doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com firing pin fix

A colleague has an early high wall rebarrelled to 219 Improved, with a broken firing pin tip. He asked me for a replacement or info on a source, and I thought some of you might be interested in this information.

The very early rifles had firing pins retained by a transverse pin riding in a relief groove cut in the top of the firing pin, while all the later firing pins were retained by a vertical screw with the relief groove cut in the left side of the firing pin. It seems easy to convert one style firing pin to the other simply by cutting a new groove in the other position, but it's not quite that simple.

There are also several different-diameter factory firing pin tip sizes, becoming smaller as the years passed. Also this particular early rifle has almost certainly had its block bushed to a smaller diameter, but WHAT diameter, exactly?

Because of these unknowns, I figured it would be better to explain the repair procedure so that the original firing pin body could be reused. There are several critical dimensions that vary widely among all the different examples of original, old replacement, newer replacement and smith-modified firing pins available today, and so any replacement firing pin would stand a good chance of not fitting properly.

Of course all the original firing pin's critical dimensions must be recorded before any cutting begins. Sure saves a LOTTA trouble later on.....

This photo shows the separate parts of the repair. The parts are assembled using Black Max or similar.

The middle piece is the carrier for the firing pin tip, and it's A Good Idea to make 2 of these, identical to each other, in case of future problems. That way the old one can be discarded and the new one inserted while still at the range or even between matches. A temp of 300F will cause the Black Max and many epoxies to release, so field replacement isn't a problem.

Music wire is an excellent material for the tip, used as-is. However if using a drill bit or other high-carbon steel for the tip, you MUST ensure that it's properly annealed to a soft state. I suggest any size between ~0.055" and ~0.075" and in this case of course the size should match the hole in this particular block, snugly but not binding.

Please feel free to ask for further details if wanted.
Regards, Joe

Many thanks for the clear DIY help. Those things WILL break....

Forgot to add that the most critical dimensions are the distance from the rear of the pin to the front of the major diameter before the nose tapers down, and the position of the firing pin's toe relative to the link protrusion that acts as a retractor.

There's a REASON why the firing pin tip broke, and it's possible that it lies in these dimensions. Otherwise I'd strongly suspect a too-hard tip, a common problem with bushed pins/blocks.

I've built and shot lots of walls in the past 40 years and first formulated this repair in the middle '70s. So far I've had no failures and have not heard of any failures of repairs I've done for others. Not saying there have been no failures, just saying that I've not heard of any.

I attribute this to the cushioning effect of the Black Max combined with the relative softness/toughness of the tip insert.

Of course this method is also applicable to many other firing pin repairs in addition to the Winchester walls.
Regards, Joe