It is late in the evening, actually early in the morning, and I’m hiding behind my computer’s display, trying to get some work done. I always thought I would grow older, life would mellow out and I would have all the time in the world for projects. Apparently, not. Like working on a home, or a car, problems with firearms are there to pursue and sometimes they develop in a way that consumes more time than intended. There is nothing technical or elaborate about the following information, however, it does illustrate why projects forecasted to last one hour sometimes take all day.
The case of the disappearing firing pin
This past week I had a range day scheduled and invited my wife to join me. I thought I would surprise her and bring along her favorite rifle, a vintage steel receiver Browning BLR that has been stowed in a safe for the past 4 or 5 years. After running a couple of patches through the bore and cycling a couple of dummy rounds through the magazine the rifle was pronounced it range ready.
At the bench, my wife steadied the rifle on a rest, squeezed the trigger and was greeted with a hammer dropping “clack” with no boom to follow. She recocked the hammer, squeezed the trigger again and more of the same. Thought bubbles with question marks all around. She pulled the magazine, cycled the chambered round and checked the primer strike; no mark. On further investigation, it was found that rifle had been stowed with the hammer down, which held the inertial firing pin depressed and flush with the locking bolt face. Storage grease that didn’t come off in the quick wipe down remained wrapped around the firing pin, hardened to the consistency of glue and holding the firing pin just out of reach of the rifle’s released hammer.
I didn’t want to take the Browning apart to clean the bolt. It was not on the work schedule and already taking time needed elsewhere. BLRs are not like Marlin or Winchester lever action rifles; pins come out, the cocking lever and cocking gear come out, the buttstock comes off, the mainspring tube assembly is removed, then the bolt comes out. Reassembly requires assurance the cocking gear and lever are properly timed. So I broke out some Kroil, probably one of the handiest substances to have around a shop of any type where mechanical things are present. Kroil is penetrating oil that will seep into millionth inch spaces and break rust, corrosion, contamination, or compression bonds. The stuff creeps downhill, uphill and might even taste good on a salad. We use it in the shop to break loose badly corroded barrel threads on WW I & II vintage rifles.
So the Browning was stood on its muzzle, the hammer was cocked and a little pool of Kroil was formed around the end of the firing pin, which broke through and drained into the bolt body in about 30 seconds. The Browning was flipped over and a shot of Kroil was squirted down the firing pin hole and the rifle was left standing the rest of the day. A check at the end of the day showed the firing pin loose enough to be pushed in with thumb pressure, but it was not loose enough to pop out under firing spring pressure. Because it is an inertial firing pin, there is no firing pin tip to push in and there is no surface to grab at the back of the firing pin.
For such occasions, I keep Grade N52, Neodymium magnets. Only 2″x1/2″x1/4″, but each of the two pictured above has a pulling force of 32 lbs. Bus them together and double to pull. They are just the thing for pulling stuck plungers, detent pins and springs out of wells too deep to otherwise reach. Available on Amazon for approximately $10. The magnet pulled the firing pin aft, more Kroil was applied and the firing pin was restored to working order. A flush out with gun scrubber and a drop of oil had everything working as slick as new and no disassembly required. The next day my wife got to enjoy her firearm again.
The case of the disappearing trigger safety plunger
After wasting a couple of hours on a sight installation that was going nowhere; too short of a dovetail on the sight, or too tall of a dovetail on the pistol, I gave up and decided I liked the sights that were on the pistol more than I had realized.
I decided I would disassemble the slide and give everything a good cleaning. I pulled the firing pin stop and depressed the firing plunger to remove the firing pin. The firing pin popped out, I lifted by thumb, but the plunger did not follow. With a free moving extractor, tapping the bottom of the slide against a wooden block did not create enough inertia for the plunger to pop out. I tried magnets to pull the plunger up; no dice. So the pistol could not be used. At best it would have been in a questionable state. Another unplanned project.
With a replacement firing plunger and plunger spring on hand, I decided I would drill the piece out or, possibly, the touch of a turning drill would break the piece free and the plunger would pop out. The slide was cushion mounted in the milling machine, a #31 Titanium drill bit (0.120″) was put in the chuck and speed was turned way down, something on the order of 275 rpm.
The firing pin plunger is a hardened part so going at it at a high speed just rubs the tips off of bits. The plunger is 0.185″ in diameter, but I went with a 0.120″ drill to give myself a little slack in eyeball alignment. I set the drill stop to that the bit would not penetrate the top and hit the point where the plunger narrows. I figured if I did that I’d be stuck trying to fish out a small chunk of metal deep in the plunger well of the slide.
A #2 screw extractor was used with a T handle to catch the hole in the plunger and walk it out of the slide. Below, the drilled out piece and the replacement.
The firing pin plunger well in the slide was chamfered with a diamond dust ball cutter and cleaned up with a rubber polishing tip. The pistol was reassembled and all worked as intended.
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