Forum member Voshterkoff just posted a link to an Army report about a possible problem with the striker safety lever in the P320 series of pistols (link at bottom).

A small number of pistols were reportedly found to have defective striker safety levers. The safety lever blocks the striker from moving forward unless the trigger of the pistol is pulled. The sear also prevents the striker from moving forward unless the trigger is pulled, but the safety lever is a backup to the sear with its two intercept contact points.

The report doesn’t indicate how a problem could occur, and it was evidently very rare among the pistols inspected, but I believe it’s something every P320 owner should be aware of and know how to inspect for. The photo shows the two parts involved in an inspection, the safety lever and what I refer to as the striker lug (I don’t know its official name).





To check the proper operation of the safety lever:
1. Is the safety lever present and in the position shown?
2. If yes, press the lever up into the slide. There should be a little resistance from the safety lever spring, and it should return to the normal position when released.
3. If no problem so far, push forward on the striker lug. It should not move or move only very slightly. Check to ensure that the firing pin does not protrude from the breech face.

Although the safety bulletin states that if the safety lever is missing or defective, the gun is no longer drop safe, that’s only partially true because the sear with its two contact points also normally prevents the striker from moving forward unless the trigger is pulled to release it from the sear. But despite that, if there is a problem with the safety lever, the best thing would be to replace the entire striker assembly.

Please add your own questions or comments.

https://john1911.com/wp-conten...Publish-Approved.pdf

As a final comment, the Army bulletin is somewhat unclear about what the exact problem was. It says the safety lever is “missing,” but the one photo shows it’s the spring that’s not there. Although other photos aren’t too clear, it’s also reported that the lever itself is gone. How that would be possible if the striker assembly had not been removed from the slide escapes me. I must suspect, therefore, that the parts were lost when a user or perhaps a poorly-trained or careless armorer removed the striker assembly.

But I still suppose it’s something to be aware of, and is easily checked.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sigfreund,

Good info. Thank you for posting.