There is a bulletin floating around various US Military commands about problems being seen with the new service pistol. In particular, they are seeing failures of the thumb safety mechanism.
If I read the report correctly, it appears the external thumb safety still functions, but an internal firing pin block is being sheared off somewhere around 5000 to 6000 rounds. The result being a weapon that can discharge if dropped, even with external safety engaged.
The report is instructions for unit armorers. It shows how to check M17 & M18 pistols for the issue. And what part must be used to remedy the fix. Furthermore it advises armorers to check pistols every time they come back into the armories for this issue.
Per request of our source, we have redacted specific details to keep individual units or commands out of the document.
Broken striker assembly vs intact striker assembly. Not drop safe.
My analysis:
I don’t feel 5000-6000 rounds is much use at all. And considering some commands probably haven’t even had the M17/M18 that long, hitting 5000 rounds happened pretty quick.
Hearing that even the thumb safety equipped “SIG P320” has developed a drop-safe issue has got to be a major blow to the engineers at SIGUSA.
We do have an in-house metallurgist (yes, really) and he will be giving us his thoughts once he sees the data. But his cursory thoughts looking at the pics was it should be a simple fix.
At this point, one wonders how many upgrades and changes will me made to the M17-M18 program to warrant a M17a1 designation? I expect we are getting close. But only time will tell.
The full report can be downloaded here:
M17-M18 Pistol Thumb Safety Failures Report – US Military – Publish Approved
Sincerely,
Marky
www.John1911.com
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