Might a dropped R9S discharge?

[mjt]

For example, Glocks will not, apparently if dropped onto a hard surface.  Might a R9/R9S discharge if dropped and a round is chambered?

[GeorgeH]

Anything is possible but not probable.  

[R9SCarry]

Highly improbable ....but the word certainty is one which even at 99.999999999% is never quite all there!

[mjt]

Is it built so that inertia will prevent a firing pin from traveling forward with enough force to strike the primer (if dropped on the muzzle) and/or so that a drop on the hammer will not result in a discharge?  How is that done? Maybe this is obvious to others...but not so much to me...

[BillinPittsburgh]

The hammer is recessed.  A blow to the back of the slide will not contact the hammer.

I don't know the specific mechanism to hold the firing pin back.  I would guess that there is a spring holding the firing pin rearward, as is common in many pistols of this type.  If that is the case, replace this spring every other time you replace the recoil spring, and you'll be fine.

[GeorgeH]

Hi mjt:

I don't know of any currently manufacturered double action firearm that is well maintained that is prone to accidential discharge. The R9 design prevents accidential contact to the hammer. Because of the weight distribution, physics will prevent impact on the muzzle. H.P. White, a firearms testing lab in Maryland, cannot cause a firearm to fall on its muzzle (a test necessary in California). So what they do instead is to put the gun in a vice and then drop a weight onto the muzzle to recreate the same effect.

[BillinPittsburgh]

Hi mjt:

H.P. White, a firearms testing lab in Maryland, cannot cause a firearm to fall on its muzzle (a test necessary in California). So what they do instead is to put the gun in a vice and then drop a weight onto the muzzle to recreate the same effect.

Not sure how this would re-create the same effect.  The firing pin of a gun falling on its muzzle would be moving forward to keep up with the rest of the gun, and would keep moving forward upon the rest of the gun stopping.  If the gun is in a vice, the firing pin remeins stationary.

I agree that it would be difficult for a gun to fall directly on its muzzle, and even if it did, the bullet would go straight down.  It might cause a ricochet or flying fragments from whatever it hit, but it wouldn't be the same as a straight-line hit.

Almost all modern designs have some feature or another to prevent discharge if the gun is dropped, whether it be a spring holding the firing pin back or some type of firing pin blocking mechanism.

[mjt]

One reason that I ask is that I was looking at guns recently, including the Kel Tec P11, and the dealer showing it to me said he had a friend who owned one and dropped it as he was getting out of his pickup truck, and it discharged when it hit the ground from the fall from that distance.  I do not know how long ago it occurred (i.e. if it was soon after they were first released) nor if it is true, but I could not think of a reason why he would make it up if I was possibly interested in buying one from him.