An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : Articles
Would you stake your life, right now, on the condition of your equipment?
Articles
NEWS | April 20, 2020

M9 Pistol: Flat Doesn’t Always Mean a Flat Rejection

Sgt. James Baird readies his M9
Photo by Calvin Reimold

This article initially appeared in PS 801 (Aug '19), p. 38.

Too many M9 pistols are being declared NMC because their recoil springs have flat spots.
 
TM 9-1005-317-23&P says an M9 pistol is NMC if its recoil spring has bends, breaks, burrs, flat spots or the spring’s free length is not at least five inches.
 
Flat spots on spring’s ends are OK
Flat spots on spring’s ends are OK

So when an armorer spots a recoil spring with a flat spot, he sends it to field maintenance for a new spring.
 
But only in the TM’s specific standards in WP 0018 00-2 does it explain that it’s OK for the spring to have flat spots if they’re at the ends of the spring.
 
Some recoil springs come from the manufacturer with flat spots at their ends and those springs are fine as long as they pass the other standards.
 
Questions? Contact Randolph Sanda at email:
 
Pistols
Want to get better search results faster? 
Click the link below to access our "how to" guide.
After entering a keyword, you must hit or click the Search bar/box below for the function to work.
Simply hitting Return won't yield results.
LOGSA Links/URLs
Note about links to archive articles

If you come across a link to a pre-2014 PS Magazine issue or article that uses LOGSA in the web address (URL), use this link instead:
 
For issues/articles from 2014 and after, click on the Archive/Index tab in the top menu of this website.
BE ADVISED: With the migration to Army365, emails in older articles may still reflect an @mail.mil address. To update, change the domain to @army.mil