Originally Posted by
OlongJohnson
I notice the center of the indentation in the one that fired is closer to the center of the primer, which is where the anvil is. Could be some issue with firing pin alignment. Firing pin striking the side of the channel before emerging will use up some energy. I'm not yet sufficiently familiar with the guts of a J frame to propose any root causes.
I had a similar issue with an SD9VE. Didn't even get it to the range before I realized the firing pin was hitting the inside of the striker channel before emerging. I speculate that's why it was sold for cheap by the previous owner with the appearance of less than a box of ammo having gone through it. Turned out the MIM striker was bent like a banana. S&W sent me a new striker. I kept the old one for the archives.