Need SR9 firing pin help, problem?

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A

Anonymous

I was playing with my brand new SR9 and getting to know it, ive discovered something that alarms me.

After i dry-fire the gun (magaine in of course), And retract the slide I can see the firing pin still protruding through the breechface. Now it will do this about 1/2 of the time. Looking at the mechanism it seems there is no spring or device that retacts the firing pin immediately after firing.

That means my gun is trying to pick up a new round and load it into the chamber, with the firing pin still protruding through the breechface!

The firing pin will finally retract about 1/2in from lockup, but it seems a new round would already be locked in place before this happens. Making the firing pin contact the primer.

I would appreciate it if you could check if your SR9 does this too.


Everything else seems to work fine and the gun cycles through rounds just fine, but I have obviously stopped doing that untill I can verify my firing pin isnt malfunctioning.

PS, it does this with and without the magazine disconnect in place.
 

mekender

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 4, 2007
Messages
103
are you 100% sure that there is nothing in the firing pin channel?

it sounds like something is causing it to hang up
 

GhosT

Blackhawk
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
556
Location
North East Ohio
jabara572,

Not answering yer question, just advice...
"After i dry-fire the gun (magaine in of course)....

Dry fire advice.
The "Magazine in" doesn't count....

Keep a spent case in chamber when dryfiring...at the very least.
A Magazine in, does not protect the firing setup at all.
 
A

Anonymous

GhosT":3mz8e6p0 said:
jabara572,

Not answering yer question, just advice...
"After i dry-fire the gun (magaine in of course)....

Dry fire advice.
The "Magazine in" doesn't count....

Keep a spent case in chamber when dryfiring...at the very least.
A Magazine in, does not protect the firing setup at all.



Not to derail my post with my own but Straight from the Manual itself:

"The Ruger SR9 pistols can be dry-fired without damage to the striker or other components as long as the magazine is inserted"




Now back to my problem, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go. This was obtained by slowly inching the slide forward as i watched what was happening, on this attempt the slide is solidly locked into place because the case is unable to move past the firing pin.



IMG_00277.jpg
 
A

Anonymous

mekender":1i0yqtlo said:
are you 100% sure that there is nothing in the firing pin channel?

it sounds like something is causing it to hang up

thanks mekender, firing pin channel is clean tho
 

mekender

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 4, 2007
Messages
103
2 possibilities i can think of... one is a broken firing pin...

two would be that the firing pin or the channel it is in are out of spec and the pin is too tight in the channel it is in.

my guess is #2
 
A

Anonymous

I've had the firing pin out many times and its not broken. The firing pin moves freely forward and backwards in the channel, its just that theres nothing pulling it back after the slide recoils to the rear. its only pulled back just before lockup.

I cant understand how the firing pin is supposed to retract? It protrudes to fire and then there is no spring or anything to pull it back in, only hitting part of the trigger bar retracts the firing pin, and that happens 1/32inch after that photo would have been taken.

I can see on my P95 the firing pin spring keeps it retracted but not on the striker fired SR9.
 

jhearne

Buckeye
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
1,365
Mine does not retract after releasing it....i.e. there is no spring to return the tip of the pin back into the breechface.

However, the pin isn't remaining pushed through the breechface under force, just friction of the bore the pin sits in and the pin itself. Chambering a round should, gun isn't in front of me, I'm at work, push the pin back into the breechface....My main reasoning behind this I've had the slide broken down to the striker numerous times and know how mine works, and after 1250+ rounds I've never had an issue with the pin getting in the way of any normal operation of the pistol.

And the striker will not poke back into the breechface by jarring it once it's been pushed in, as there is a disconnector or Striker Blocker that activates once the take up travel is met, in normal cases, by chambering a round.

To me this is an annoyance at best when under abnormal time with the gun, cleaning, dry firing, etc....it's the way it was designed I think, not a problem if it works fine. You said it cycles fine but only 'locked up' when you slowly fed a round....

Get to the range and punch some paper.

Josh
 

ckone

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
5
mine freaked me out when i noticed the exact same thing...
looks to me that the pin gets retracted when you reset the trigger (by partially cycling the slide... or automatic if you were firing a live round...), if you open the action after you've dry-fired you'll see the firing pin protruding, if you dry-fire, then reset the trigger by half cycling the slide, and then open the action all will appear normal (the pin will be retracted).
 

jhearne

Buckeye
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
1,365
Lol, ckone, after reading your post the light bulb went off lol....your exactly right, it gets reset when cycling under normal firing...even a half cycle it resets the striker to a locked position behind the striker blocker atleast, if not further retracted to full cock ready to fire position. Its early and my brains being racked on setting up a new spreadsheet for payroll next year.

Josh
 

ckone

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
5
cool, glad it helped, bothered me the first time i noticed it.
on a side note: if you ever feel adventurous and are interested in lightening the SR9 trigger pull, i figured out through some help of a gunsmith in another forum that you can clip off a coil or 2 off of the striker spring without any adverse effects (even a few coils down it's got more than enough punch to still ignite primers reliably) and bring the trigger pull down super easily.... mine's at about 4.5lbs now, down from around 6.5-7.5lbs, and now it is sweet!
 

Shoot44

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Oct 11, 2008
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ckone":sedemg97 said:
cool, glad it helped, bothered me the first time i noticed it.
on a side note: if you ever feel adventurous and are interested in lightening the SR9 trigger pull, i figured out through some help of a gunsmith in another forum that you can clip off a coil or 2 off of the striker spring without any adverse effects (even a few coils down it's got more than enough punch to still ignite primers reliably) and bring the trigger pull down super easily.... mine's at about 4.5lbs now, down from around 6.5-7.5lbs, and now it is sweet!

Hey, ckone: That's a good idea! I have never cut into anything in a gun, tho, and am a bit intimidated by the thought. Can I get to that spring by doing the same exercise I did to remove the Mag DC? I think that should put that spring 'in my hand', right? And, if I cut too much, then I guess I could just buy another 'stock' spring and replace it , , ,? One other question: can I just buy a shorter/weaker spring and replace the stock one? ? ? That would be my better choice, so I still have the stock one to fall back on if I mess up.

??? :?:
 

ckone

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
5
Yes. You can get to it the same way you remove the mag disconnect... I was able to clip off a half a coil at a time w/o even removing the spring, but if you want to it's only 1 little cross pin... It's very easy, I'm no gunsmith...
I'm sure you could approach it many ways but if you only clip 1 coil or half at a time you won't mess it up, just put it together and test it before you clip more than 2 coils.
I'm going to get a replacement spring from ruger for just in case then I'll see how much lighter I can make it while keeping it reliable.
It's easy to do and quite dramatic, mine is sweet now, far better then stock with no effect on the reliability or function.
 

Grendel

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
Messages
215
Location
FL
Okay, fiddled with my SR9 a bit to confirm something.

Remember, that with the striker-fired action of the SR9 and the Glock, the cycling of the slide "pre-cocks" the striker.

Without a mag in place, I dryfired the gun then retracted the slide. My striker protruded just a wee bit through the breech face. As I slowly closed the slide, about 0.5" before the slide returns to full battery, you can feel the striker engage the trigger bar and watch the striker retract into the breech face.

No worries.

-JT
 

ckone

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
5
I'm going to make a post about the trigger lightening process... It's good enough and easy enough were I think many sr9 owners will find it useful.
 

Grendel

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Jan 26, 2008
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Location
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I'd be interested, but I'm also extremely hesitant about hacking any coils off of any springs.

Maybe once my job situation gets settled, I'll buy another striker spring or striker assembly from Ruger and then give it a shot.

-JT
 
A

Anonymous

Grendel":38s8l22m said:
Okay, fiddled with my SR9 a bit to confirm something.

Remember, that with the striker-fired action of the SR9 and the Glock, the cycling of the slide "pre-cocks" the striker.

Without a mag in place, I dryfired the gun then retracted the slide. My striker protruded just a wee bit through the breech face. As I slowly closed the slide, about 0.5" before the slide returns to full battery, you can feel the striker engage the trigger bar and watch the striker retract into the breech face.

No worries.

-JT






Thanks for all the replies guys, this is what i was noticing too, the firing pin does get actively retracted about 1/2in before lockup, but it seemed to me it could cause problems like my picture. I have no idea why the firing pin doesnt get retracted MUCH sooner than 1/2in from lockup.

All i wanted to know is if this was normal and it seems that it is. Thanks for the confirmations guys!



Another thing I noticed is that after i pull the trigger, If i tilt the gun forward and backwards I can hear the firing pin freely move in and out of the breechface. What ive found is that If the gun is pointed downward, the firing pin will protrude almost all of the time, if you point it up before cycling the slide it will always be retracted. Since with the gun in battery and trigger pulled, all the disconnects are pulled out of the channel and it moves freely, but when you retract the slide the firing pin block presses against the firing pin itself and holds it lightly in whatever position it happens to be in. Im guessing thats normal too?

I'll get her to the range sometime soon and see how she dos compared to 'Ol reliable P95.
 

Shoot44

Single-Sixer
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
150
Location
The Ozarks
ckone":381y8zgs said:
Yes. You can get to it the same way you remove the mag disconnect... I was able to clip off a half a coil at a time w/o even removing the spring, but if you want to it's only 1 little cross pin... It's very easy, I'm no gunsmith...
I'm sure you could approach it many ways but if you only clip 1 coil or half at a time you won't mess it up, just put it together and test it before you clip more than 2 coils.
I'm going to get a replacement spring from ruger for just in case then I'll see how much lighter I can make it while keeping it reliable.
It's easy to do and quite dramatic, mine is sweet now, far better then stock with no effect on the reliability or function.

Yeah, THANKS!! Since submitting that post, I just took it apart again, just to see what that part looked like, (again; didn't remember all that well). It looked, just like you said, that there is a small 'roll pin' at the front of the striker assembly that needs to come out to replace the spring. I think that the way it looks, that pin also holds that black 'spring retainer thing' in as well, so by taking the spring pressure off of it, (with a small screwdriver or something), and then pushing it out, the whole spring and 'holder' should come right out.

But, as you said, if I can cut off some withOUT even doing that. . . . that's definitely the way to go! But one question about that: How do you know how much you are cutting off? Did you cut it off of the REAR end of the spring? Must have, since I cannot see the front end of it. . . . OK, I'll take it apart again, and take a whack at it. It sure does need to have that trigger 'helped' a bit. I've smoothed the striker 'shelf' that the trigger bar presses against, and that helped a lot, in making it SMOOTHER, but no relief as to weight, as that is primarily controlled by that spring that it must push on back, regardless of smoothness of surfaces.

Again, thnx a lot; can't wait to try this!!!
 

ckone

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
5
take a coil off at the rear of the spring (when i say 1 coil i mean 1 full circle around the striker, so the first coil to go is a little more than a circle since it doubles over on itself, then i just crimped it back into round against the plastic retainer thingy, and voila!) ... as you noticed, you can't get at the front w/o taking it apart (what can i say, i'm lazy).
 
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