Parts Most Likely to Fail ?

[Bob96]

   I have read posts about occasional failures of firing pins - trigger spring - bolt spring. Are these the only FA parts that ever fail under long and hard use?  Has FA made improvements in these parts in recent times to avoid failures?  I assume dry firing w/o snap caps could speed up firing pin breakage but trigger & bolt springs are not high stressed parts? I shoot my FA rarely and haven't had any problems but was interested in hearing from shooters you have fired many rounds on a regular basis in theirs.

[Steve P]

Spring failures from continued use and a firing pin bushing backing out after many thousands of rounds are not big deals.  I know of one actual "failure" of what could be construed as ODD or untypical.  A friend had his 41 mag barrel go south after only a few hundred rounds and it was not due to high pressure loads.  Don't know what happened to the barrel, but it suddenly went from nice groups to horrible groups in the space of about 50 shots.  FA replaced the barrel, but it was not cheap and they did not accept change in barrel as a defect in their workmanship.

I have three FAs and have yet to have anything go wrong..........(knocking on wood)......

Steve

[Ken ONeill]

I, too, have heard several reports of broken firing pins. One local friend suffered one to his Mdl. 83 .41 Mag, He's an avid silhouettte shooter, but I don't know how many rounds he had put through the gun. FA mailed him one (he's a precision machinist) and he installed it with no problem.
In 19 years, and experience in owning and shooting (lots of) FA's, I haven't broken anything yet...but I promise to keep trying.

[bobthenailer]

i have 3 freedoms revolvers and the only thing that has broken twice on the same revolver is the small spring inside  of the trigger guard housing,  possible a bolt spring?  its the longer spring that goes in the one of the channels in the trigger housing

[paul105]

I broke the firing pin and the bolt spring in my M83 .475 LB.  I replaced the firing pin and a local gunsmith replaced the bolt spring.  The firing pin was most likely my fault as I had just fired a cyl full and dry fired a few rounds and the pin broke (7,100 rnds).  The bolt spring broke right at 12,100 rounds.

I have a M97 in .45 Colt.  The bolt spring, trigger spring and hand spring all had to be replaced at differnt times.  Also had a transfer bar problem that was resolved (IIRC) with a new hammer.  This gun had 12,000 to 16,000 rnds thru it when the problems occured, pretty much in the order mentioned.

In a prior post, Mark H. mentioned that the internal springs have all been redesgned and are stronger and less likely to fail.  I do keep an extra firing pin on hand for both the M83s and M97s.

FAs customer service is second to none -- they will do whatever is necessary to make sure you are taken care of.

Paul

[BigMuddy]

Firing pin on one 83, and yeah I dry fired it. One time...but it broke it. Luckily it was one of the newer ones that was easy to replace.

Bolt spring on an 83 purchased used. It had and "action job" and the spring was not put back in correctly.

Barrels...lets don't talk barrels. I have one that needs a new one for the THIRD time. It is a 454. Steve, that 41 mag did not by chance get shot with Lil Gun powder did it?

[HAMMERHEAD]

My model 97 broke a cylinder lock spring.

[Lloyd Smale]

three barrels!!!!! Id think the part most like to fail for you would be your wrists!!

Firing pin on one 83, and yeah I dry fired it. One time...but it broke it. Luckily it was one of the newer ones that was easy to replace.

Bolt spring on an 83 purchased used. It had and "action job" and the spring was not put back in correctly.

Barrels...lets don't talk barrels. I have one that needs a new one for the THIRD time. It is a 454. Steve, that 41 mag did not by chance get shot with Lil Gun powder did it?

[BigMuddy]

Lloyd

Actually it NEEDS its third barrel, just shot two out. 

See the Lil Gun thread...not as many rounds as you would think. The first barrel was right at 3000 rounds, not all Lil Gun and a variety of bullets. (None under 300 grains)

Second barrel was only 300 rounds, and all FA bullets or CPC gas checked lead. Used more Lil Gun with this barrel, as I was told that the H110 powder might be part of my problem.

I DO shoot them quite a bit though!

[Wiking]

I DO shoot them quite a bit though!

You call 3000 and 300 rounds a lot?? I heard this talk abot Lil'gun being rough on the forcing cone... but I never heard that H-110 should cause problems.

How hot do you load those babies anyway??

[WL44]

Deleted after reading post elsewhere. Thanks!

[BigMuddy]

I DO shoot them quite a bit though!

You call 3000 and 300 rounds a lot?? I heard this talk abot Lil'gun being rough on the forcing cone... but I never heard that H-110 should cause problems.

How hot do you load those babies anyway??

Notice first that I said "them". Yes I do shoot "them" a lot. The 3000 and then 300 rounds were from ONE! And no that is not a lot of shooting to have the forcing cones shot out of the barrels.

They are not loaded hot, and are always loaded under the maximum. That is the point. It is the powder causing the pre-mature wear on the forcing cones.

My other FA guns are being fired with H110 and H4227, and they show NO WEAR in the forcing cone area, with a LOT MORE than 3000 rounds through them.

[Wiking]

I DO shoot them quite a bit though!

You call 3000 and 300 rounds a lot?? I heard this talk abot Lil'gun being rough on the forcing cone... but I never heard that H-110 should cause problems.

How hot do you load those babies anyway??

Notice first that I said "them". Yes I do shoot "them" a lot. The 3000 and then 300 rounds were from ONE! And no that is not a lot of shooting to have the forcing cones shot out of the barrels.

They are not loaded hot, and are always loaded under the maximum. That is the point. It is the powder causing the pre-mature wear on the forcing cones.

My other FA guns are being fired with H110 and H4227, and they show NO WEAR in the forcing cone area, with a LOT MORE than 3000 rounds through them.

Yeah I read the other thread on Lil'gun... That is one powder I would avoid at all cost!

I'm very fond of H110. I do have the last 2 cans of 2400 that were obtainable here. But I really don't know what to do with it because working up loads wont really give me anything since Denmark os dried out of 2400...