quote:
Originally posted by Dawes:
Was this also applicable to civilian guns?
No, and it shouldn't really be applicable to military weapons, either, save for pedantic, anal minutia.
In function, the striker is fully retracted past the lock every time the slide comes forward. It probably doesn't hurt to check the striker when it's in or out of the pistol (I do, when cleaning or assembling/disassembling), but I don't know that it's a requirement or necessary.
There are function checks for the fire control unit any time it's worked on too, and I do those, but most will simply slap it together and go.
As the article notes, so long as the safety lock on the striker assembly retains the striker in the aft position, it doesn't matter regarding the striker assembly that's installed; the only thing that matters is that the safety lock functions, and that's something that I normally check anyway prior to removing the striker, and after installation.
There is a change in the civil striker itself, involving the radius of the base of the striker pin (firing pin); there were some cases of breakage of the firing pin off the end of the striker in early pistols, and the base of the firing pin was beefed up with a more subtle radius to reduce breakage. That doesn't impact the striker lock or its function, however.
