Failure to go into battery every time

[DonVoigt]

Originally Posted by Doubs

Don, while Gortz & Sturgess acknowledge that the flutes had the primary purpose of allowing oil and dirt to flow past the firing pin to prevent build up of residue that reduced the impact force of the firing pin, they also point out that the flutes do, in fact, allow gasses from a punctured primer to bleed off and reduce the rearward thrust of the firing pin that would otherwise cause damage if the firing pin was not fluted. G&S point out that it is a benefit but, as you state, not the purpose for which the flutes were intended. G&S red books, pages 1115 & 1116.

Doubs,
I know G&S "say" that, but it is a physical impossibility.
"They" got that statement wrong; it just is not physically possible, there is no where for the gas to escape to!

Marc,
The reference to the fluted, or gapped alignment disc shown in the drawing for the rifle bolt is an entirely different situation, and those channels do lead to an "expansion" area and eventually to the outside of the bolt.

Carefully observe the length of the grooves in the luger striker, and how far they extend, and find where the closest gas "escape" route is- the two do not intersect.
There is a slight possibility that some grooves cut by hand, when an old style striker was modified to include the grooves, "Might" be cut deep enough, and long enough, and in the correct alignment with the sear tab opening to "connect" just a bit-
But that condition is only met if all three requirements were met by accident !

Such a co-incidence was not intended and is not observed in machine/jigged production strikers.

I know the presence of the grooves just begs for the answer to be "gas management", but it just is not so.

Just an addition note, the Finns added a "real" gas escape hole in the bottom of their breech blocks, that hole is far enough forward to allow gas to escape.
Swiss strikers have a flat milled into the front and rear bearing surfaces of the striker to allow gas to pass along the length of the striker and exit the breech block.

Both of these later techniques/modifications do serve to allow gas to escape from the front of the striker in event of a pierced primer.