light firing in a gen3 Glock 19??????

[Mathew Pixley]

Hi guys, I need your expertise cause I’m clueless. I have a gen 3 g19 that is all aftermarket. I have a zev barrel, night sights, custom slide cuts, tungsten guide rod, zev firing pin assembly with a heavy spring, complete pyramid trigger kit. But I’m not sure why it’s going click instead of bang about 3 rounds out of 10. The firing pin is good and still pointy. Could it be the magazine or custom barrel? Sorry for the lack of info just need somewhere to start

 

[Kp321]

What do the primers look like on the mis fires? Factory loads or reloads? Could be something as simple as a cruddy firing pin channel to something as serious as excess headspace. Need more information, please.

 

[Mathew Pixley]

I will post more pictures of everything tomorrow. When you say excess headspace what do you mean exactly?

 

[BBBBill]

Headspace is a critical specified dimension in all firearms. For a rimless straight wall case like a 9mm it is defined as the distance from the breech face of the slide to the forward shoulder of the chamber in the barrel that stops the round when it is chambered when the barrel is in its forward most position. I do not recall what the actual number is off the top of my head. Excess headspace would indicate that the chamber had been cut too deep or the barrel was misfit allowing more space between that forward shoulder and the breech face.

There are possibilities for your problem other than headspace. The firing pin safety may not be clearing before the firing pin/striker slams forward due to mis-fitting/excessive polishing. The firing pin protrusion through the breech face may be marginally short, igniting some, but not all rounds. A manufacturing defect or debris may be present in the slide's striker channel that creates drag on the striker. Aftermarket parts are fine if they are properly made and properly fit. Everyone assumes that the Glock is pretty much plug and play, but anytime you introduce a non-Glock manufactured part you are in new territory. Measuring, verifying, and adjusting or rejecting parts become part of the program.

I would start with verifying that the trigger and the firing pin safety are working properly together to get the safety plunger pushed up out of the way before the striker get there. It might be right on the ragged edge of work/won't work. It is one of the most reported problem areas in a Glock using aftermarket parts and/or being subjected to overzealous polishing in an attempt to smooth things up for a slicker action. Then measure the firing pin protrusion to ensure that it is correct. If that all checks then look at the headspace issue. It is the least likely to be the source of your trouble.

 

[LiveLife]

Could be something as simple as a cruddy firing pin channel

I had the same problem with factory striker in my Glock 22. Here's how I ended up troubleshooting and fixing the problem.

After taking the slide off, I pushed in the striker pin block (round button on underside of slide) and tilt the muzzle up. Striker should poke through the breechwall rectangle opening fully but if it does not poke through fully, you may have obstruction in the striker tube (caked on fouling) and/or fouling build up at the tip of striker pin.

Remove the striker pin assembly and inspect the tip for fouling build up. If tip lacks fouling build up, next inspect the striker pin tube/hole. If tube has a lot of fouling build up, plug the hole (white arrow) to hold solvent in the tube to clean fouling.

My problem was hard fouling build up at the bottom of striker pin tube/hole that was preventing the striker tip from poking through fully. I soaked the tube/hole with Hoppes #9 solvent and used a thin flathead screwdriver to scrape the hard packed fouling at the bottom of the tube/hole.

Once the fouling was scraped off, striker pin poked through fully and no more light primer strike.

 

[Mathew Pixley]

Wow, you guys are really informative here! What a forum.

 

[1KPerDay]

If that fails, put the stock striker components and springs back in.

 

[dwstone1227]

I had the same problem. BDS has the answer. A complete breakdown and cleaning including the firing pin solved my problem. The problem was in an “aged” Glock with lots of brass shavings debri obstructing the firing pin.

 

[LiveLife]

Perhaps we should wait to hear back from the OP.