-auto firearm.
 
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Lucifer said:
...I was probable 4 years ago I took the magazines apart and cleaned them.
Cleaning the magazines fully apart and cleaning was a big opener...
Click to expand...

Depending on how much you shoot, if the magazine springs are 4 years old they probably should be replaced. A worn out spring would explain your failure to feeds, and will usually start showing with the slide not getting locked back on the last round.

They put the stiff magazine spring that makes loading the last few rounds a PITA in there for a reason.
 
I used to have a 1911 that would have a light primer hit first shot, when it had been sitting a month or so. It was WD40 in the firing pin channel, gummed up over time. Clean and very light oiling, no problems since.
 
Eric300 said:
Wow...WD40, Lithium grease in mags, 'generously lubricated' the firing pun channel...just wow. Some of you guys need to take lessons on how to properly clean/lubricate a semi-auto firearm.
Click to expand...

I have yet to read an owner's manual that called for grease or WD40 to be used anywhere on a gun.

When proper lubricant (Break Free or similar) is applied to firearms, the parts should never look wet or drip oil. Only a very thin film is needed. More oil does not decrease friction.
 
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The OP said the striker didn't cock on the 9mm Shield. I doubt that is a lube issue in the striker channel. However, it could be that the trigger bar has got sticky (bent? residue attached to lube?) and is staying in the disconnected position. I don't have Shield so I cannot speak for how the sear works, but if that is prevented from returning to its rest position at the proper time, the striker will not be cocked.

One other possibility is low power plinking ammo and/or a thumb dragging the slide preventing the slide going its full travel. The latter is not uncommon with smaller pistols, but I would have expected ejection issues to occur as well. What ammo was being used?
 
Tu_S said:
Depending on how much you shoot, if the magazine springs are 4 years old they probably should be replaced.
Click to expand...

Please give us your source information on this Tu_S. What's the origin of the 4 year number 'depending on how much you shoot'? Mechanical engineers tell us that it's the number of compression/decompression cycles that wear out springs, not simply age alone. A spring in a static compression or decompression state doesn't degrade.
 
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