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Hi Everyone,
I just want to share a learning experience with everyone in the hopes that this oversight is not repeated by anyone else; or at the very least, detected and mitigated as quickly as possible. Trust me, this incident is the last thing you need in a stressful situation; especially when you are depending on your carry weapon to save your life.
I have a ritual in which I save up all my carry rounds that show signs of a slight bullet setback and train with them. I always believed that it is a good practice to train with the ammo in your carry weapon because you want to be familiar with a hollow point recoil and how the gun behaves to premium ammo. And, on this day, I decided to take my Springfield XD 9mm Subcompact to the range for some much needed training.
So I placed my target at 7 yards, holstered my weapon, and steadied myself for a quick draw exercise. I took a deep breath and then snapped into my drawing routine, making sure that my movements were crisp and precise. With one clean movement, I cleared my shirt to expose my weapon with my free off-hand and drew the gun with my strong hand.
Everything was going very well when I drew my gun to my chest and began to present my gun to the target. However, little did I know that this was all about to change. As I extended my arms and took aim, I took one last mental note of my form as I moved my finger onto the trigger. And in the final moments of truth, I confirmed my target, squeezed the trigger, and...."Click"...!!!!"
My first thought was that it was a bad round. But I took it in stride and continued my training session as if this was a real life scenario. Quick as a I could, I manually racked the slide to clear the bad round and reengaged the target. I confirmed my target once again, squeezed the trigger, and...."Click"...!!! (What the #@$?!?!)
By now, I conceded that I had failed in that training round and had that been a real incident, I would had most likely been dead. But my primary concern at that moment was the fact that my carry weapon had failed me. So I removed the magazine and the chambered round from the gun to begin the process of finding out why and how a relatively new Springfield XD 9mm Subcompact (with less than 1k rounds fired) would suffer such a catastrophic failure.
As I begin to disassemble the gun, I noticed that the upper receiver was very clean with no signs of carbon fouling or dust. And why shouldn't it be? I take very good care of it and I make sure that it's cleaned with Froglube after every trip to the range. I continued my visual diagnosis of my stricken weapon for few minutes more, but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.
I then looked at the two rounds and noticed that each of the casings were struck. But it wasn't struck hard enough to ignite the primer inside to discharge the round. That was the clue I needed to hopefully solve this malfunction. I took the upper receiver again and inspected the striker portion of the weapon. Upon closer inspection, I did notice that the spring and the housing was slightly damp (not a good sign since striker chambers are supposed to be bone dry).
I disassembled the striker chamber and shoved a Qtip into the housing only to find that the entire area was gummed up with a thick carbon gel. As it turned out, my many previous cleanings with Froglube has somehow contaminated the striker chamber over time. As a result, access Froglube made its way into the chamber and began to remove and isolate carbon as per the product's design. But because the product could not be removed from the chamber, it sat there and continued to clean and collect more carbon until it became a thick gel.
Now I do not blame Froglube for this malfunction nor I do use an excessive amount of it when I use it to clean my weapon. In fact, I use it very sparingly when I clean with it and I only use very little of it to lube the required contact points. However, I did learn that striker type firearms are very temperamental when it comes to their firing chambers. Froglube is a great product, but I will definitely keep it away from my striker chamber from hence forth. The last thing you need is to have a great cleaning product causing you to lose your life.
So the moral of this story? It always a good practice to fire your carry weapon every once in awhile to make sure it is at its peek performance. You never know that something that you've been doing over time may actually cause your weapon to malfunction without you being aware of it.
- Gomphe
I just want to share a learning experience with everyone in the hopes that this oversight is not repeated by anyone else; or at the very least, detected and mitigated as quickly as possible. Trust me, this incident is the last thing you need in a stressful situation; especially when you are depending on your carry weapon to save your life.
I have a ritual in which I save up all my carry rounds that show signs of a slight bullet setback and train with them. I always believed that it is a good practice to train with the ammo in your carry weapon because you want to be familiar with a hollow point recoil and how the gun behaves to premium ammo. And, on this day, I decided to take my Springfield XD 9mm Subcompact to the range for some much needed training.
So I placed my target at 7 yards, holstered my weapon, and steadied myself for a quick draw exercise. I took a deep breath and then snapped into my drawing routine, making sure that my movements were crisp and precise. With one clean movement, I cleared my shirt to expose my weapon with my free off-hand and drew the gun with my strong hand.
Everything was going very well when I drew my gun to my chest and began to present my gun to the target. However, little did I know that this was all about to change. As I extended my arms and took aim, I took one last mental note of my form as I moved my finger onto the trigger. And in the final moments of truth, I confirmed my target, squeezed the trigger, and...."Click"...!!!!"
My first thought was that it was a bad round. But I took it in stride and continued my training session as if this was a real life scenario. Quick as a I could, I manually racked the slide to clear the bad round and reengaged the target. I confirmed my target once again, squeezed the trigger, and...."Click"...!!! (What the #@$?!?!)
By now, I conceded that I had failed in that training round and had that been a real incident, I would had most likely been dead. But my primary concern at that moment was the fact that my carry weapon had failed me. So I removed the magazine and the chambered round from the gun to begin the process of finding out why and how a relatively new Springfield XD 9mm Subcompact (with less than 1k rounds fired) would suffer such a catastrophic failure.
As I begin to disassemble the gun, I noticed that the upper receiver was very clean with no signs of carbon fouling or dust. And why shouldn't it be? I take very good care of it and I make sure that it's cleaned with Froglube after every trip to the range. I continued my visual diagnosis of my stricken weapon for few minutes more, but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.
I then looked at the two rounds and noticed that each of the casings were struck. But it wasn't struck hard enough to ignite the primer inside to discharge the round. That was the clue I needed to hopefully solve this malfunction. I took the upper receiver again and inspected the striker portion of the weapon. Upon closer inspection, I did notice that the spring and the housing was slightly damp (not a good sign since striker chambers are supposed to be bone dry).
I disassembled the striker chamber and shoved a Qtip into the housing only to find that the entire area was gummed up with a thick carbon gel. As it turned out, my many previous cleanings with Froglube has somehow contaminated the striker chamber over time. As a result, access Froglube made its way into the chamber and began to remove and isolate carbon as per the product's design. But because the product could not be removed from the chamber, it sat there and continued to clean and collect more carbon until it became a thick gel.
Now I do not blame Froglube for this malfunction nor I do use an excessive amount of it when I use it to clean my weapon. In fact, I use it very sparingly when I clean with it and I only use very little of it to lube the required contact points. However, I did learn that striker type firearms are very temperamental when it comes to their firing chambers. Froglube is a great product, but I will definitely keep it away from my striker chamber from hence forth. The last thing you need is to have a great cleaning product causing you to lose your life.
So the moral of this story? It always a good practice to fire your carry weapon every once in awhile to make sure it is at its peek performance. You never know that something that you've been doing over time may actually cause your weapon to malfunction without you being aware of it.
- Gomphe
NRA Benefactor Member
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