Do you know first hand of breaking a firing pin by dry firing (poll)

[rwsmith]

Do you know first hand of a firing pin being broken by dry firing?

The only guns I've seen with broken firing pins were already old when I was a young kid and I don't know if dry firing broke it or not.

 

[OLDSTER]

I've seen firing pins broken or damaged by dry firing; but only in rim-fire guns.

 

[Texas Star]

I broke a firing pin in a MK VI Webley, during dry firing. A gunsmith welded it back.

 

[Class III]

Broke the nose off of a CZ52 firing pin while dry firing. Found out the original firing pins were cast. Replaced with an aftermarket milled firing pin from Makarov.com.

Class III

 

[DCWilson]

I bought a Beretta folding 20ga shotgun new in 1958 -- teenage purchase, the only shotgun I could afford -- and spent a lot of evening hours practice-pointing and dry-firing at imaginary birds who usually headed for one upper corner of my bedroom. On one trigger pull I heard a "click" from that corner of the room and saw something small fall down the wall and behind a dresser. I knew immediately what it had to be, found the piece and determined that it was indeed the front 1/8" of the gun's firing pin.

I was mortified, of course, because I had been told not to dry fire any firearm. But I set aside embarrassment, took it back to the owner-operated gun store where I bought it and confessed. The owner charged me a little under four dollars to replace it, and I never dry fired the shotgun again. (But I did continue to practice shouldering the gun and tracking imaginary birds breaking cover.)

So yes, I have seen dry firing break a firing pin. I did it myself.

 

[Raider]

I confess I broke a firing pin. It was a Winchester Model 1894 carbine made in 1903. I was 10 years old and practicing my John Wayne imitation in the bedroom. I pulled the trigger and the hammer made a funny sound when it dropped. A little piece of metal slithered out through the bottom when I worked the action; it was the firing pin tip. I convinced my mother to take me and the carbine to the gunsmith to get it fixed. The gunsmith was a supercilious snot who insisted on giving me a half hour's sermon about little boys with guns. To make it worse, he took six months to replace the firing pin (he wasn't that busy) and charged me $12.00 for the repair! That was in 1956. I don't dryfire anything anymore without snap caps.

Charlie

 

[ralph7]

I broke the firing pin on my third gen Colt SAA while dry firing it. I believe the long hammer fall convinced inertia to break it.

 

[diamonback68]

I think you're going to find it doesn't happen on a Smith&Wesson.
Edited: However it is possible on a rimfire revolver. That aspect sorta slipped my mind.

 

[OFT II]

I think you're going to find it doesn't happen on a Smith&Wesson.

A few years ago I bought a pre-model 18 made in 1954 that had a broken firing pin. The previous owner said that it broke when he was dry firing it. Never seen it happen on center fires though.

 

[kamloops67]

i had a 32 acp star auto that "came apart in my friends hand" yes broken firing pin from continuous dry fire . took 20-30 hits he said ...what a tool!
him, not the gun. i was in the next room oblivious to the destruction until it was too late.
broke a transfer bar on a new vaquero after 4-5000 38 spl and30 000+ dryfires ,does that count?

 

[Gunslinger808]

Yup, the old Tokarev (CZ 52) pistols were known for it.

 

[therevjay]

I think some (mostly old) guns are susceptible to firing pin breakage, most probably are not. If it was a sure thing to cause breakage the military would have no guns. But just to be safe I use "snap caps."

I

 

[Long Barrel]

Yep, I have........

An SKB 600 20 GA Over and Under, and a Rottweil 72 American Skeet special, both by dry firing.

Pretty embarrassing, considering that neither one was my gun, and I did the dry-firing.

In my defense, the Rottweil had custom-machined hardened pins that were brtittle and the SKB was pretty old.

 

[2152hq]

Mauser HSc 32auto pistol. I've seen a couple of those broken during dry fire. ,,and some broken during un-necessary disassembly too.
Very fragile in the original design. The post war gun redesigned the f/p because of that.

An elderly (1908) LC Smith 12 OO grade. It's a big no-no to dry fire these any way. But the guy still had to and broke the pin and the bushing on the right bbl.
Said he needed to relieve the mainspring pressure.

Recently a Stevens import O/U (from Turkey or one of those places it seems to be popular to have O/U shotguns made).
Dry fired by the happy new owner on station 6 of the first round of skeet to be shot w/it and it broke the top F/P.
It had misfired twice at the station,,not cocking when opening perhaps, so he decided to check it out with the gun unloaded. It 'dry' fired OK then,,but just once.

There's been others where the gun finally stopped firing reliably and it's found that the firing pin is broken inside. But the 2 pieces are still doing the job most of the time as they line up in their machined passage way.
Many of those I often think are victims from dry firing as they look too battered to have just occured and then the gun quickly taken out of service for repair.

 

[Cdog]

Some are perfectly fine with being dry fired. Other designs aren't so forgiving.

I don't torture any weapon with dry fire, but I do dry fire modern rifles and handguns.

If they can't hold up to dry fire, then they're too delicate for me.

Yes, I have replaced broken pins. More older rimfire than others.

 

[30-30remchester]

I broke a pin while dry firing a Winchester model 1894. Of course that was when I was young and dumb. Now that I am older, hopefully I'm not as dumb.

 

[brown10]

Yep, broke one in an AMT Backup years ago.

 

[UncleEd]

Brand new Model 66 25 years ago. Tested the action, took it to the range. Fired two rounds. Then nothing. Firing pin had broken off. Dealer next day replaced firing pin from stock he had on hand.

Probably just the rare defective pin from the day it was installed.

 

[mjr]

I think you're going to find it doesn't happen on a Smith&Wesson.

Well, maybe not often. I broke the hammer nose on a S&W Model 64-3, SN 1D513XX, from the legendary Bangor Punta era. I assume my excessive dry firing was responsible.

It was a cheap and easy fix at the local gunsmth.

 

[Wee Hooker]

You need to consider

Metallurgy has seen HUGE improvements in the last 50-100 years. If you read the posts above, many of the broken pin issues were on pre-1960 firearms. I'm betting the margin would change significantly if the poll were to ask about modern, post 1975, non-rimfire firearms only.