The end of the striker/firing pin broke today while removing slide.

The very tip broke off that actually hits the primer.

Sent email to C.S. probably have to send gun in which does
not make me happy.

It's a M.I.M. part by the way.

3

Must have been one hell of a hard primer

No, I was removing slide and had to pull trigger to get
slide off.

That's when it broke, basically dry firing gun.

It was mentioned in my original post.



3

Well that's weird it wouldn't have struck anything cause the chamber was empty I know dry firing rimfires is a no no but a centerfire doesn't strike anything only thing is bad quality of the part which would mean more should pop up

let us know how it gets resolved.

Coming from the rimfire world I took a careful look at the S&W site because I saw so many references about dry firing.

S&W says it's no problem with center fire guns.

My sigma 40 just got back from the factory for it third striker replacement. Was also getting to remove the slide for cleaning. Took a little over two weeks round trip.

In these two cases, was it a simple dry firing or was the slide not closed?

It was a dryfire in order to remove the slide for cleaning. This is the same as last time.

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Not good. With your 3 failures and the new one reported it's a bad story. All on .40's though. I would suppose the SD9's are identical so I'm concerned.

How many rounds between failures?

If my SD9 is cocked, removing the slide seems to relax all the springs without dry firing.

This set of postings reports 4 failures.

My sigma 9 broke one while dry firing with very few rounds through it. S&W sent prepaid fed-ex pickup and delivery back to me in about two weeks.

I know there are a lot of very similar S&W guns out there but 1 such failure is too many. Four reported on this single forum is just not acceptable.

You will remember that I already posted that the S&W website says dry firing is OK with this general series.

Does anyone have good connections with S&W?

The problem is it's a MIM striker (Metal Injected Molding) like the older M&P pistols use to have until they upgraded to a solid steel striker because they kept breaking also.

But us SDVE owners don't have that option, I might just make 1 out of stainless.

I'll let ya know what C.S. has to say when they reply, they said 1 or 2 days.

If they want me to send gun in I probably won't, just kills me they won't send you the part even if you offer to pay for it.

3

Makes me wonder if a Glock striker will work. However, those are MIM also.

From my research so far no, but I'm still looking.

3

Are these newer guns or older models you would think S&W would recall the part you can't have a gun named self defense if it won't go bang when you need it

I sent an email also, got the usual 2-3 day automatic response. I said that one broken piece is bad, the four reported is unacceptable. I expect a minimal response.

I think everyone here should send an email.

Well I got a response from S&W.

I told them I would just send the slide in and not the frame.

They want the whole gun because they test fire each one and they say the strikers are FACTORY FIT.

Unreal, don't know what I'll do yet.

I have my reasons for not wanting to send the frame in from a past experience with S&W.

3

3hounds,
don't have any idea what your reasoning is, BUT S&W has an excellent customer service base and they are prepared to fix your new SD at no cost to you. I can't imagine why you do not want to avail yourself of this important warranty service.

Curious if S&W got a bad batch of strikers from their vendor.

Just because S&W says their pistols are designed where dry firing is allowable doesn't mean a firing pin can't break from some defect. If you get it repaired and it breaks another one I'd be concerned that the pistol is defective in how it handles the firing pin.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

That's why I asked if they were older models I can understand when the line first came out for it to have issues but for them to just let them keep having issues is a problem

Wonder how many claims S&W would have to get before doing a recall?

While the SD series seems to be very popular, I doubt many of the purchasers do the amount of shooting that folks purchasing a Glock or M&P do.

Hopefully there's not an issue that those who not only rely upon it for SD/HD, but also shoot it a lot too will be plagued with. I'd hate to shoot the snot out of mine to be competent, only have Mr. Murphy stop by at an inopportune time.

======================
They just responded to my email where I said I had seen reports of at least 4 broken firing pins:

REFERENCE NUMBER: LTK1117701334333X Please use this ticket number in any correspondence with us.

SUBJECT: Broken firing pins

Dear Customer,

Occasional dry firing will not harm the gun. If you plan on dry firing consistently to practice it would be best to use a snap cap.

Smith and Wesson values all of its consumers and are happy to have assisted you to the best of our ability today. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require further assistance.

Sincerely,

Rob
========

If that's the case, then the manual should just state flat out that dry firing requires snap caps. Sounds like a dance around a possible issue.

I ordered the machined aluminum snapcaps from Walmart and picked them up at a nearby Walmart, the small store, one mile from here.

[The larger center, where they sell ammo, is 5 miles away, soon to be replaced by another only 2+ miles away. Not sure why they would put a second super center essentially across the highway (US35) in this small town, Moore, OK., but they are indeed doing that.]

Anyhow, these are good for helping me get the wife started on handling and seeing whether she can rack the slide, etc., but the primer area is rubber and I sort of doubt that it takes much of the shock out of a "dry fire". Anyhow, I will use them.

When training my wife, before she goes to a paid course, it's clear that you have to seriously rack the slide to get a snapcap to pop clear because it still includes the full length of a normal un-fired round.

In short, because they had this gun before for 3 long months and did not replace the cracked sear housing.

They said they did not have the parts and did not know when they would be available.

I fixed the housing with Devcon epoxy and it has held up fine for over a year.

What KILL'S ME is they won't send you the part or even send it to a certified S&W Gunsmith.

You can't get this part even if you offer to pay for it,
factory installed only they say.

I got 10 times better C.S. from High Point, NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

3

The glock striker has a flat blade pin instead of a round one.

It is frustrating that you can't just buy them but I am able to find sdve parts on eBay every once in a while.

I have thousands of rounds through both my 9 and 40 and the pins have not broke. I did have an issue with wear but nothing was broken.

Bill

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Remember the Alamo!