I had to get out to the range today to shoot a new Mossberg 590A1 14" SBS that I had bought for the PD I work for (I'm the head firearms instructor and in charge of all firearms/ammunition procurement). If interested, the review of the shotgun is in the shotgun subforum. The shotgun part of the range day went well, then I took the opportunity to shoot the personally owned 9mm M&P 2.0 that I'm using as my duty gun. Before today, I was up to about 2000 rds through the M&P.

I had run a couple of magazines through the pistol without a problem, then it started on the 3rd magazine. A light primer strike about halfway through the magazine. I was using my reloads, so I didn't think much about it. I've never had primer issues with my reloads since I started reloading 30 years ago, but shit happens. The next magazine, 2 more light strikes, so I did some investigating.

First off, I stripped the pistol, pushed in the striker safety and pushed the striker all the way forward. Truthfully, I was half expecting a chipped or broken striker nose. Nope, nice and round and smooth, with more than sufficient protrusion from the breech face. I then pulled the striker from the slide and found the problem. Quite a bit of brass shavings and general schmutz and thick oil on the striker and in the striker channel on the slide. I thought about and I've never pulled the striker to clean it, and I don't remember cleaning it out when new, either, so it likely also had preservative shipping oil in it. Cleaned out the channel with a q-tip and wiped the striker assembly down with an oily rag, put it back in and tried it again. Just like that, back to normal, flawless operation. Just to make sure the issue was solved, I fired 6 more magazines. Reliable function, so I'm calling the issue solved.

Moral of the story- provided you know how, remove the striker/firing pin once in a while and clean it out. It's not hard to do at all on most guns. If you do like I do and wipe the breech face down with a patch wet with solvent as part of cleaning, the solvent can get into the striker/firing pin channel, attract schmutz and debris and cause an issue. Just make sure that you DO NOT oil the striker/firing pin or the channel, reassemble it dry to keep from attracting the schmutz in the first place.

Good post OP. Discovered this issue as well awhile back on one of my Shields.  Same as you developed light primer strikes. One thing I do in addition to above is take a can of air and shoot it through the striker hole in the breach face (after striker removed).  First time I did it I was shocked at all the debris that flew out of there.

I read somewhere in the past that some had found the striker channel had debris from the factory.  Good idea to check it regularly.

Great post and I wish it was in the Handguns section where more people would see it.  Had a buddy in the FD who was having light strikes in his brand new Glock 23.  Stripped it down and his channel liner was clogged with oil and dirt.  Asked him and he said he always lubed the “firing pin.”

Amazing and sad what some new shooters don’t know about maintaining their firearms.

I’ve got 4 M&P 2.0’s.  Going to pull them apart and see if I’ve got the beginnings of any issues.  Did a general cleaning when new but never thought to pull the striker and check for oil.

I've become convinced that people, in general, are idiots and don't even care to learn any better.

A guy that used to work at my PD is a case in point. He started out with a personally owned Glock 23, then went to a Dept issue Gen4 G22. One of the times that I was doing PM and detail stripped his Dept issued gun to check it out, there was literally oil running out of the firing pin channel. I cleaned it up, gave it back to him and told him that, per Glock, you do not put oil in the firing pin channel. He countered that he had taken a Glock armorer's course back in the day and the instructor had told him that the small "weep hole" in the slide was to put oil in and that he should squirt oil in there every time he cleaned it. I knew he was lying (I have been a certified Glock armorer since 1993 and at no point did Glock say to squirt oil in the weep hole) and called him out on it. He insisted that was what he was told, even after I dug out my armorer's manual and showed him that Glock says no oil in the FP channel. When I was doing PM the next year, again his gun had oil running out of the FP channel. Again, I cleaned it up, and this time went to the Chief because he didn't even want to get it or listen. The Chief told him that I was responsible for maintaining the Dept owned guns and that he WOULD follow my recommendations. He got pissy and we had issues ever since then. He had so much oil in the FP channel that I'm shocked he didn't get light FP strikes. At qualifications a year or so later, this same guy did a speed reload on his G22 with his finger in the trigger. Of course, in the process of slamming the mag in, he pulled the trigger, launching a round over the berm. I called him out on it and several people saw it happen. Informed the Chief, he did an investigation and, in the end, wrote him up. He swore till the day he retired not long after (and still swears) that he didn't do it, that I falsely accused him because I wanted his steady midnight shifts. This, despite several people having seen him do it. Idiot. He was also the same guy that "embellished" his military service record, which is dumb when he also put everything on FaceBook for all to see and tell that he was lying about what he did.

I always checked the firing pin and channel yearly on my Glocks, when I did recommended PM. Since there are only me and another guy carrying personally owned M&Ps, the Dept will not pay for an M&P armorer's course, and I cannot afford to take a day off, pay for the course and go myself. I would love to get my hands on an M&P armorer's manual that covers the 2.0 and Shield variants, if for no other reason than to see the recommended maintenance intervals. I'm pretty handy, so I would likely tear my personal guns apart, but would not tear apart other people's guns because I wouldn't be certified. Not a big deal, though.

Been my experience that some guys like that get promoted and put in charge of things.  Dirty knees and politics win every time seems like.

Good reminder, OP.

Though TBH, other than oiling (tw-25b, actually) and scrubbing the barrel, I don't aggressively clean my guns.

Couple years ago I bought a PD trade in G22 that Recoil Gunworks was selling. When I went to break it down, every space was PACKED with grease. Striker channel, slide release up front, all of it. Couldn't believe it. FFL that transferred it is a full-time LEO/armorer, his jaw dropped when I showed him the pics.

Good info OP.  Ill have to break mine down this weekend and see what mine looks like.

Sad part is, this guy is functionally illiterate. Case in point, Quite a few years ago the State of Ohio set up a web-based reporting program that is free for PDs to use to do their reports. He worked part time for a small neighboring Department, that is well known for being nothing more than a speed trap, that used this system because it was free for them to use. He had told several of the guys at my PD that he would take the info for any reports when he was working there, then go home and have his wife type up his reports for him. He tried that when he got hired at our PD, but we use a program that isn't accessible over the web unless you have the program downloaded and verified on your computer by the manufacturer. When he found out that he couldn't have his wife type his reports, he found a sympathetic Dispatcher, who was typing up his reports for him. When the Chief found out, he went ballistic. When he started having to type up his own reports, they were absolutely PAINFUL to read. Some of them, you couldn't make heads or tails of them and he got a whole rash of shit from the courts. I'm firmly convinced that the only reason he didn't get fired was because he LOVED overtime. He would enthusiastically work doubles (and we work 10 hr shifts) and come out to work with, literally, 30 minutes notice.

I am not surprised at all by this.  Retired now but saw plenty of these examples over the years.