442 light strikes

[Doc Joe]

I had some problems with a couple light strikes with every box of ammo. A few weeks ago it fired only 2 out of 10. Not good.

So I took it to a gunsmith. I found out today the firing pin was short and the channel was too big.

Ever hear of this?

BTW the gun is a year old.

Joe

 

[SNW REV]

S&W has been using shorter firing pins so their guns will pass the California drop test. Apex makes a longer firing pin that will fix the problem.


Frank

 

[TACC1]

Thanks, I didn't know that.
TACC1

 

[Doc Joe]

S&W has been using shorter firing pins so their guns will pass the California drop test. Apex makes a longer firing pin that will fix the problem.


Frank

Thanks!

So will the shorter firing pin only affect certain brands of ammo?

 

[jtmo3]

Figures. Let's not build guns to the best of our ability. Let's build them to pass stupid safety regs. Anyway, send it back to s&w and let them make it right. Has it always done this or is this something new?

 

[Doc Joe]

Its only done it with the last 4 or so boxes of ammo.

 

[photoman]

I've owned at least a half dozen Airweights built since the CA debacle and none of the them have had light strike problems. I would contact S&W before modifying your self defense gun.

 

[jtmo3]

You say light strikes, but what does the indent on the primer look like? Does the trigger feel different? How many rounds throught the gun before it started doing this? It just doesn't make sense that after a year, the firing pin gets shorter.

 

[Doc Joe]

The indentation on the primer was barely there. The ones that fired the indentation was deep.

It started at about 700 rds

 

[photoman]

Has the gun been detail cleaned?

 

[Doc Joe]

nope

Hopefully the gunsmith will do that

 

[photoman]

That's a good idea. It probably just needs to be cleaned internally. If you've been shooting a lot of dirty ammo, the internals can get really full of junk and can "slow down" the firing pin.

 

[Doc Joe]

An update.

The gunsmith detail cleaned it and test fired it.

He said the cylinder pin channel was out of round from me flipping the cylinder closed like they do in westerns...I have never done that.

So I sent it back to S&W June 28. I got it back today. It has a new frame and side plate. Apparently they replaced at leat the springs too. The trigger pull is hard!

Going to the range tomorrow to try it with the ammo it wouldn't fire before.

Needless to say I am very impressed with S&W

 

[photoman]

Good news Joe. Let us know how it goes tomorrow.

 

[Doc Joe]

Will do

I dried fired it a lot tonight. The trigger pull lightened up (or my finger got stronger)

But I was feeling the inside and outside edges of the forcing cone. They both are very sharp. Is that normal?

 

[photoman]

I've had some that had an edge. I don't shoot lead bullets much so I didn't worry about it. Might keep and eye on that tomorrow and see how it goes. I would think it's fine or the factory wouldn't have sent it out.

 

[Doc Joe]

Thanks !

I'm going to try all the ammo I had problems with, including some SWC

 

[roar]

How common is this problem?

 

[Doc Joe]

Just got back from the range. Ran 50 Georgia Arms 158gr SWC without a hitch. Then 50 Independence 130gr FMJ almost problem free. In the last 5 the cylinder hung up on one, but the gun was really hot and dirty. I then ran 20 Speer 135gr +P short barrel HP. In the 1st 5 the cylinder hung and the rest were fine.