Second Hand M&P 9c has trigger/striker problems

[atek3]

About 7 years ago, I bought a second hand M&P 9c. Cerakote, Dawson fiber sights, crimson trace grip, match trigger job. I had a few light primer strikes which were bad. I took a defensive pistol class and had several "dead triggers."

I would pull the trigger during a drill and get nothing. Not even a click or clunk. By cocking the striker about 3/4" the gun would fire but the malf happened three times and I switched to my BUG.

Obviously it needs a gunsmith or an entirely new trigger striker assembly.

has trigger/striker problems

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Are you getting light strikes or no strike at all? Because no click or clunk , dead trigger is not a light strike its a no strike.

I think your saying no trigger. Reset. If your gun is cleaned that eliminates one thing.

Moving on is the trigger returning fully? If its not and gun is clean it might be a weak trigger return spring.

If its returning but not resetting their might be a another problem. Maybe something in the sear or sear housing.



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[swede4198]

Did you lubricate the striker channel? If you did you need to clean it as the striker gets gunked up and will cause light strikes. The striker needs no lube to function well.

 

[FL-NC]

Between your "match trigger job" and cerakote, shenanigans have ensued. Send it back to S&W to get the thing restored to factory standard configuration.

 

[atek3]

should have been more clear.

The light strike and no-strike are probably unrelated issues.

Striker channel is definitely clean and dry.

FL-NC: I went through my email records and figured out who worked the gun over. He's a highly respected S&W M&P specialist, so I'm not going to drag his name through the mud, but I did email him today. Hopefully we can work something out (i.e. I'd take free installation on an Apex AEK).

I also emailed S&W before I found the name of the gunsmith but haven't heard back yet.

atek3

 

[ArchAngelCD]

FL-NC: I went through my email records and figured out who worked the gun over. He's a highly respected S&W M&P specialist, so I'm not going to drag his name through the mud, but I did email him today. Hopefully we can work something out (i.e. I'd take free installation on an Apex AEK).

atek3

My question is, why after 7 years would any gunsmith be obligated to give away something free when his work was fine for over 7 years? The gunsmith did nothing wrong but you might have if you didn't do normal maintenance by replacing springs over a 7 year period.

What us this gun used for? You said above you "had to go to your BUG." Please don't tell me this is an SD handgun.

 

[atek3]

"My question is, why after 7 years would any gunsmith be obligated to give away something free when his work was fine for over 7 years? The gunsmith did nothing wrong but you might have if you didn't do normal maintenance by replacing springs over a 7 year period."

The gun has about 1000 rounds through it total as it spent about 6 of those 7 years in storage.

He's not obligated to give anything away for free and I told him as much.

"What us this gun used for? You said above you "had to go to your BUG." Please don't tell me this is an SD handgun."

For the first six months (i.e. mid-2009) it was used as a carry gun and used to shoot one USPSA match, for about the next 6 of those 7 years, it wasn't used, period. I got it out of storage and tested it at the range about 2 months ago and it ran fine. Last Sat,I used it for a defensive pistol class, that's when it went TU. The BUG wasn't a true BUG. Since I own two XD40's, I had my wife shoot one, leaving the other as a backup. When the M&P broke I switched to it.

atek3

 

[tarosean]

Replace the Trigger Bar, FP spring and Sear with stock parts.
They probably took enough metal off to shorten its life expectancy.

 

[ny32182]

Yeah, good luck getting anything for free out of a gunsmith who might have worked on the gun for someone else 7 years ago before you even owned it.

No reason to send it anywhere. M&Ps are very simple to work on.

Likely all your issues are spring related. Personally I experienced all the following, and likely one or more of these applies to you:

No strike: Could be one of two things:
1) If you have a light recoil spring with a lot of miles on it, and it is now very light, you could be just a tad out of battery. You will still get a click, but no strike at all. This happened to me with a high mileage 11lb recoil spring, and a stock striker spring. The recoil spring and the striker spring are "fighting" each other as the pistol goes all the way into battery, and if they are not balanced you can end up slightly out of battery. The fix would be new recoil spring. I settled on 13lbs when I was shooting the M&P a lot.


2) If you have a lightened sear spring that is additionally either high mileage, or dirty, the sear may not be resetting at all. The little spring under it is the only thing that presses it up, and if it is weak or dirty, there is a chance the sear is not resetting, so it is not grabbing the striker as the gun goes into battery. Symptom would be "dead trigger": No click, no strike. The fix is either to clean the sear housing (under the sear) and/or go to a heavier sear spring. After I let mine get super dirty the first time, my solution was to use a stock sear spring and clean under it every few thousand rounds... never had the issue again.

Light strikes:

1) Could be the same as #1 above; just not quite to the point of getting NO strike. Fix, again, would be a new/stronger recoil spring.

2) You could have an aftermarket lightened striker spring that is not hitting your primers hard enough. Fix would be to go to a stock striker spring, or start using Federal primers.

M&P parts are super cheap, and you could likely restore everything into to stock for less than 100 bucks if you just wanted to go that route.

 

[atek3]

Thanks for the tips, guys. Will let you know. Probably going with an Apex so it matches the feel of my Shield.

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[Wreck-n-Crew]

should have been more clear.

The light strike and no-strike are probably unrelated issues.

Striker channel is definitely clean and dry.

FL-NC: I went through my email records and figured out who worked the gun over. He's a highly respected S&W M&P specialist, so I'm not going to drag his name through the mud, but I did email him today. Hopefully we can work something out (i.e. I'd take free installation on an Apex AEK).

I also emailed S&W before I found the name of the gunsmith but haven't heard back yet.

atek3

FWIW when a customer orders something for a gun it doesn't necessarily make the Smith a bad guy. Most of the time the customer is right.

When you do a trigger job the springs are often lighter including the trigger return spring and the firing pin spring. Enough so that their life span is shorter. Because of that they re more related than you think.

If you ask me i would say your likely looking at replacing both of those springs to get the strikes back harder and the trigger to return properly and reset.

I light light triggers and when i get a pistol i often do a trigger job on it. I've had to replace them from time to time because they all get weaker and when a spring is already riding on the light side they don't take as much lightening to cause failure.

Hope this helps.

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[9mmepiphany]

When you don't get a reset at all, my first thought is that you might have an old style Sear spring. S&W has now standardized on a larger spring, which requires a different Sear Block and sear plunger

 

[jbj]

When you don't get a reset at all, my first thought is that you might have an old style Sear spring. S&W has now standardized on a larger spring, which requires a different Sear Block and sear plunger

+1
You can send it back to Smith, and they will swap the block and spring (this was a problem with some "older" M&Ps).

FWIW, I had a Glock 23 break its reset spring during a class. Trigger would reset 8 or 9 out of 10 times, but I'd have to tap-rack-bang drill once or twice a mag (I figured it was good practice).

 

[FL-NC]

jbj- those reset springs on the Glocks will break if you manually reset them- meaning not by the action of the slide. I did it and broke one, after being told not to. I was checking it after a complete frame disassembly, without the slide. Learned a lesson, fixed it, haven't done it since.

 

[jbj]

jbj- those reset springs on the Glocks will break if you manually reset them- meaning not by the action of the slide. I did it and broke one, after being told not to. I was checking it after a complete frame disassembly, without the slide. Learned a lesson, fixed it, haven't done it since.

Thanks for the info. I'm Glock-free as of now, but always happy for knowledge.