doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Nitro Special Firing Pin Replacement

Can anyone give me an idea as to the difficulty level of replacing the firing pins on a Nitro Special?

As always, thanks for the help.

Greg Brooding

You can get a schematic from Numrich gun parts. Where do you live, I know a shop in northern Illinois that will fix it for you for a very reasonable rate.
Steve

Thanks, I will give Numrich a try. We are good on the Northern, but it's California for me. Thought I would give it a try if it's within my abilities.

Wait! You have to remove the hammers to replace the firing pins which means a complete disassembly for all intents and purposes. For the uninitiated, replacing the hammers and reassembling a nitro special can be just this side of impossible. For a simple design they can be very tricky to put back together.

Just giving you a heads up, trying to save you some heartache. Unless you want to invest in some good and specialized tooling to do the job you may be better off to find a good gunsmith near you who has worked on one before.

Best, Dan

Once the hammers and their main springs and followers are out, the firing pins are held in position by long,tiny set screws.
Those set screws are heavily staked into place in factory assembly. They rarely come out easily. Other Ithaca's have the same set up. Often it takes drilling them out, re-tapping and replacement of the set screw(s).
Once in a while you get lucky and one or both turns free.

Reassembly is easy with a jig to hold the springs and followers down. Near impossible with out one.

Some people have resorted to tapping the frame for set screws to jam the springs and followers in the compressed position (same idea).
But altering the frame never seems like the best course to take even if the 'work' is covered up with the trigger plate when assembled.

did a few years ago. had to make a special spring retaining tool from an 8" c clamp. found specs in one of brownell's gunsmithing/comic books. no longer have the book, but may have the tool layin around sum wears. also, try google search for nitro special firing pin tool. you just might get a hit!

I did the same for mine, about 5 minutes on a grinding wheel turned a wood clamp into the correct tool.

Those small pins that hold the firing pin in place can be very difficult to remove and expensive to repair if things go wrong in removing them. I've been down the expensive repair route. I had a my nitro disassembled for a restoration effort and in the process the gunsmith twisted the head off the small screw. He then went to drill his mistake out and got off center. I finally got ahold of the action sent it to California where they used a small 'tap blaster' to clear the screw and then fit the action with a new bushing to hold the small pin ($200). Had the gun not been is such good condition it would have become a wall hanger.