Stuck Firing pin?

[mod29]

Well, friends, I took my new 10" .22 LR Match barrel out to one of my favorite shooting places Saturday.  Had my targets all set, and was ready to go.  Then I ran into a problem.  My Contender wouldn't shut (go into battery) with a chambered round.
After much head scratching, I decided the problem was the 'rim-fire' firing pin was stuck in the 'fire' position.  The chambered cartridge was hanging up on the protruding pin, preventing the barrel from closing.

The frame is my late father's, and appears in excellent condition.  It was hardly ever used, and when he did, it was with a .357 barrel.  Never a rim-fire barrel.  I had cleaned and oiled the frame as best as I could, but never noticed the protruding pin.  It must have happened prior to my outing, after I turned the firing pin-thing from center-fire to rim-fire.  I may have dropped the hammer on it, don't really remember.  At any rate, now I'm stuck!

Question:  Can any gunsmith (pistol smith?) replace my firing pin assembly?  How hard are they to find?  How hard are they to change out?  Suggestions?  The frame is an older one, S/N 2008XX.

Help!
Jim

[Duffy]

Did you remove the bbl and try and tap the pin back with a soft mallet or brass drift? It may have a build up of carbon or crud on the back side that is holding it out. Try working it back and forth while applying #9 or similar solvent to free up the crud. I am not positive on the contenders but on the Encores they use a cone shaped return spring and if you dry fire them it can stack up and stick. If yours has had only center fire run through it theres a possability of some garbage in there, dried oil, bullet lube carbon ect.

Ryan

[Gavinator]

You did try giving it a tap back right? On my frame I can get to the screw that holds the firing pin bushing in place (the bushing holds both firing pins and springs) by cocking the hammer. Loosen the screw under the firing pins after your bbl. is off, Leave the screw in it's place. Remove the bushing from the breech with the pins & springs. Now you can see if it's rust or a broken spring.
 The pieces won't fly far when you take it apart, but if you have shag carpet do it in a big Tupperware container. On the reassembly the rounded firing pin goes on the bottom and the sharp edged square one goes on top. With the screw still in place in the frame trap it with your pinkie and run blue Locktite down a toothpick to the threads, wipe up any excess with a Q-tip. Turn the frame down and bring the bushing assy. up into the frame, re-tighten the screw. Done!
 Or you can send it to T/C Arms and they'll fix it for free, plus maybe add a new hammer spring.

[Wally]

I have had this problem on several of my frames and the solution I have found is to remove the breech block as described above.  Using a fine stone  I round the corners of the retainer flange on both pins where they
meet.  The pins will turn a little bit and jam on the edge of each other's  flange.  By rounding  the edges it does not allow them to bind on each other.
Of course they need to be cleaned and lightly lubed.  This has solved many problems on my frames.  When the CF pin sticks it make the gun almost impossible to open without excessive force, and even hard to open
when the rimfire sticks. I think that many people have this problem, but do not recognize the cause, unless you look at the hammer you would not know the pin was sticking, because it retracts when you finally get the gun to open. You can see the scratch mark on the primer though if this is happening.

Hope this helps.