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 . . .
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:
