Are striker preload data trade secrets?

H

HighValleyRanch

New member
It seems that any certain data about various company's amount of striker preload is hard to find.

For clarity, let's talk about striker preload as the percent of actual striker force (needed to strike primer upon trigger press and striker release) when the slide has been racked, but the trigger is forward at rest.
For example, pistol A uses X amount of force to strike primer after the trigger releases the striker, but is only y percent of that force at rest.

I know that some data refers to percentage of movement, but that can vary from the actual percentage of striker force.

For example, I have read that the glock is anywhere's from 1/3 to 1/2 cocked as far as actual striker travel. But then I've read that the striker is anywhere's from 48 percent to 99 percent precocked as far as force???
Where can the definitive percentage be found?

But then I've read that an XD is almost 99% preloaded after racking before trigger pull.

Can anyone point me to a chart that shows this striker preload data for various striker fire pistols?

Inquiring minds (curious minds) want to know.:rolleyes:
 
From my measurements of Glock pistols, the striker preload is about 50% by travel.

Given that information, it is possible to calculate the preload energy because relating spring compression to spring energy isn't complicated. It works out to about a 25% preload in terms of striker spring energy.

I initially did my measurements from a standard pistol. That was tedious given that the striker doesn't remain pre-loaded with the gun disassembled. I was able to later verify those measurements using a cutaway pistol.

It isn't quite so tedious to get a rough idea of what's happening. For example, I was given permission to disassemble an FN FNS pistol at SHOT. I was able to determine that the striker preload was roughly 2/3 or about 60%-70% by eyeballing the position of the trigger bar/sear with the trigger in the pre-load position and comparing it to the position right before the moment of firing. The booth attendant wouldn't give me an actual figure but confirmed that my estimate was in the right ballpark.
 
You would need to know the data on the striker spring.

Then you would need to know how far compressed the spring is when the trigger is at rest and the action cooked. Then you need to know how far the spring is compressed at striker release.


After that, it's a real simple calculation for spring force.

The hard part is all of the first part of it. :D


Or you can eyeball it like John did.
 
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"Under wraps" is a fairly loose concept. It may be that these companies do not really regard this data as some "deep dark trade secret".... but they simply consider that there is no real need for the end user to have it. And when you think about it, this data IS really unnecessary for the end user, or even a gunsmith, for the most part. Interesting, in an anecdotal sense, for those who wish to know, but hardly vital info to the end user. If there is any deliberate secret keeping regarding this information, I would presume that the intent is to keep the competition in the dark. Proprietary engineering data such as this is very commonly closely held, in most industries, just as much specific financial information is considered private. No sense in helping the competition, or potential competition, to copy your designs.
 
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