Brass bits in the striker channel?

[jouesdeveau]

When I do a thorough strip of my PM9's slide and remove the striker, I often find tiny flecks of brass inside the striker channel. How in the world does that happen?

[DJK11]

My P380 and one of my PM45 were loaded with brass flakes when new. The answer from Kahr was it's primer brass and I must be using Federal ammo. The thing is I had not fired them yet. Thousands of rounds later and no brass in the channel.

[muggsy]

The brass can be removed by cleaning the striker channel by using non-chlorinated brake cleaner. Just insert the plastic wand into the clean out hole in the slide and give the channel a short blast.

[RRP]

For what it's worth, I get the same brass bits in my other pistols; not just Kahrs. Keeping the gun clean is part of regular maintenance and that includes flushing-out the striker channel as Muggsy suggests, or by doing a detail strip of the slide.

[jouesdeveau]

I do clean out the striker channel regularly (complete strip about every 500 rnds) but was trying to imagine how the flakes of brass get there in the first place. I have over 2000 rnds on this PM9, and I use mainly Winchester white box, not Federal. I've just assumed that, in some way, the extractor scrapes a bit of brass off the rim of a case. How that bit of brass would find its way into the striker channel is beyond me.

[RRP]

How that bit of brass would find its way into the striker channel is beyond me.

When the gun unlocks, upon firing, and the barrel tilts, the striker is still in contact with the primer. That creates a scraping action that may gouge a bit of brass off the primer and if it sticks to the striker, gets dragged into the channel during the cycle of the slide as the gun is cocked.

This is only speculation on my part. I'm curious what the smart people come up with.

[yqtszhj]

That sounds like a logical answer right there.

[muggsy]

Not only logical, but also correct.

[jocko]

When the gun unlocks, upon firing, and the barrel tilts, the striker is still in contact with the primer. That creates a scraping action that may gouge a bit of brass off the primer and if it sticks to the striker, gets dragged into the channel during the cycle of the slide as the gun is cocked.

This is only speculation on my part. I'm curious what the smart people come up with.

very good speculation to, Glocks work the same way. IMO just spray clean that striker channel every time u clean the weapon....

[cobrasjp]

When the gun unlocks, upon firing, and the barrel tilts, the striker is still in contact with the primer. That creates a scraping action that may gouge a bit of brass off the primer and if it sticks to the striker, gets dragged into the channel during the cycle of the slide as the gun is cocked.

This is only speculation on my part. I'm curious what the smart people come up with.

This is why the indent in the primer is not perfectly round, but oblong. The tip of the striker is dragging across the primer as the gun unlocks.

[RRP]

This is why the indent in the primer is not perfectly round, but oblong. The tip of the striker is dragging across the primer as the gun unlocks.

Roger that; sometimes called primer swipe.