Slide release discharge

[DaleA]

Firing pin block.
A friend bought the Taurus 92 and first time at the range, right out of the box the gun fired normally.

The owner took it home, cleaned it, and the second time he took it to the range, (the time I was there), the gun didn't fire at all. No marks on the primers...not even a slight dimple. Would have made for a really short range session but I had brought some other firearms too so we shot those.

The gun was returned to the store and the gunsmith there opined that when the owner cleaned it some piece of crud had jammed the firing pin block. The smith said he cleaned it up and it worked fine. This was a few years ago and the gun has worked fine ever since and I have gotten to fire it on more than one occasion.

Could it happen again? I suppose. Knowing it has malfunctioned would I ever consider buying a Taurus? I've made fun of Taurus guns in the past but IMhO it was all good clean fun and if the right Taurus (I'd prefer the 99 with adjustable sights over the 92 with fixed sights) came along at the right price I'd probably get it.

[Jim Watson]

I once read that the Beretta sear engagement was less subject to bouncing off than, say, a 1911, presumably the Taurus is similar. But SOMETHING happened.

If you have already sent it off, we can hope the warranty clerk gives it a close examination.
I would still check the firing pin, spring, and block; also the hammer and sear, looking for a mechanical fault.

[44 AMP]

In my subsequent range testing I could not emulate the issue while trying both normal slide operations and potential errors in handling I could have caused.

I think this is an important factor. Subsequent testing. Particularly enough subsequent testing.

Mechanical faults tend to be repeatable events. Often, but not always at the same point in the operational cycle, but not always. But they almost always do repeat at some point.

I'm talking here about worn or damaged parts, primarily, but even something "stuck" due to debris of some kind, rarely only gets stuck just once.

All kinds of things are possible, including something that works "right" unless it is worked in just the right way to malfunction. But things like that generally always malfunction when operated in the way that creates the malfunction.

The key to recognizing what is going on is enough testing AFTER the malfunction to determine if it is a "one in a million" fluke or if it is something that happens over and over, or once in X number of times.

A defective sear engagement for example, the gun may not fire on its own every shot, but if it does it somewhere in every magazine, or even every hundred rounds, that shows it is a repeating problem.

Generally speaking if a gun malfunctions due to a mechanical issue, it will malfunction more than just once. IF, as in this case, one round fired, one time, and it never has done it again, with nothing done to the gun to change it, I'd tend to think it wasn't the gun that had the problem. Overly sensitive ammo, like duds and hangfires, shouldn't happen, with modern tech and production methods they are very rare, but they still happen. 99.99999% reliable is still not 100%.

[TunnelRat]

Originally Posted by DaleA

TunnelRat from post #4:


This diagram lists part 1.8 as a 'firing pin block'
https://savannaharsenal.files.wordpr...-99-96-100.pdf

Thanks!