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Why the gap?

R

RonB

Alpha
Seems like dust, dirt, lint, or rain could get into this gap. This is my preferred EDC. My other pistols don’t have that gap. Design flaw or is it supposed to be that way?

Thank you.
 

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RonB said:
Seems like dust, dirt, lint, or rain could get into this gap. This is my preferred EDC. My other pistols don’t have that gap. Design flaw or is it supposed to be that way?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
The gap is there to clear the extractor, sear, & other internal frame components when you remove your slide. A lot of firearms have a similar gap and have no issues with function.

It's highly unlikely that enough dirt or lint would enter the gap to cause an issue. As for rain or water the internal components are made of stainless steel so there's no worry there either.

Welcome to the forum!
 
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RonB said:
Seems like dust, dirt, lint, or rain could get into this gap. This is my preferred EDC. My other pistols don’t have that gap. Design flaw or is it supposed to be that way?
Click to expand...

Excelent question, @RonB.

As @10mmLife noted, water is never an issue for modern firearms and modern cartridges. Even range-fodder ammo is usually well-sealed enough that they're "weatherproof" and even "washer proof."

A modern "service-grade" semi-automatic weapon's only true real fear is mud: so what happens when your weapon is mud-fouled? Easy, rinse it off with water. ;)

Corrosion and pitting from salt-water (including from body sweat) and extreme humidity can be a problem if the moisture isn't addressed for longer periods, however, this isn't a process that will occur on more than a daily basis, at its worst. Typically, the worst that's seen is oxidation on the "skin side" of concealed-carry weapons, especially in belly-bands or the like. Here, a daily wipe with something like a clean silicone and/or routine application of various rust-inhibitors will address recurrent and/or prevent any true issues.

Dust/lint and also dry, dead skin and hair (as humans, we're constantly shedding) are all common issues of daily-carry, and yes, these can be a concern if build-up is left for extended periods. Routine cleaning/maintenance will readily address these issues, and it need not be any more laborious than a weekly (or as your use habit demands - if you only occasionally carry the weapon and it is otherwise stored in a clean environment, a monthly or longer interval may be just as appropriate) dusting and re-lubrication - similarly, this routine maintenance should not take an excessive amount of time.

Ingress of true "dirt" in the form of, well, dirt -as well as sand, etc.- from actual hard-use should be addressed according to just how harshly you've used the weapon. For example, in the Strayer "Blue Flame" thread - https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/strayers-40k-blue-flame.204/ - I posted a set of pictures of my range/training beater 4.5-inch XDm around the time when it had reached 30,000 live-fire rounds:

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This was immediately having been used for 5 out of 6 days of the combined Costa Ludus HE01/HE02 classes that I enrolled in, in the summer of 2012, as noted by the course-completion challenge coins.

At close to 700 rounds a day and *_lots_* of ground-work and shooting from compromised positions, in a now defunct quarry, it was a hot, humid, and dusty mess, with virtually every one of us caked in this fine layer of dust/sand by the end of the day:

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^ That's me, shooting (I'm a full two sizes larger than Costa in every dimension, but the forced perspective there makes it look like he's taller, like Gandalf in the Shire :ROFLMAO: ) my XDm9 3.8 Compact on that one day when I didn't shoot the 4.5-inch gun. You can see how dusty we both were, at that end-of-day fun-stage/contest.

Shortly after I had completed my run that day, a fellow student's S&W M&P - his duty gun - actually slam-fired (fired without the shooter having touched the trigger) as his slide went home after a reload. This instance was not only witnessed by multiple students (myself included - I [and two other students] actually personally attested to the instructional cadre that the shooter's finger was well off the trigger, as I saw clear into his trigger guard during that incident [while others attested to having seen his finger straight and along the frame]), but when we brought the gun to the on-site gunsmith (Doug, of ATEi) to examine he noted that the gun had done so because it was just so excessively dirty. Many of us had chosen to abuse-test our weapons during that set of classes as it was such a uniquely miserable environment, and as a result, we each saw various stoppages and malfunctions.

So, even if you're running your gun *_that_* hard -and despite having taking other multiple-day classes, I can say without a doubt that's the hardest, physically, I'd ever run that gun- @RonB , rest assured that there's still going to be quite a bit of safety buffer built-in to the system. These truly are very resilient and dependable weapons.

As I noted in the Strayer thread, my pictured training/range 4.5-inch XDm9 still has its original striker, extractor, ejector, barrel, and guide rod (and of what's aftermarket - notably the trigger pack from Springer Precision - that's only 700 rounds younger), at well over 50,000 rounds live-fire. Similarly, my EDC is at 12K live, with its training/range copy at over 20K, also live.
 
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