Longer firing pins for new S&W revolvers?

The newest S&W I have is from 2007 or so, and it has the "pointed" type firing pin.

Has S&W changed the style of the firing pin in recent years, either to make them longer or any different?

Here is a little about J Frame Firing Pins.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-smithing/233879-s-w-j-frame-firing-pins-frame-mounted.html

To be honest, I never checked to see if they were common across different frames.

Shorter, as part of the drop test package.
Denis

My 64-7 has a round, longer pin but my 64-8 has the aforementioned shorter, pointed pin. Both were corrections trade-ins and are unaltered. My 10-14 also has the same pointed pin.

I ask because both the 64-8 and 10-14 had several FTF's with Magtech .38 Special.......to add insult to injury an older Taurus 82 had no trouble setting any of it off.

I may just order a few C&S extended pins and drop them in all my newer S&W's. I have another 10-14 I modified with lighter springs and a C&S pin and this gun has no issues with any ammo including CCI, which is notorious for hard primers.

IMO that reputation for Speer having hard primers is a bit of internet myth. My experience that in the brands that are available in my area Speer, Winchester, and Federal are basically equal, it's the Remington UMC that takes a bit harder strike to light off. BTW, I don't include Speer's lead free Clean Fire in this statement, those lead free primers have a wide reputation for being hard to ignite.

As for the factory firing pins I have a 2008 vintage 620 that came with a firing pin that was 0.478 inch overall length. Then a 2009 vintage 610 with a 0.482 inch firing pin. Finally, my August 2011 625 JM came with a firing pin that measured at 0.492 inch. IMO it's seems that between the 2008/2009 time frame and today S&W has added 0.015 inch in length to the firing pins.

I'll also note that all 3 of the above revolvers are equipped with firing pins from Cylinder and Slide. I do NOT recomend using this particular firing pin unless/until you have lightened the mainspring to produce a DA trigger pull of 9 lbs. or LESS. If you try installing this firing pin in a revolver with the mainspring at full factory power you run a very real risk of a pierced primer. BTW, in the event the firing pin does get stuck in a primer you can usually get it free by gently rocking the cylinder from side to side. What this rocking motion will do is gradually open up the dimple in the primer until the firing pin can pop free.

Now for why the Cylinder & Slide firing pin can cause problems in a revolver with a factory mainspring. First there is the overall length, it's 0.510 inch. Second this firing pin has been designed to permit about 0.030 inch MORE protrusion through the recoil shield compared to the factory firing pin. This means they work great with a lightened action or on a 625 headspacing loose cartridges in the cylinder but they can dimple a primer deep enough to cause cracks in the primer with a mainspring at full factory power.

If you don't want to re-tune your action for a lighter trigger I would suggest looking to Apex Tactical for a firing pin. They offer 2 different lengths, one at 0.495 inch and one at 0.500 inch.

VERY VERY good info! Thank you scooter

With the Wilson Combat springs, the C&S extended pin works great in my 10-14. I had not thought of pierced primers with standard springs.

I'll have to keep experimenting, it may have been a bad lot of Magtech that gave me the FTF in the two new S&W's.

I had to replace the firing pin in my M-67 after I purchased it about 4 years ago. It was one on those sent with shorter pins and would only fire about 4 out of every 6. I, too, put the C & S Shop pin in my M-67, and I've never had a problem with pierced primer with the factory main spring. This revolver has had many, many wadcutters fired in it, loaded with CCi primers, as well as many rounds of +P Speer Gold Dots. I know that these loads or not "magnum" pressured rounds, but I would not see any reason to avoid putting the C & S Shop pin in my M-686 or any other Smith based on my experience.

The C & S Shop firing pin is listed as fitting all the different frames that Smith manufactures.