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Does anyone have a used or vintage firing pin bushing removal tool they want to part with. PM please.

It’s not a one size fits all sort of tool. If you’re actually planning to use it, you need to find one that actually fits tightly or have one made.

As Dustin says it is a tool that is made to fit. There are two hole bushings and three hole bushings--in the British gun trade the bushings are generally known as striker discs. I have made the tools (and striker discs) through the years and to properly make them a rotary indexer is used with a vertical milling machine or a precision mill/drill press. I have found that they the pins to be used in the tool are best made from drill bit ends which are usually around #49 in size. The pins of the tool will break from time to time so I make the tool as the Europeans do with a small hole in the back of the tool where the broken pin can be driven out with a tiny diameter punch.

The tool hole tool can be made without a rotary indexer but the three hole tool needs the indexer or an equivalent. Both the tool pins and the striker discs should be hardened and that is the reason I use drill bit end for the tool pins.

Stephen Howell

I would add not to try to remove the discs without the tool.

I have seen two English guns that the discs actually projected past the face, and the tumblers struck the edge of the disc. The threads were beat and it was a bummer trying to get the things out.

I’ve always wondered why bushed strikers ended up on some sidelocks. It isn’t typical, but, there are a few out there:



You can get at everything in there just by removing the sidelock. A sidelock often comes with the tool to get the locks off.

But, there it is.

Best,
Ted

Ted;

In addition, side lock double rifles and shotguns usually have a striker disc retaining screw. This retaining screw on double rifles and many shotguns has a small hole --maybe .020"--through the center of the screw that serves as a gas vent in the case of a pierced primer. This retaining screw must be removed prior to trying to remove the striker disc.

Some gunmakers did not cut round holes in the striker discs for their insertion and removal but cut two slots about .030" wide by about .200" long at 180 degrees apart. The tool to remove striker discs with the slots is very easy to make. The striker discs with two slots make a "cleaner" appearance to the standing breech. David Sinnerton the masterful English gun finisher is reported to prefer the slotted striker discs on guns that he finishes.

Making and more importantly fitting a new set of striker discs to a double rifle or shotgun is a task that takes significant time and is not for the "faint of heart" as the discs must be fitted exactly flush with the standing breech without making any marks or nicks/cuts on the face of the standing breech. Years ago I made a fixture to hold a double rifle or shotgun action firmly in place on the table of the vertical mill to allow the newly made striker discs face to be machined exactly parallel to the face of the standing breech leaving about .002" remaining before the milling cutter contacted the face of the standing breech. Then I remove the two striker discs and cut the remaining .002" surface away by hand with a bench stone.

The two English guns with the striker discs that were proud of the standing breech must have been replaces striker discs and the maker of the discs was faint of heart and further did not know how to finish them by hand to make the flush and parallel to the standing breech.

I prefer to make the striker discs with oil hardening drill rod and then harden the discs after fitting and anneal them to about 675 degrees F.

Striker discs are a must for medium and high pressure double rifles. Sometimes in proofing double rifles the striker discs will have to be replaced afterwards. I have had primers to blow out on proofing and destroy the face of the striker discs.

Stephen Howell

Stephen,
Thanks. I’m not a double rifle guy per say (you can actually add English sidelock guy to that, as well) but, when talking boxlock guns, the notion of disc set strikers always struck me as great thinking. I own but one gun so equipped, a lowly Ugartechea boxlock, that didn’t come with the tool, or, spare strikers. Because Oden and his ravens like to use me as a bad example for others, I pretty much knew if I had a disc set striker gun without the tool and spare strikers, I’d need them one day, likely in the middle of nowhere, in a situation where people could point and laugh at me. Cole Haugh supplied the tool, a set of removable pins to fit the disc, and a set of spare strikers, virtually assuring that I’ll never have an issue with the strikers in the gun.
Hey, I was a Boy Scout.
At the time, Cole took the gun to bits, annealed the smalls that typically cause Spanish guns to get the soft steel reputation, and polished and rehardened everything. The discs in my gun are very easy to remove and replace, something that is not always the case-I could do it in my truck by the light of a Zippo, if I had to.
I’ve seen several broken integral tumbler/strikers in my day, one that occurred on the opening day of pheasant season, giving me the chance to be the guy who was pointing and laughing. What are friends for?
Thus far, I have avoided the integral thingys. Oden would definitely be gunning for me.

Best,
Ted

susjwp;

If your striker disc is the two hole style and if you would like to try your hand at making a two pin striker disc tool I can make a photo of two pin tool (made in Spain) which will show you how to build one. Just send me a PM with your email address and I will email the photos to you. The two pin tool is fairly easy to make. I will also send you a photo of the short (3/4" long) two pin tool that I make to put into gun cases.

Kind regards;
Stephen Howell

At one time, Cole Haugh had these on the shelf, for Ugartechea, and, perhaps, other Spanish guns:



The wood on the handle of the tool is nicer than the wood on the gun.

Best,
Ted

I may be wrong but one of the reasons for a bushed striker is safety in the event of an overload. The striker won't come out the back. More of an issue on rifles than shotguns but more important in the days of hammer guns.

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