Different firing pins in two Mk II era 22/45s?
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2014 2:19 pm
My two Mark II era 22/45s have different firing pins? In more ways than one. Both guns were bought new at Salt Lake City gun shows in 2005
The blued firing pin from the slab barreled gun is 1 7/8" long. The stainless firing pin from the 5 1/2" stainless Target Model is only 1 9/16" long.
What concerns me more are the configurations at each end of these pins.
The longer blued pin's point of contact with the cartridge rim is tapered on both sides and the bottom, leaving a fairly thin wedged surface to hit the case rim. The back of this firing pin, where the hammer hits, is flat, with squared edges, and has the save width dimension as the the rest of the pin.
The shorter stainless pin's point of contact with the cartridge rim has no tapering, at all. It is almost perfectly square and its edges are squared. Its contact face with the cartridge case is almost four times larger than the blued firing pin's. At the back, instead of a flat, squared-sided surface for the hammer to hit, it is unevenly tapered with no squared edges or any corners. More metal is taken off from the upper left down towards the lower left. There's another, smaller cut on the lower left corner, and some on each of the right corner areas.
What the heck is going on here? I've fired this gun a lot. It looks like someone machined the wrong end of this firing pin? Plus, the FP is so much shorter, by design, that the interior of the bolt must be different, as well.
I was about to exchange the bolts between these two guns because the blued, long bbl'd slab side gun's bolt face is missing metal at and above the extractor. I should be able to do this, shouldn't I? Maybe not.
And whatabout the strange looking, shorter, firing pin in the stainless gun?
Whew!
The blued firing pin from the slab barreled gun is 1 7/8" long. The stainless firing pin from the 5 1/2" stainless Target Model is only 1 9/16" long.
What concerns me more are the configurations at each end of these pins.
The longer blued pin's point of contact with the cartridge rim is tapered on both sides and the bottom, leaving a fairly thin wedged surface to hit the case rim. The back of this firing pin, where the hammer hits, is flat, with squared edges, and has the save width dimension as the the rest of the pin.
The shorter stainless pin's point of contact with the cartridge rim has no tapering, at all. It is almost perfectly square and its edges are squared. Its contact face with the cartridge case is almost four times larger than the blued firing pin's. At the back, instead of a flat, squared-sided surface for the hammer to hit, it is unevenly tapered with no squared edges or any corners. More metal is taken off from the upper left down towards the lower left. There's another, smaller cut on the lower left corner, and some on each of the right corner areas.
What the heck is going on here? I've fired this gun a lot. It looks like someone machined the wrong end of this firing pin? Plus, the FP is so much shorter, by design, that the interior of the bolt must be different, as well.
I was about to exchange the bolts between these two guns because the blued, long bbl'd slab side gun's bolt face is missing metal at and above the extractor. I should be able to do this, shouldn't I? Maybe not.
And whatabout the strange looking, shorter, firing pin in the stainless gun?
Whew!