Protecting your firing pin

[Nimitz]

At a recent class I took another student with a Shadow had put a small rubber o-ring between the hammer & firing pin when he was doing dry fire. He said it helped to protect it.

Although simple to do I'm wondering how necessary is it to do that? In the striker fired world I used to live in you could dry fire your pistol all day & not worry about damaging anything ... thx!

[alma]

CGW Short Reset System ships with the little rubber o-rings. I think it has to do specifically with the modified short reset parts including the modified firing pin and plunger timing. Without this the firing pin on the CGW SRS modified B style guns runs into the plunger... I think

[yoshidaex]

I noticed on CZ's with firing pin blocks, the firing pin is held in by a roll pin and not the standard firing pin stop. I've seen one instance where excessive dry firing broke the roll pin and the firing pin would not extend past the breech face due to the debris that was loose within the firing pin tunnel. As a temporary fix, we pulled the roll pin out, rotated it 90 degrees and reinserted it.

On another, the roll pin was replaced with a cgw tool steel pin. But the pin was so hard the firing pin started peening over to the point where the firing pin would start dragging inside the firing pin tunnel and cause misfires. The peened over section of the firing pin needed to be filed but it worked fine after the filing.

Edited December 26, 2013 by yoshidaex

[alma]

I don't think it's the SRS but has to do with parts in the upper. CGW has much more info. I think dry fire concerns are much greater with B style guns but someone who knows more will likely come on soon with more information.

[BeerBaron]

If its a shadow there is no roll pin (it uses the back plate) and no firing pin block. You are free to dry fire the crap out of it.

The firing pin block guns may be worth treating a bit softer but a shadow can dry fire all day long.

[Primo]

peening over to the point where the firing pin would start dragging inside the firing pin tunnel and cause misfires. The peened over section of the firing pin needed to be filed but it worked fine after the filing.

This.

It happened to me. I have a NFPB SP01 shadow. CGW recommended the 5/16 o-ring and no problem since.

[Magsz]

I think i was that guy...

Its cheap insurance so who cares?

[Nimitz]

It is a Custom SP01 Shadow from CZC .... So no roll pIn or firing pin block

Agreed it's cheap and easy to do I just hate doing things that are unnecessary ...

I have been doing marine reef aquariums since 1984 and that hobby is rampant with techniques for doing things that have no data or research behind them, just someone's idea on what to do (not suggesting that's the case here) and legions of people follow it but can't explain why ... The engineer in me that is still rattling around in what's left of my brain just can't accept that ....

[motosapiens]

I have a 75b. I use a little rubber o-ring just to make it quieter, but I don't stress about dry-firing it without the o-ring, especially since i have the solid retaining pin from cgw.

[RussellM]

I have dryfired the crap out of my shadow for the last year to the tune of about an hour or more a day. I recently removed the firing pin to inspect it and the slide and found no unusual wear of any kind. I know people suggest the oring to keep the end of the firing pin from mushrooming which I have not noticed on mine but I also have cz custom extended firing pin installed.

The only issues I have had from all the dryfire are a few broken trigger return springs and alot of slide and magwell wear. Although I suspect the hammer and sear are wearing because the hammer will skip and fall back to its resting position during the DA pull every once in awhile.

[motosapiens]

Although I suspect the hammer and sear are wearing because the hammer will skip and fall back to its resting position during the DA pull every once in awhile.

that sounds like the disconnector, rather than the sear. I'm not sure the sear actually does anything during the DA pull.

I had 1 gun that needed slightly less bevel on the disconnector. stacking of various tolerances was such that on that gun only, that particular disconnector would occasionally allow the trigger bar to slip off the disconnector early. I could reproduce the problem every single time if i turned the gun upside down and shook it slightly.

[CDPMatt]

I asked Mink about this when I got my first shadow He said don't worry about it.

[Nimitz]

Just talked to Stuart at CZC and he said it's no issue with the SP01 Shadows ...

[Torogi]

When i was heavily dry firing my CZ SP-01 (with FPB), protecting the FP never crossed my mind. I dont think I had to unless my main spring is over sprung and the FP spring is under that its shooting the FP through the FP hole. Though its impossible because its held my a pin (SP-01). Possible for the shadow models.

But for argument sake, im curious from what would we protect the FP from?

[Magsz]

Again....

Its cheap insurance...........

I Have a 75B with a severely peened hammer and firing pin. The gun still works but the peening is not something i dig. Adding an o-ring, even if it does NOTHING for the gun, gives me peace of mind, costs me nothing and detracts from absolutely zero in regard to the ownership experience of the Shadow...

Yeesh...

Analysis leads to paralysis fits alot of you guys on this forum....

[CZ85Combat]

Read this post, the design flaw with the guns with the firing pin block is why you need to protect the firing pin. but CGW has a fix.

http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=55988.0

Edited December 28, 2013 by CZ85Combat

[mgardner]

The Shadow has been no problem to dry fire. The 75B has been with me awhile and when I took it apart to clean it there was little to no crud in the firing pin area (I shot lead bullets almost exclusively) and the retaining pin had a very small ding in it from excessive dry firing with no damage at all to the firing pin. This is after a year of shooting (probably 6000 rounds and twice that amount of dry firing). It has a CZ Custom extended firing pin in it which has a radius where it hits the pin. I just replaced the reatining pin with a new solid one.

The 97B after only a few months of excessive dry firing had very much damaged the pin and moved metal on the firing pin (it has an angle where it hits then retaining pin, now it has a radius). The firing pin was repaired and I made a new return spring for it from .020 spring stock instead of the original .028 and made it at a steeper pitch and long enough to pile up and nearly stop the firing pin before it hits the retaining pin hard. I shortened the spring until it still goes bang with the hardest primers I have We'll see how that works out. I put a solid retaining pin in it also.