Good question. Possibly a carryover from the days when a very strong spring was necessary to fire a percussion cap. I know from experience with percussion guns that a weak hammer spring can cause failure to fire. It seems that the design of a firing pin, striking a primer, requires much less force than that required to ignite a percussion cap.

I hope some of our gunsmith posters address this, too.

SRH

Last edited by Stan; 11/15/15 08:28 AM.
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