Hopkins & Allen Firing Pin repair

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FatJackDurham
Senior Levergunner
Posts: 1067
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2012 10:18 am
Location: Morrisville,vt

Hopkins & Allen Firing Pin repair

Post by FatJackDurham »

Recently, I discovered that the firing pin in my H&A appeared to be a hand made one, or something that was modified to fit in my gun. Also, there was no spring to retract the pin and occasionally, I'd rack it pretty hard when dropping the breach. So, I decided to order a new one from Numrich and also a spring from grainger.

Image

You can see the old one on the left was tapered, as was the retaining pin. This allowed it to come shooting out when I ruptured a primer recently. The new pin is stepped to take the spring and fit better. It came all squared off, so I rounded the pin slightly and angled the striking surface to match the angle of the hammer.

Image

The original notch for the retaining pin was so long that the head of the pin stuck well out from the breech. As well, it would strike the retaining pin when firing, which I didn't want. I trimmed the notch so that the pin head would strike the breach block rim of the firing pin well instead, and soldered in a piece of a brass punch to adjust how far back the pin rebounds. This gun has a rebounding hammer, so now, after firing, the pin rebounds so I can work the lever everytime, thanks to the spring, but it doesn't touch the face of the hammer.
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