FS9 Worn Striker Catch.

[Helmax]

Hey everyone,
I just picked up my first DB product today, a used FS9. It was owned by a friend who purchased it new and has put about 150rds through it. He was having some problems with it, and I fix all his guns. He decided to just offer me the FS9 at a price I couldn't refuse. So he dropped it off this morning, he has been having FTFs and an accidental discharge.

So I field stripped it and familiarize myself with it. Really similar to a Glock in a lot of ways. I racked the slide several times, the striker will only engage the striker catch about 50% of the time. About half of the time when it actually engaged, I was able to just barely move the pistol and the striker would release.

The striker catch, "for lack of a better term" is worn right where the striker ran contacts the catch. It's worn is a rounded form the same shape as the striker tab. This would be a bad deal for an unwitting owner. As I'm sure it could possibly empty a mag, at least give doubles or triples, without ever touching the trigger. On this particular gun, the trigger safety isn't engaging like it should either.

So, overall I like the gun. It's comfortable and is built pretty solid, reminds me of an 80% Glock I did in a lot of ways. I'm curious about parts? I've noticed there just aren't any out there. Seeing as I am not the original owner, I wonder what the odds are of getting parts from DB? I would even purchase them if possible. I hate to just junk this gun over these few small parts. A spare ejector, extractor and striker with springs would be a great. I would be happy with the gun if I had those spares.

So I'm gonna contact DB about parts, though aftermarket stainless parts would be preferred. I would be a bit more trusting of a part made of steel that wasn't so soft. There's bound to be quite a few owners out there who would be interested in putting together a group buy if we could talk an aftermarket Glock, etc. parts manufacturer to make some runs of these DB parts? They're extremely similar to Glock parts so there would be no big tooling changes to make them. I'll donate my parts from my FS9 as templates to make some. Any ideas are welcome.

Thanks for reading.

[Helmax]

So upon a little further inspection, the ejector acts as a stop for the striker catch. The striker catch is not coming up far enough to fully engage the striker tab. Thing is, I'm not sure how far I can raise the striker catch without causing problems? I don't foresee any, but you never know until you try sometimes. With the gun field stripped, frame only in hand pointed downrange. At the very back of the frame you'll see a silver piece of stamped steel on the left side with a slight bend at the end, this is the ejector. Then on its right side, will be the striker catch I speak of. If you look at the ejector and striker catch, you will see a small tab on the left of the striker catch that is underneath the rear of the ejector. So the rear portion of the ejector acts as a stop for the sear catch. Keeping it from rising too far up and also affecting the amount of pull required to disengage the striker from the catch, igniting the primer.

My thoughts are, if I remove some material from the lower, rearward protrusion of the ejector it will allow the striker catch to come up and positively engage the striker each and every time. If you hold the frame in hand, pointing to the left, you will see the top of the ejector has a step in it. Higher on the front where the ejector contacts the spent casing, and lower toward the rear where the striker contacts the catch. The top of my catch is approx .01" below the top of my ejector where they line up. My catch is only contacting the striker approx .025", it's also worn and rounded there so that's what is causing my issue with the striker going off on its own.

I would be interested to know from you guys here: does your sear catch stick above the top of your ejector at all? If so, approx how much? Sorry for the in depth description of the parts. I'm not doubting anyone's knowledge on here, just trying to make it clear as possible for anyone who has this issue in the future.

[Helmax]

FS9 Worn Striker Catch.
1506898962852256717776.jpg (29.09 kB . 700x420 - viewed 1623 times)
So here's where I removed material from the ejector. I only removed approx 0.015 material where the striker catch contacts the ejector. I then reassembled and noticed that the striker catch still was sitting too low even though the ejector was now clearanced for it. There was now a tiny gap between them, there was something else holding it as well.

FS9 Worn Striker Catch.
1506898962852256717776.jpg (29.09 kB . 700x420 - viewed 1623 times)
There is a step in the frame that also contacts the striker catch. Pictured above where I shaved approx 0.015 off of the front of this shelf. Allowing the catch to rise up approx 0.010 on its axis. Which now has a firm purchase on the striker, no matter how hard I try now I can not get the striker to release with shaking, jarring or even smacking the butt off of a hard surface. Before it would cock about 50% of the time and even when it latched any slight movement would drop the striker. Now it's good to go, it didn't even affect trigger pull. Other than the fact that the trigger now functions properly.

FS9 Worn Striker Catch.
1506898962852256717776.jpg (29.09 kB . 700x420 - viewed 1623 times)
I'll do some live fire tests tomorrow now that I trust it to not go off on me. I hope this helps anyone with a similar issue. Please be VERY sparing when it comes to removing material as I did. I removed tiny amounts in small increments until I achieved desired striker catch height. If anyone needs additional info or pics just let me know. Hope this helps.

[Helmax]

Well... My pics didn't work. Here's the first pic:
FS9 Worn Striker Catch.
20171001_152937.jpg (42.05 kB . 700x420 - viewed 1519 times)

[Helmax]

And.... the second:
FS9 Worn Striker Catch.
20171001_154325.jpg (34.26 kB . 700x420 - viewed 1547 times)

[joseph1]

Did shaving the ejection plate work for your seer and firing pin? Mine is currently having a problem with shooting 3-5 round bursts I believe the seer isn’t catching and keeping the firing pin from misfiring.