doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Firing pins integral with hammers

I've always thought the idea of integral firing pins as part of the hammers a bad idea. I've only owned a few guns so outfitted and never had a problem but if the pins shear off the face of the hammer, what can be done to remedy it except to try to find another hammer --- something near impossible with vintage guns. It's a relatively easy fix to turn new pins using drill rod on guns with separate pins. I've made two sets for my Zephyr 20 bore sidelock ejector in about an hour's time. Easy job, but where would I be looking to repair a gun where hammers and pins are the same piece? Anybody ever thought about this? Chopper

How many Greener 'Empires', Mod. 21s Winchesters,.....have you seen with peened or broken pin ends? It's seems to be something of an endemic with older Spanish guns. Perhaps that's why they have separate pins and easy means to get to them?

Chopper, I bought a Birmy boxlock that I later found to have both hammer pins broken and chipped. I was in a quandry but Jack Rowe had the tips TIG welded and then he filed them to shape. So far it has worked well but only time will tell. Another good smith opined he would probably cut the pins off and dovetail in new metal and finish. I dunno....it is a problem but fortunately one seldom encountered.

Another option is to dress the face smooth & with hammer re-installed in fired position carefully using a transfer punch mark it through the pin hole & remove & drill it at that point & silver solder in a pin made from drill rod. As mentioned though they don't seem to break as frequently as the seperate pins. Thus while it is a more complicated fix, you aren't as apt to have to.

My Parkers are going strong. Properly made, it is a good system.
bill

Well chopperlump, it's like everything else about gun design, you pays your money and you takes your choice. I have a load of pet peeves, one of which is hammers with integral pins. Not so bad if the pin is mounted in the hammer ala Colt/S&W revolver. I also hate non replaceable hinge pins. But really, there are gazillions of Birmingham boxlocks knocking around after many years of hard use that still work well and have neither of these features. Sooooo?
nial

I have a Spanish double which had a firing pin fracture and break from the hammer.

I smoothed the face of the hammer and drilled an .080" hole, then hard soldered in an .080" drill rod.

Works fine,

Ah! Bill, we agree. When I interviewed Babe Del Grego in spring 1996 for my first book, he gave me the run of his shop. There were several drawers with Parker "nosed" hammers for the various frame sizes of concealed-hammer (hammerless) guns, thousands of them. Babe said that he had never replaced a Parker hammer. I assume the drawers are still full up.

It was the nosed hammers that allowed Parker Bro's to include in their catalogs the advice that releasing the hammers (dry firing) did not require snap caps. Some Parker people use snap caps, and after-market sellers like Galazan even have them with the Parker head stamp. I have a set but never use them. Different strokes...

Firing pin problems largely hark back to the hammer-gun era and the necessary spring-loaded floating pins. When the hammers went inside the floating pin became somewhat of an anachronism that allowed greater design flexibility in hammer placement. If I shot a gun with floating firing pins I would use snap caps. EDM

I have several makes of doubles with floating pins on which I can simply let the hammers down as I close the gun prior to storing it, thus have absolutely no need for snap-caps for them. If I had cause to do a considerable amount of dry firing I personally would use snap-caps irrergardless of pin type.

Ed-your knowledge of gun mechanics is stupendous. What make of American doubles had these "floating firing pins" and how do you see that "float". My older Parkers have the integral firing pin hammer design, as shown in my Baer book. Does my A.H. Fox magnum also have this same fine design? Mr. MacIntosh wrote about the "one design flaw" in the Fox guns in his epic 1981 "Best Guns"- a lack of rebounding hammers. I thought that term only applied to outside hammer guns? Could you explain in more detail please? RWTF