Colt King Cobra Target 22LR Owners - Offset firing pin?

8shot · Mar 13, 2025

Just secured 6" Colt King Cobra Target in 22LR, absolutely a beautiful revolver!

It was advertised as a BLEM which saved me about $300 from the retail price. The finish, action, grips etc are perfect in my opinion.

While I could not see any blemishes I suspect that Colt may have had a recall with the firing pin bushings that were pushing out of the frames.

Noticed that mine has "staking marks" around the bushing, creating the BLEM?

My only concern is that the floating firing strike pin location is at about the 5 o'clock position. It is not centered directly in front of the hammer face strike travel, which could result with an off center hit on the rear of the firing pin?.

I see reports where the Colt 22LR revolver has the bushing position for 12 and 6 o'clock strikes, one post mentioned the offset location like the one in the attached picture.

Again the gun is flawless - only tried a couple rounds and it fires just fine..anyone with a Colt King Cobra Target 22LR how is yours setup.

.38SuperMan · Mar 13, 2025

This wasn’t a blem and it’s just like yours. I’ve probably put 500-700 rounds through it and only had a couple of misfires which I attribute to cheap 22 ammo.

Wonderful revolvers by the way. I like it so much I sold my Smith 617 which was excellent but I like the Colt better. I have a 4” Diamondback 22 and think the new KC is darn close to the vintage Diamondback.

SnidelyWhiplash · Mar 13, 2025

There was a pause in production soon after release for some engineering change. My 4.25" KC .22 has the vertical positioning (it's an early gun before the pause) and my 6" version has the offset position of the firing pin. Why the difference I've no idea...I'm no engineer and don't play one on tv. All I can say is both of mine work superbly.

Basically...it's a non-issue. If your revolver works properly...enjoy it. I doubt of the ammo cares where the firing pin strikes it along the rim.

8shot · Mar 13, 2025

.38SuperMan said:
This wasn’t a blem and it’s just like yours. I’ve probably put 500-700 rounds through it and only had a couple of misfires which I attribute to cheap 22 ammo.

Wonderful revolvers by the way. I like it so much I sold my Smith 617 which was excellent but I like the Colt better. I have a 4” Diamondback 22 and think the new KC is darn close to the vintage Diamondback.

Thanks...you need to have one of these Colt revolvers in your hands to appreciate how gorgeous they are! BTW: Notice the staking around my firing pin bushing?

dfariswheel · Mar 13, 2025

Colt always staked firing pin bushings.

Older models had full circle staking around the bushing, some had staking that had an almost tooth-like circular stake that looked like it had been done with a center punch in a very close series of impacts.
However, it was done with a circular punch.

Colt seems to have decided the partial stake is enough.

I was unaware of the new offset firing pin. Colt wouldn't do that without a good reason.

madmikeb · Mar 13, 2025

Just looked at mine and it looks just like yours. I've only had mine to the range once and with Federal bulk pack, what I've always used, I had tons of mis-fires. Kind of disappointing in a $1000 plus gun supposedly from the custom shop.

I've got 3 617's and have never had an issue with any of them.

At some point I'll get some different ammo and try again. With moving and taking up motorcycle riding I haven't done hardly any shooting in the last couple years.

8shot · Mar 13, 2025

FYI only - attached a picture from RimFire Central where the firing pin bushing backed out of the frame (non staked bushing)...obviously it would not function properly.

Yendor357 · Mar 13, 2025

It’s not really fair to Colt to run cheap junk bulk ammo through their gun and then go on the internet and declare you’re disappointed in their gun, without at least trying some quality ammo first. And I really can’t understand the reasoning behind buying a $1000 revolver and then putting the cheapest ammo through it, you can find. And yes, I know that junk ran in your other guns. My son left a couple 50 round boxes of fed here, and the stuff is nearly worthless.

I didn’t know there was such a thing as a Colt Custom Shop King Cobra.

If your rimfire doesn’t work with CCI, then you may have a gun problem.

.38SuperMan · Mar 13, 2025

Yendor357 said:
It’s not really fair to Colt to run cheap junk bulk ammo through their gun and then go on the internet and declare you’re disappointed in their gun, without at least trying some quality ammo first. And I really can’t understand the reasoning behind buying a $1000 revolver and then putting the cheapest ammo through it, you can find. And yes, I know that junk ran in your other guns. My son left a couple 50 round boxes of fed here, and the stuff is nearly worthless.

I didn’t know there was such a thing as a Colt Custom Shop King Cobra.

If your rimfire doesn’t work with CCI, then you may have a gun problem.

Just because a person runs the most expensive ammo through their gun doesn’t necessarily give the best results. A good example of this is a Thompson Center copy of a Ruger 10/22 that I own. I put a good 4-12x scope on it and took a bunch of different ammo to the range. I think I took 8 different kinds from Mini Mags to cheap bulk. Granted Mini Mags are good quality but they’re not necessarily the best performer in every gun.

I shot from 50 yards using a bipod. Each brand performed differently giving 5 shot groups from 3” to 5/8”. Funny thing, the best performer was the bulk Federal you buy in the 800 round blue box. Not only was it very accurate , it was very reliable.

I’ve found in pretty much every gun I own that each have a distinct preference for certain ammo which doesn’t relate to the most expensive and although Mini Mags are good, it’s not necessarily the most accurate or reliable.

I have a Ruger Precision 22wmr also with a 3-12x Vortex on it. I did a similar test at 100yds with 8 brands of ammo and had the same findings. The accuracy ranged from 2-3” groups of 5 shots to fingernail size group of a half inch with Hornady V Max.

madmikeb · Mar 14, 2025

Yendor357 said:
It’s not really fair to Colt to run cheap junk bulk ammo through their gun and then go on the internet and declare you’re disappointed in their gun, without at least trying some quality ammo first. And I really can’t understand the reasoning behind buying a $1000 revolver and then putting the cheapest ammo through it, you can find. And yes, I know that junk ran in your other guns. My son left a couple 50 round boxes of fed here, and the stuff is nearly worthless.

I didn’t know there was such a thing as a Colt Custom Shop King Cobra.

If your rimfire doesn’t work with CCI, then you may have a gun problem.

Yeah, OK. Federal is cheap junk ammo. I've put thousands of rounds of this through all my 617's, my 15-22's, my 10-22, New Frontier and who knows what else and never had a hiccup. Don't think it's the ammo.

Do a Google search and you'll see that this is not an isolated problem.

Also, for the record,

Colt King Cobra Target 22LR Owners - Offset firing pin?

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