After thousands and thousands and thousands of dry firings, I finally broke a hammer nose on my old PPC revolver. I went ahead and ordered a power custom hardened replacement.

Please don't turn this into a you should or your shouldn't dry fire a revolver thread. I have been doing it for a years and years without issue. Until now Luckily, its an easy fix.

I have seen a fair number of hammer nose failures. Then again I used to work at the armory and we still used S&W revolvers back then. The range guns got fired, and dry fired, a LOT. I have NEVER broken one on a personally owned revolver, though I have replaced a couple that were a tad too short to reliably function with reloads.

Firing pins of any kind will break occasionally. I view them as a consumable part. Many will go the life of the gun, some will not.

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protocalldesign.com

What's the proper method for replacement? Pushing the rivet out with a vise, or driving it out with a punch. Do you use a drill to reduce the flare of the rivet?

Why though are you dry firing so much? What’s the benefit?

In case this ever happens to me; Does the new firing pin come with the rivet? I assume you do not re-use the old one.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

I always drive the rivet out with a pin punch and reuse it. You have to restake it with a center punch after re installing it.

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protocalldesign.com

Hydrogen imbridlement?

The benefits of dryfiring are many, the main one being that if you do it right, you come to know your gun very well and become a better shooter.

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protocalldesign.com

Hydrogen Embrittlement results from contact with an acid ( as in plating ) or other source of Hydrogen. You need to low temperature bake the part for X no of hours starting within a given time frame from contact with the hydrogen source. If not done properly the part can become brittle but it would have shown up long ago. I suspect that is a result of slow crystallization and work hardening of the steel from the thousands of repeated impacts over the years. It happens.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

For me, dry firing helps with muscle retention and getting to know the weapon better.
The new hammer nose comes with a new spring and rivet.

You tap the old rivet out with a punch. There are hammer nose blocks out there that help with the install but it isn't necessary if you don't change out hammer noses too often.
I just tap the new rivet back into the hole flush with a hammer, put a pointy nose punch facing upward in the vice for one side of the rivet hole to sit on and then take another pointy nose punch and tap the other side with the hammer. It will flare both sides of the rivet, essentially staking both sides, while keeping it in place in the hammer. The whole process should only take maybe 10-15 minutes.
No drill is necessary. Punches only.

Lots of benefits to dry-firing.
One of the most useful forms of practice. For every live round I fire, I probably dry-fire 150-200 times (at least).
On guns with hammers, a foam earplug cut in half and pushed part way down in the hammer slot keeps the hammer nose from slamming against the frame.
Just remember to remove the foam plug when dry-firing session is done.

I have broken or worn out three or four of the frame mounted firing pins, but never had a hammer nose break!! I'd rather have the hammer nose syle myself! Personally, I think they are more reliable.

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Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

If you need to do this work and others where you need to drift out a pin, a gunsmith tool bench block can make your work easier. This one has helped me in several instances.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I’ve always been curious about the spring in here.

I have many S&W revolvers… some of them have a spring in there and many of them most definitely do NOT (or the spring has broken…?)

Why the spring or why not the spring?

In the 1980s I got a brand new Model 66.

Two shots and the hammer nose was gone.

Easy fix back then as I assume now.

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Ubi Est Mea

Swapped it out, took me all of about 3 minutes. Tearing down the gun to remove the hammer took longer. Now I need to stake the rivet on both sides.

SAME HERE.........Used a small flat end punch to drive out the rivet. Installed new FP w/spring and used 2 center punches to hold one side and flare the rivet on the other side........10 minute job at most on my friend's 66.

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S&W Accumulator

Nice to see some folks still have an interest in PPC pistols.

IMG_0228.jpg

Beautiful Davis! Mine was built by Austin Behlert

Guys with that talent don't come along often. BTW, mine was built of a Model 65 - 357 Magnum. Don't know why, as it carries a "shoot only 148 HBWC".

I hope it wasn't a 3" type.

The reason I have heard for ONLY shooting the 148 HBWC in a custom PPC revolver even if it was built on a K-frame magnum 13/19/65/66 is because of the bore and rifling twist rate. Something with regards to the potential torque generated by a cartridge that generates roughly 2-1/2 times the pressure of the mid-range 148 grain swaged wadcutter and the setting of the custom barrel in the revolver’s frame.

Is this real? I cannot say. However I can tell you that my custom PPC revolvers are exceptionally good with the mid-range wadcutter.

Was taught dry firing by team shooters in the Corps to improve my trigger pull. Even used a eraser tipped pencil to practice sight alignment and trigger pull. When I went to USMC Security Force Battalion Schools courses (pistol, revolver & shotgun) we dry fired all the time. Jeff Cooper had a hand in designing the courses and taught the original batch of instructors. Dry firing is good for practice.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

I have a Behlert PPC too. Great gun!

Attached Images

	PPC Revolver-1.jpg (144.0 KB, 9 views)
	PPC Revolver=2.jpg (138.9 KB, 7 views)
	PPC Target.jpg (167.8 KB, 5 views)

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Nice group AJ!

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Even older, even crankier....

Thank you. The revolver was made in 1956 and obviously rebuilt by Behlert some time after that. Would love to be able to see what it will do single action.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Mine breaks at about 1.5-2lbs. Such a clean and crisp break too

Mine is a DAO. Not sure what the pull is, but it is smooth and light.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

All staked, fixed and put back together. Harbor freight center punch did the trick ; )