Traditional firing pin pencil test? Myth, or valid test with a Kahr PM9?

[kahrinca]

My new PM9 has fired every time- no light strikes. Have inspected empty casings and the strikes have the irregular pattern, which is normal according to the manual.

Out of curiosity, yesterday and today I tried the pencil test- cycled the slide and stuck a pencil with eraser down the bore, pointed the gun towards the ceiling and pencil did not shoot out from the muzzle. It did not appear to move at all.

Does this matter with the Kahr, a striker-fired pistol?

Pencil: new and unsharpened, 7 and 1/2" long, #2, with a weight of 0.2 oz. Perhaps it's a bit too long?

Later: broke pencil in half, still 'no joy'.

Note: I do not recall pencil test included in 'Proper Prep of a new Kahr'.

[wyntrout]

A wooden dowel or a plastic one works better. The eraser can absorb all of the striker pin impact and it appears that the pencil is unmoved. A new pencil with the unsharpened point down works better and perhaps the best is a ballpoint pen... the non-retractable type with a "barrel" top that fits in the barrel and can be struck by the striker's pin. I usually test my Kahrs and Glocks after each cleaning. The Glocks usually cause the plastic rod that I use to hit the ceiling... the Kahrs not so much.

Wynn

[Tilos]

Wow, knowing that, how do you sleep at night.

[wyntrout]

I use the vertical rods from a double-decker Lazy-Susan-type condiment rack... a little less than 3/8" in diameter by 7-8" long. I think that 3/8" would not work in .380 or 9mm.

Wynn

[kahrinca]

Wow, knowing that, how do you sleep at night.

I didn't last night. I stayed up all night 'fretting' over it! NOT!

It wasn't until today after reading some of the helpful posts above that it worked! Placed the unsharpened flat end of the now broken pencil down the muzzle.

Thanks in particular to wyntrout!

[wyntrout]

I actually had this test fail one time, but I quickly found the reason. I hadn't paid enough attention to what I was doing and put the spring rest backwards in the striker! That's the little thingy just above the striker in the following photo. The pin could NOT protrude from the breech face with the safety block depressed and pushing forward on the back of the striker assembly's tab on the bottom.



This could have ruined my day had I been attacked and tried to defend myself. Always test function... safely... before putting your pistol back into defensive use! And... pay attention to detail... your life could depend on it!

Wynn

PS: I'm not sure if the striker pin could not protrude, or that it stayed extended/protruding... may not remember correctly. (Disclaimer ) But it didn't test correctly!

[kahrinca]

Thanks for your comment, wyntrout.

It's good that such a 'striker block' test is available. It should especially be performed after reassembly of a stripped slide and before attaching it to the frame. This wouldn't have helped wyntrout much in his situation described, above, unless he tested for protrusion at the time. That is not really part of the safety check, which is to confirm pin just below
flush with breech face.

For those who are new, the striker block safety check is addressed on page 23 of the Kahr Manual.

But to verify that your striker will indeed protrude when needed to fire, just press down on the block to unlock it while simultaneously pushing the spring towards the muzzle to see the striker pin protrusion. It should also set back to its position flush with the breech face of the slide when block is engaged and should not move beyond it unless block is depressed.

It's basically the same as a firing pin safety block found on many of today's pistols.

Pencil Test- I happen to do the pencil test infrequently as I don't detail strip my slides. Range trip (as in going 'bang') serves as 'ultimate' pencil test, along with a quick look at some casings for primer indents.
Striker Block test- I also do that infrequently. I just look to see if the pin is flush with the breech face. That's basically it and as recited in the manual, so amend my comment from 'infrequent' to 'frequent', because it only requires a 'look-see'..

Sometimes I'll just pull back on the spring tab and thereafter let go to see if pin protrudes. If it does, there's a problem. That has never happened though it's possible.

[Bawanna]

I do the pencil test frequently and Wynn was spot on with his theory.

Some guns the striker is not perfectly centered and the eraser will indeed absorb the strike with no reaction.

Most of my 1911's will leave a mark on the ceiling, glocks seem to spit them out pretty strong too although their striker is different too.

On of my jobs at work is sometimes determining if a seized gun is an actual functioning gun. Assaults with a weapon, that sort of thing, usually kids with a little piece of junk auto or revolver.
We don't fire live ammo ever, not worth getting blown up, so an examination for all the basic necessary parts and a pencil test is the ticket.

Last one I did was a small caliber, can't remember but I think 22 auto, maybe a spinx or something like that.

Being rim fire and not big enough bore for a pencil I had to use one of those q tips on a wood stick, then had to get it positioned just right so the striker would hit.

Like I told the judge, it would most assuredly fire on round in the chamber, after that who knows if it would feed or chamber another round. He didn't care, one round was enough.

[wyntrout]

With a rimfire, you could use a fired cartridge case... no projectile... after marking the old or new strike place. You should get two dents in the rim unless you've put the old hit under the firing pin.

[TheLastDaze]

have a near NOS gen1 p32 I acquired recently, took it to the range for 150 rounds of my mixed range brass handloads (which were powder puffs on my chrony) anyhow I had around 7 light strikes and one stove pipe (blamed on the undercharged ammo)... anyhow the light strikes I determined were user error as the gen1 doesn't have a hammer block so I must have not let the trigger reset fully and pulled the trigger on the first click of reset...

went home did the pencil test to see if it would move and how far with a one click reset and it barely moved, with a full reset it moved much more.... compared it to my gen2 p32 and the pencil moved a lot more in full reset, the gen2 has a hammer block so wasn't able to test first click reset strike....

never tried this in anyother gun as it wasn't necessary and I've never experienced light strikes.... It being such a small caliber I didn't expect it to jump out of the barrel which was pointed at a 45* upward angle...

Someday I may try every gun just for fun...

[wyntrout]

The Glocks can really toss stuff. I tried a new pencil and it only jumped a foot or so... maybe hitting the lead. My plastic rod .32" diameter, 5.5" long and weighing about .17 ounces or 5 grams, was tossed 8-10 feet up in the air in our foyer where the ceiling is 18 ft. instead of our usual 9 ft. Video link below.

I weighed the pencil and it was about 5 grams, too, and about .15 ounces.

http://vid1134.photobucket.com/album...t/MVI_6866.mp4

Multiple tries with my PM9 (5-lb Wolff striker spring) yield a best of about 2.5 ft. It matters when the firing pin strikes a previously struck spot with an indentation. My results varied from hardly clearing the barrel to a max of about 2 1/2 feet in 5 tries. Several reached about 1 foot.

My PM45 has the original striker spring re-installed and gave me 5 to 6 feet every time.

My P380 with the 5-lb spring gave 5 to 6 feet every time, too!

Wynn

[CJB]

My sister tried the pencil test at age 11, and failed, but by 11-1/2 she passed with flying.... whatever they were.

The "spring-rest" would be more aptly named the "striker-carrier", as its function is not so much as to have a nice place to put the striker spring, but instead to propel the striker forward until the "spring-rest" engages its own stop, and the striker continues on to strike the firing pin via inertia.

Try a plain Jane Bic Pen.

And no, my sisters name isn't Jane, but it shoulda been at age 11!!!

[wyntrout]

I was lazy and didn't bother to look it up. I did look, but not hard, for a Bic-type pen, but didn't see one handy. I'll bet that some of my pistols could bounce a smaller shell casing off the ceiling in the foyer... about 18.5 feet. I just pushed a 30-ft Stanley one-inch metal tape up the corner in there 3 times with crashes. The last time I hit the ceiling and could measure to the 7-ft door top. I was about to give up. I was close to the bedroom door and she was probably trying to sleep.

Wynn