Light primer strikes / fail to fire?

[smith revolver cop]

My department carries the M&P in .40 and the Shield in .40. My rangemaster has reported several failures to fire due to light primer strikes. We believe it may be the ammo, but have not completely isolated the problem. We are currently using Winchester Ranger Frangible (135 gr) on the range. We had the same problem last year with RUAG ammo, which we know had primer issues.

Has anyone else experienced this, and can you offer any advice? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Jeff Witte, Chief
Woodlawn Ohio Police

 

[Fishinfool]

I have a couple thoughts, Chief. Nobody has "worked" on the guns? Dumb stuff like lightening springs?

Assuming they are all stock, could be some have crud built up in the firing pin channel. Is it the same guns, or a wide variety that are malfunctioning? Could be some have a little to much headspace. Could also be some ammo that is out of spec, with cases to short, or just bad batch of primers.

I would test another brand of ammo, and if the problem continues, get S&W involved. In my experience, they have always been very protective and accommodating of their LE market.

Larry

 

[smith revolver cop]

Larry:

Thanks for your input. The guns are all stock. My rangemaster is pretty tight-laced, and doesn't modify - he only replaces worn or broken parts with OEM. (And, to be perfectly frank, I don't see any of my officers as "ambitious" enough to work on their own guns!) He also tries to work with the officers to keep crud from building up around the firing pin. It has been sporadic, but he had three officers qualify last week and had 12 FTFs altogether.

We plan to try another brand of ammo, but our range only handles frangible so we'll have to get something worked out.

He's checking with our vendor to see if they've had any reported problems with the batch of ammo we received last, and I'm going to see if I can any more feedback on the forum here.

Thanks again.

 

[federali]

I had difficulty with my new M&P .45 which I traced to high primers which had escaped notice. As you are using factory ammo, something is keeping the gun from going into battery and that may result in a failure to fire.

I bought a Sinclair primer pocket uniformer and I have not had a FTF since. However, I also suspect that the M&P does not like hard primers.

 

[Johnmuratore]

Depending on how the breech face is cleaned, its pretty easy to push debris into the firing pin hole and to gunk up the striker channel.
I'm sure your rangemaster knows how to remove the striker, it just takes a second. If the problem can be isolated to specific firearms, he could check.

 

[much ado]

Failure to Fire

I bought a new Shield 40 about 1yr8mos ago and it in total made 3 trips to S&W for failing to ignite primers. I also own a M&P 40 Compact and shot the same ammo that "may" have been in question and never had a failure. S&W replaced the striker first...same problem. 2nd time replaced the striker and polished the chamber...same problem. 3rd trip replaced the barrel and slide...end of problems. Never another failure to ignite. Based on my experience, try replacing the striker(s). After that, back to S&W. It should ignite any American brand without fail (my ardent opinion).

John

 

[bob98366]

If your rangemaster has to work with some officers to keep their weapons clean, one obvious place to check is striker channel cleanliness.

I've shot about 3,000 various rounds of mostly factory reloads (cheapest on the market at the time) through a 40 Pro with zero striker issues. Part of my cleaning ritual is to squirt aerosol non-chlorine brake cleaner (Walmart, less than $3 in the automotive section) in the striker clean out hole until it runs out both ends. Then work the striker several times with a finger and squirt again to flush out anything loosened up. Don't lube the striker which could cause crud to build up.

 

[Pilot172P]

I just started having this issue with my Shield 40. The first 400 rounds over the past year had no issue. Now in the last month I had about 8 FTF (light primer strikes) out of about 70 rounds. They were all handloads, but I've been reloading for 30 years and never had any issues. It doesn't make me feel too comfortable if I have to worry about cleaning the striker and hole after 400 or so rounds.

 

[AGoyette]

My 9c too has suddenly started to have light primer hits. I did not even feel the striker hit it. It just felt like a dead trigger. I am going to have the gunsmith look at it. I am thinking I have the candy cane loop too open.