“Sooo umm the front fell off.” . Sorry obscure humor.

That said I would never store a firearm in leather or foam or anything that tends to hold moisture but if the trigger guard literally failed vs the anodizing coming off there has to have been a defect of some kind or some chemical lottery at play IMO. Not saying it didn’t or can’t happen just saying that even with being stored in a leather holster a full on structural failure seems suspect and more likely a manufacturing defect..

I mean I have seen P226’s that have been put through hell and they didn’t fail in that type of way.

quote:

Aint nobody making maple cured holsters with that much salt in em.

Mmmmmmmm maple cured holster gun Jerky mmmmmmmm

What kind of finish does this P226 have? I've never heard of anodize peeling, flaking. Anodized aluminum is non conductive and prevents corrosion.
Alot of leather holsters have steel built in them with no issues, ie: spring steel for clam shells and steel in the mouth to keep holster open.

Need pictures.

.

Still need to know how much fell off!

the coating.... some of the metal under the coating or a whole piece of the trigger guard?

either way I vote for galvanic corrosion like someone else mentioned.... nor so much the chemicals in the leather but a metal stud in the holster that is a better metal than the aluminum.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
“Sooo umm the front fell off.” . Sorry obscure humor.

Since the O.P. has deigned not to provide any additional relevant facts or pics, I'm going to take the liberty of a quick detour and share a story.

Years ago a co-worker buddy of mine and I had planned a range trip after our shift. It's probably fair to say we were relatively experienced gun owners and shooters, and had shot together before.

Another co-worker overhead us planning our range trip, mentioned that he had a handgun, and asked if he could tag along, and we agreed. My buddy and I are, more or less, good ol' boys, and our co-worker, was from New York City. He really wasn't a bad guy per se, but he was fairly loud. We were, more or less, soft-spoken good-natured kidders, and he was more of a loud shit talker.

It only took a few rounds to see that he wasn't that experienced or accurate a shot, which is just fine as long as you don't talk smack, while patterning the target with hand gun rounds.

Anyways, we were wrapping up the range session and fired our last strings. After he fired his last round, I caught a glimpse of something flying several feet forward of the line. We all looked at the piece of metal on the ground and then back at the handgun still pointing down range... missing the front of the slide. My buddy and I couldn't help ourselves and had a good chuckle over that, but the look on his face was priceless... he looked like a kid whose lollipop just hit the dirt... which put an end to the shit talking that day.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by m.p.driver:
A friend pulled a P226 .40 out of his safe, that he had bought from the Sheriffs dept. several years ago. From having stored it in a leather holster, it had white corrosion on the front of the trigger guard, I picked at it with my thumb nail and a large section of the guard just fell away. The only thing i could figure out was there was some sort of reaction between the frame and the retaining stud/screw in the holster. I told him that's why I don't store firearms in leather, it's a shame because this thing was never issued, not a mark on it

OP,

Any chance you may be able to post a few pics ?

Pics or it didn’t happen.

MikeinNc,
Thank you.

I think what the OP is saying is that it's his friend's gun and it might not be convenient for him to take pics at the moment. If so, that's cool and thank you for an interesting thread none-the-less.

still waiting for the pics on this one. Pretty much all that will keep the thread going....

Why so implausible? Aluminum will corrode - I believe that chlorine is a major agent of corrosion and that chlorinated solvents are frowned on in the aircraft industry for this reason. If there where certain salts involved in the tanning process, combined with ambient humidity, they could cause something like this after a decade plus of storage, especially if there were a small nick or scratch in the region for the salts to penetrate better. It sure isn't uncommon for ferrous metals to flake off from corrosion after several years.

quote:

Originally posted by SWOH:
Why so implausible? Aluminum will corrode - I believe that chlorine is a major agent of corrosion and that chlorinated solvents are frowned on in the aircraft industry for this reason. If there where certain salts involved in the tanning process, combined with ambient humidity, they could cause something like this after a decade plus of storage, especially if there were a small nick or scratch in the region for the salts to penetrate better. It sure isn't uncommon for ferrous metals to flake off from corrosion after several years.

Not so implausible. I figured it was aluminum corrosion. The curious part was when he said "a large section of the guard fell away." That sounds like it's structurally compromised. Pix would be nice to get a better sense of it.

quote:

Originally posted by SWOH:
Why so implausible? Aluminum will corrode -

Absolutely aluminum will corrode, under certain specific conditions such as what you listed, but those are the exceptions and not common.

I've owned a number of classic P series SIGs with aluminum alloy frames, including a number of P226s. My very first P226, bought new in the '90s, was occasionally shot, occasionally cleaned and lubed, and had light finish wear on both the slide and frame. During one practice draw session at home I blew the draw and dropped the gun and it hit a hard object before landing on the carpeted floor, which left a small but noticeable ding on the front of the hooked trigger guard, with bare aluminum alloy exposed.

That particular P226 spent probably the first 10 years of its life stored in a Safariland leather pancake holster (the thumbreak used a plastic-coated metal snap, but portions of the plastic broke away so the metal snap rested against the slide), and yet never showed the first signs of corrosion or breakage anywhere on the frame. A couple years ago I was inspecting that same P226 in which there is finish wear on the slide in the places typically associated with a carry gun, and I noticed a small amount of corrosion on the bare steel, that was fairly easy to remove...and yet no corrosion on the aluminum alloy exposed metal. This particular P226 is still in service and still fully functional...and fully intact.

Despite various levels of finish wear on my classic P series SIGs, none have ever shown any indication of corrosion on their frames, and yet an unissued P226 with, presumably, a quality intact factory finish, corrodes in a holster to the point where there is structural failure of the frame?

If the OP reported light surface corrosion on the gun I could maybe accept that on face value.. but a gun reported to be unissued and essentially new, with a chunk of the trigger guard falling off after scratching it with a thumbnail? I'm going to need more info (type of holster?) and a few photos of both the holster (I would expect this level of corrosion to leave traces/ staining inside the holster) and the damage to the gun, before buying that one.

The OP has had ample time to either photograph the damage or request that his friend photograph it and send him the photos to post in this thread.

A shitty holster imported from the third world might be the difference here - they could be using things not used to tan better quality holsters.

^^^^^^^^ That’s a good point. Mrs DF bought a black leather jacket online back in ‘05. The thing smelled like diesel fuel. Within a week the black began wearing off to expose a calico colored jacket shoe polished black. Best not to buy from the 3rd world.

Yea whatever 3 post guy. Lol. Pics or it didn’t happen. I think you can use that argument in court.

As an aside I wish my holsters tasted like honey cured bacon.

Occam’s Razor says it didn’t happen. I think that’s good enough for me rather than trying to come up every reason under the sun to explain something we have zero evidence for.