PC 629 Firing pin Bushing

[ekaeric]

Can anyone give me their opinion on this. I have 250 rounds through this gun of Magtech 44magnum. I can trace the used shells back a hunred fifty rounds and can see the slight impression of the pitting on the primers. This tells me the pitting was from the first 100 rounds or from the manufacturer installation. I did talk with Smith and they said its not normal with a new gun but no need to send it in as it happens over time. Now because I am a perfectionist and this is the pride and joy of my fleet, knowing somthing is not normal bugs me especially on my favorite gun. I do intend on shooting lots of rounds through it so I dont want to send it in and get it replaced only to have it happn again. But if its a larger issue or defect then I would like it addressed. Thanks for any opinions, Eric

 

[saintpcr]

I have a similar problem. My firing pin is torn up and has burrs and sticks out into the primer and jams the cylinder. I am going to send it back to S&W for repair as the local gunsmith doesn't think he can fix it.

 

[john traveler]

Those marks are either from a defective firing pin bushing when it was installed new or gas cutting from blown primers.

I vote for gas cutting from blown primers. MagTech ammo has a spotty quality reputation from what I have heard and read. All it takes is firing a handful of cartridges that have blown their primers to cause the damage.

I would submit that picture to another S&W tech for another opinion. It most certainly does NOT "happen over time". Continued firing with more blown primers will give you problems with sticking of cylinder rotation making the gun unreliable.[/I]

 

[ekaeric]

I actually sent a second email with a picture to S&W today to get the opinion of another tech since its been 4-5 days and no response yet from the first email. (The first contact was a phone call to get a faster response). Also if this happens so quick with this ammo how do you keep this from happening with other ammo brands as I have read as much good and bad about Magtech as I have about top more expensive brands. Maybe I was just unlucky.

 

[john traveler]

One way is to make it a habit to examine your fired brass and note difficult extraction, flattened primers, etc. It is always a good idea to keep tabs on overpressure signs. The punctured primers that caused that damage also affect the firing pin (stiker) tip, causing another way to puncture primers.

Punctured primers are strong sign of either overpressure or defective primer cups. Yes, any ammo manufacturer is capable of manufacturing errors that produce defective rounds. It's just MagTech ammo has been involved in so many incidents of blownup guns and quality control issues that shooters need to pay better attention to industry recall notices.

 

[TSQUARED]

The issue appears purely cosmetic to me and a virtually insignificant one at that.

 

[ekaeric]

John take a look at the photo of the empty shell. These are how the last 150 look they have a concave primer is this normal? I also checked to see if the bushing protrudes from the recoil plate and it does not. It may be an isolated issue and in that case it is what it is. I will not be so cheap and buy better ammo. I am fairly new to the gun world so please excuse me if I am making something out of nothing I am in the learning phase. Thanks Eric

 

[tomcatt51]

That isn't the best picture but what I see would make me want to take a look at the firing pin's tip.

I'm not a fan of Magtech ammo except maybe in low pressure rds like .38 special.

 

[john traveler]

I second tomcat's suggestion to check the firing pin tip.

Can you provide some detailed, focused, closeup shots of the firing pin tip with hammer in full cock?

 

[ekaeric]

Here is a picture of the firing pin and also another empty shell. The last picture of the shell was done at an angle on purpose to try to show the amount of concave that the primer receives after firing. Thought maybe it was being compressed enough to make some of them burst when the pin hits, but like I said earlier this maybe nothing at all I just want to make sure. Going to shoot 100 rounds tomorrow. I'll check the bushing by comparing before and after pictures and see if it gets worse. I guess if it gets worse I'll try different ammo then compare again then go from there.

 

[tomcatt51]

S&W has gone thru a series of different firing pins. Some good, more not so good. Differing lengths and tip profiles. Your's looks like one of the tapered tips, vs a hemispherical tip. Get a new firing pin from Brownell's. S&W seems to have gone back to the .495" long, hemispherical tipped firing pins and that's what I've rcd recently ordering a S&W firing pin. Or get an Apex Tactical, Apex XP ignition kit. Good chance that will fix the "primer problem".

https://apextactical.com/store/product-info.php?pid4.html

FIRING PIN, MIM, FOR FRAME MOUNTED FIRING PIN - Brownells

 

[ekaeric]

Well, I just shot another 100 rounds today and as you can see by the picture the pitting is exactly the same. I am not going to rule out that it was there from the begining or just bad metal but I am more likley to believe it was a bad primer in the first 100 rounds (unlucky). Nevertheless I will just keep shooting it till it needs a replacement unless Smith gets back to me and say's to ship it in and have it fixed. I think if it happens to burst more primers in the future I will look at the firing pin replacement as Tomcatt suggested (makes sense) even though I have other S&W's with the same pin and no issues. It is a great tip though, thank you Tomcatt. Thanks John for input as well. Thanks guy's, Eric