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7/21/2005 8:55:39 PM

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Section 8: Handguns
Subject: Glock firing pin Msg# 219141

From:

Jerry Webb

Joined 10/31/2001

To:

Bob Rowe (Read)

Joined 4/4/2000

Gee Bob, I wish I would've been online so that you wouldn't have lost sleep over the firing pin sticking out of the breech face! That's normal.

If the pistol was not cocked, and then the slide was racked to slide lock, the firing pin protruded. However, if the pistol was cocked, and the slide was racked to slide lock, the firing pin did not protrude.

Yep. Exactly as it should.

Remember, most pistols have a firing pin spring that holds the firing pin away from the breech face. The Glock has no mainspring, so as a striker-fired pistol the firing pin spring forces the striker towards the breech face.

So when the Glock is "not cocked" (actually the condition is never "cocked" unless you are pulling the trigger), what is actually happening is that the firing pin safety is defeated because the trigger is to the rear. An extention of the trigger bar is what defeats the firing pin safety when the trigger moves rearward.

When your trigger resets forward (and the gun is 15% "cocked"), the trigger bar is out of the way and the firing pin safety spring pushes the FPS plunger back into battery, blocking the firing pin from forward movement.

The proper way to test your Glock for firing pin safety function is to remove the slide from the pistol. If the firing in is protruding from the breech face, pull the tail of the striker rearward. You should hear a click - release the firing pin back forward, and it should not protrude. Place a little rearward pressure (if necessary) on the firing pin tail and push the firing pin safety plunger into the slide - the firing pin should now be able to pop out through the breech face. The safety works as intended.

BTW, something I haven't mentioned before is how you store your Glock pistols. In any Glock that has the standard trigger (coil) spring, you should probably store the gun (WHEN EMPTY) with the trigger rearward. Guns that have a New York (leaf/coil) style trigger spring should be stored trigger forward ("cocked").

The standard style spring (3.5 and 5 pound models) actually helps pull your trigger - IOW, it is pulled to extension when the trigger is forward, and relaxed when the trigger is rearward.

The NY type trigger spring (8 and 12 pound) resists trigger pull, and is at rest when the trigger is foreward, and compressed when the trigger is rearward. FWIW.

For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where:

Jerry,

Yesterday, I bought a new Glock 23. Surprise, it came with two 13-rd mags, and I bought another one at the gun shop/store. Don't tell Mark, but that makes 5 Glocks that I now own -- three 9mm, one .40, and one .45.

Anyway, it came with the usual orange/brown break-in lube at the strategic points on the slide. I was dry firing it last night (haven't been to the range yet), and I noticed something that I thought was rather peculiar about the firing pin.

With an empty mag in place, and the slide is moved back to slide lock, the end of the firing pin protrudes from the firing pin hole in the slide. It can be pushed back into the slide easily with finger pressure. At first, it seemed to do it intermittently, but after a while I discovered a pattern.

About 3 o'clock this morning , I woke up and started thinking about the firing pin on the G23. I was worried that if I chambered a round with the pin protruding like that, the round being chambered might go off. So I got up, went into the gun room, got out my Glock manual, and detail stripped the slide. I made sure that there was no crud on the firing pin, the guide, the spring, rear of striker, and the firing pin hole. It looked good, but I cleaned up everything with Q-tips and pipe cleaners anyway. Then I reassembled it. Damn! It was still doing the pin-protruding trick, when the slide was racked on an uncocked pistol.

I was about to go back to bed, when the thought came to me to check the rest of my Glocks and see how they operated. Guess what?!! They ALL do the same thing -- the G17, G19, G26, and G21. The G17 has over 10,000 thru it, the G19 has about 5000, the G26 about 1000, and the G21 about 500 rounds. I've had the G17 converted by Smyrna to a 3rd Gen frame, and the frames on the G19 and the G26 were recently replaced under recall.

So, just for GP, would you mind checking to see if your Glocks do that? If so, I'll just assume that it is a "Glock thing".

And if this is just normal ops, don't tell Mark. But then, bring it to his attention the next time he is out shooting his G23 -- it'll drive him nuts!!

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