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Confirmed: The Honor Guard Pistol is Not Drop (or Impact) Safe

Jeremy S. - comments No comments

Earlier today, we ran a post on The Firearm Rack’s outing of Honor Defense’s Honor Guard pistol as failing the most basic impact and drop safety tests. Just as TTAG did when we heard the same reports about the SIG P320, we grabbed a gun ourselves and tested it . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4N_ZZYZM4w

Sure enough, I was able to duplicate Patrick’s results. The Honor Guard is not, in fact, drop safe. In my tests, it couldn’t sustain even a relatively minor impact to the rear of the slide without releasing the striker.

Forget the inevitable debate about whose fault that is and how “stupid” you have to be to drop a gun (just see the comments under our earlier post). I’d now be concerned about simply carrying an Honor Guard in a holster.

If the gun is hit by a door or if you trip and fall the wrong way or get hit by a fly ball, it’s at risk of discharge. Sure, those scenarios are relatively unlikely. But the Honor Guard discharging from a strike to the rear of the slide isn’t all that unlikely. And that’s a problem.

To test the pistol, I pulled bullets from a few rounds of 9mm ammunition and dumped the powder out. That left me with primed, but otherwise empty cases.

I inserted a case into the Honor Guard — this one sent to me by Honor Defense, by the way, to replace a malfunctioning Honor Guard that had trigger problems (see video above) — then dropped the slide and proceeded to whack it with a rubber mallet.

Boom! It was shocking how light of an impact was required to drop the striker.

I put a pair of socks over the muzzle to act as a suppressor — a sockpressor, if you will — so as not to disturb the neighbors. The results of one primer-only discharge can be seen above. Lots of carbon out the muzzle.

Patrick of The Firearm Rack (previously of TFB) informed Honor Defense of the drop safety problem earlier this summer. So I found the note included in the Honor Guard’s case regarding their gun lock ironic, under the circumstances.

“But, safety should be your utmost concern.”

Yes. Yes it should. For consumers and manufacturers alike.

Patrick’s video:

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Jeremy S.

Jeremy is TTAG's Deputy Editor, working mostly behind the scenes but, when he attempts to write, he focuses on comprehensive gun & gear reviews. Jeremy strives to collect objective data whenever possible, and looks to write accurate reviews that reflect the true user experience. He lives outside of Austin, TX.

0 thoughts on “Confirmed: The Honor Guard Pistol is Not Drop (or Impact) Safe”

  1. My low cost, cheap, affordable, Hi Point 45 has no problems. It seems these guns from “high quality” gun makers seem to have problems.
    Are the big boys cutting corners???

    Reply
  2. I think it would be fun to try, regardless, and it only forces the market to push the envelope as well (I want in as both a shooter and a loader).

    What is the practical application otherwise? Someday we’ll need a drone to go around the 25 mile curvature of the earth to direct hits?

    Reply
  3. The Bond Arms bullpup was reviewed in a recent American Rifleman. Lots cool but mega pricey. Austin looks fun…I live at least 1100 miles away so I doubt I’ll ever join y’all????

    Reply
  4. Because the government and their armed enforcers (the cops, and military) are the only thing that is going to take away your rights and confiscate your property by force.

    Reply
  5. Saw this story on TFB over a week ago. This is not the final design. They’re supposed to get holsters that have space for a light/laser.

    Reply
  6. History: got #DEMOCIDE much?

    xD

    http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/MURDER.HTM

    You can literally add-up ALL the murders committed by all the NON-state murderers in the entire history of the world, and their kills won’t even come close to the INDUSTRIAL, MASS-MURDER committed by govtS.

    That, is why.

    You’d literally have to be a worthless govt terrorist, neocon, RINO, commie SJW statist to delude otherwise.

    Reply
  7. That looks fun, but it’s so difficult to find a place to shoot more than a few hundred yards. And the ammo is expensive and time consuming to hand load. My precision .308 it about a dollar per shot, and can group about an inch at the longest range I have access to (600 yards).
    That’s why I’m going the opposite direction. Next week I’m assembling a 10/22 from precision parts (mostly Kidd, only the magazine will be Ruger) for a local PRS style .22 league.

    Reply
  8. Well assuming Twitter hasn’t already purged all firearms related pages #HonorGate should probably end up being a thing quickly.

    And I’m once again happy that I only own SA/DA hammer fired pistols.

    Reply
  9. He is an Ok commentator, not spectacular, but not necessarily mediocre either, I have not heard him say anything particularly inspiring or particularly insightful, and I am old and fat at 52, Hispanic, very white in colour.

    I did not want to get old and fat either.

    As far as Race being a focal point ?
    I do not go around saying, hey, look at me the old fat Hispanic Guy that knows a little bit about firearms.

    Aside from all the comments I have read, they read like multiple comments from the same person, somehow I doubt that is really true, but a ton of really sappy sounding teen girl in Love comments does not ring true to me, and not one negative comment in the lot ?

    I am not putting down Mr. Co-Lion, far from it, but I do not believe in fairy stories, smoke and mirrors either.

    Refer to the fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

    “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain….”
    Wizard of Oz quote.

    Reply
  10. My amazing employees just gave me my work Christmas gift tonight – a $100 gift card to the local high-end indoor range with 101 yard rifle lanes!

    Reply
  11. Most people carry for the rightful concern over violent democrats assaulting them.
    Most of the violent inmates in prison are democrats.

    Reply
  12. I wondered what the point of the Honor Guard was in the first place. It doesn’t break any new ground in terms of price, size or engineering (obviously). Just another pistol in a market full of already proven products. I’ll stick with my CM9….concealable, reliable, and most important if all…safe…for me and the people around me when I carry.

    Reply
  13. Police accountability is subjective, It depends where you live in the U.S. Where I live is much different than a large city in California or on the east coast. Do some research and you will find that Police in smaller or medium population cities with smaller ethnic populations are actually much better trained, more professional, better paid and have much better community policing relations. Why?, Less stress, not running call to call all shift and actually the time and ability to devote to investigation and follow up on crime and complaints. These departments usually have older, more mature and educated officers. Most of these officers that have worked in large metro areas were smart enough to figure out you can’t deal with inner city crime issues and maintaining sanity, family and quality of life and put up with the crazy for 25 to 30 years. So they moved. Guess what you have left in large cities for police! Idiots with badges. Large metro police departments have turned into training farms, with officers leaving within 3 to 5 years.

    Where I live the police are actually professional. They do a good job and are supported by the community.

    Reply
  14. Looks an clear illegal ordnance and anybody who vote yes should face felony charges.

    SC have another probs as the very restrictice shall issue carry law,

    Pass open carry, auto honoring all ccw”s out of state, shall issue non resident at 18, kill any public “no gun zone” , remove inform officer and force of law of private sigs and stop this bullshit here !!

    Reply
  15. Wrong !!
    Shall issue ist still an infrigment and big goverment against you !!
    Constitunal Carry on any public place white out nfa act ist constiutional !!

    Reply
  16. A better solution for your 10/22 Takedown is to just buy a Magpul X22 Backpacker stock for it, then the 10/22 TD fits into nearly any backpack as a one-piece unit, complete with in-stock storage for three spare mags (or a box of ammo and one spare mag)! I just got one for my 10/22, and I love it so much that I sold my second 10/22 because I like the 10/22 Takedown model with X22 stock so much better than my regular 10/22!

    Maxpul’s X22 Backpacker stock is perfect if you’re using either the iron sights or a small red dot sight (Magpul even sells a barrel-mount for a small red-dot sight, so I installed that too).
    The X22 Backpacker stock doesn’t make quite as much sense if you’re using a scope rather than a red dot, but that’s a problem with all 10/22 Takedown models — having a scope attached makes it much harder to fit into any backpack because the scope sticks out several additional inches.

    Reply
  17. Only 7500 balloons each? Zowie, I’ll take two, but I want one in mauve and the other in puce, s’il vous plaît. And have them delivered by a Las Vegas stripper in a mobile hot tub with a chilled bottle of Cristal and a fresh, hot pizza with extra pepperoni. Is that really too much to ask?

    Reply
  18. Ok, I got a mental picture from the 60’s. If I’m Wiley Coyote & packing this pistol while at the bottom of a cliff, & then the Roadrunner ‘drops a safe’ down from the top onto me, as it crushes me, it’s going to hit the back of the pistol causing it to fire. The discharged bullet may ricochet off the ground, striking me in the groin as the ‘safe’ mashes me. Darn that’s gonna hurt!
    Please don’t ‘drop safes on me!

    Reply

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