JWBaldree Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Tried to shoot a match yesterday with my PCC, and had the firing pin break on the first stage. Sucks to be me. Knew something was majorly wrong so I just bagged the gun and RO'd the rest of the match. Pulled it apart tonight and found the pin in two pieces. Total round count less than 250. I'm going with bad heat treat, and will be calling New Frontier tomorrow, but does any one know if there is another mfg's proven firing pin that will work? Thanks in advance. Link to comment
RSki Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 My original NFA firing pin lasted two rounds. Replaced it with a Rock River Arms 9mm pin. That one has gone over 800 rounds thus far... http://stores.9mmar.com/rra-9mm-firing-pin/ NFA did send a replacement for the broken pin. Presently, I'm using it as a spare. Link to comment
Bluemooncricket Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 There is also a pin available from AR15Xtreme. Link to comment
Odessa Straight Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Brownells sells a CMMG parts kit for the CMMG bolt and supposedly good with all Colt type AR 9mm bolts. I don't know if it's compatable with NFA bolts. It contains firing pin and extractor along with the spring for the firing pin, cotter pin to hold the firing pin, and roll pin for the extractor. I think I could replace the firing pin in between stages at a match, but probably would need more time to replace/ tune the extractor (looks similar to a 1911 extractor). Someday I plan on buying another complete CMMG bolt to keep as a spare. Link to comment
robertg5322 Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Have an ATI carbine, tip of FP broke off dry firing. I acttually heard it impacr wall in harage, but diidn'the realize what it was until I took it apart to lube before going to range and saw it looking odd. Zero rounds through gun. ATI sent me another one free, and I bought a CMMG unit as a spare. Link to comment
Les Snyder Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 my NFA OEM blue steel pin broke at about 400... they replaced it with a stainless that has gone over 1500 without problem... I bought a stainless Colt pin from Brownells, and it looks identical to the NFA Link to comment
Flatland Shooter Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 NFA offers two different 9mm bolts. Do they both use the same firing pin? Link to comment
Bob Hostetter Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 I first used a NFA bolt and firing pin but it broke within the first 300 rounds. I switched to a quarter circle bolt and firing pin and have had zero failures over the next 4000 rounds. Link to comment
Southpaw Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 1 hour ago, robertg5322 said: Have an ATI carbine, tip of FP broke off dry firing. I acttually heard it impacr wall in harage, but diidn'the realize what it was until I took it apart to lube before going to range and saw it looking odd. Zero rounds through gun. ATI sent me another one free, and I bought a CMMG unit as a spare. I had the exact same thing happen with a NFA bolt. Zero rounds fired and only about a dozen or less dry fires and tip of firing pin broke off and hit the wall. Link to comment
robertg5322 Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 Interesting thing is there's a spring to stop or slow the pin from going forward and impacting the front of the firing pin tunnel which does not exist on a Mil-Spec AR FP. I've yet to break a .223 AR firing pin. Link to comment
carharttfarmer Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 28 minutes ago, robertg5322 said: Interesting thing is there's a spring to stop or slow the pin from going forward and impacting the front of the firing pin tunnel which does not exist on a Mil-Spec AR FP. I've yet to break a .223 AR firing pin. The firing pin works off inertia the spring keeps the pin to the rear much like a 1911 without the spring it won't stick out enough for the hammer to hit with enough force to work Link to comment
robertg5322 Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 2 hours ago, carharttfarmer said: The firing pin works off inertia the spring keeps the pin to the rear much like a 1911 without the spring it won't stick out enough for the hammer to hit with enough force to work Seems the spring would also cushion the FP to some degree. No spring in a Mil-Spec Spec AR and they don't seem to be too hard on firing pins. Link to comment
Odessa Straight Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 I welcome the firing pin return spring in my AR 9mm. I hand load for my 9mm with the same very soft small pistol primers as I do with my reduced mainspring pistols. Federals don't take much of a firing pin hit to set them off. I cringe every time I drop the bolt on a round during L&MR. 5.56 primers are harder and mil spec rifle primers are harder than Federal small pistol primers. May be that's why 9mm Ars have the spring. Link to comment
robertg5322 Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 11 hours ago, Odessa Straight said: I welcome the firing pin return spring in my AR 9mm. I hand load for my 9mm with the same very soft small pistol primers as I do with my reduced mainspring pistols. Federals don't take much of a firing pin hit to set them off. I cringe every time I drop the bolt on a round during L&MR. 5.56 primers are harder and mil spec rifle primers are harder than Federal small pistol primers. May be that's why 9mm Ars have the spring. I didn't even think of the pistol primer softness issue, good point. Still odd how a spring cushioned pin breaks more than rarely and an uncushioned pin rarely breaks. Link to comment
Aircooled6racer Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 (edited) Hello: I think they are breaking because they heat treated the tip to make it hard. What happened was that they did not draw it back so it stayed brittle. The shock wave going down the firing pin when not striking a primer caused the tip to break off because of the harmonics. Certain shotguns used to have the same problem. Thanks, Eric Edited December 23, 2016 by Aircooled6racer Link to comment
robertg5322 Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 2 hours ago, Aircooled6racer said: Hello: I think they are breaking because they heat teated the tip to make it hard. What happened was that they did not draw it back so it stayed brittle. The shock wave going down the firing pin when not striking a primer caused the tip to break off because of the harmonics. Certain shotguns used to have the same problem. Thanks, Eric Eric, Mine broke before ever hitting a primer. I was dry firing in my garage, and not even a lot of dry firing. Maybe the shoulder hitting the front of the firing pin tunnel in the bolt caused the little nub to go shooting across the garage, who knows. Seems that would be a bit more impact (steel on steel vs. steel on copper primer cup), which might explain it. Link to comment
Frank34 Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 (edited) So I got three rounds off on mine. I've built several of these and this was my first problem. The firing pin was fine but the spring had moved up the collar on the firing pin which I guess slowed the inertia of the firing pin by rubbing on the firing pin channel. So I replaced the spring and everything is working. Edited December 23, 2016 by Frank34 Link to comment
4T2 Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 Add me to the list, probably 100-150 rounds before it broke. I reached out to new frontier, we will see what they say.Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk Link to comment
lumberjack149 Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 I had the same problem, my lasted less than 500rds. Link to comment
wgj3 Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Ok, so whats the difference between the NFA firing pins and the ones from other manufacturers? Link to comment
Frank34 Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 The black firing pins they they shipped some bolts with have a shoulder that the spring rides up on. The spring that comes with them is pretty weak and when it gets stuck up on the shoulder of the firing pin it stops hitting the primer. Not even a mark. Im not really sure if it's the firing pin or the spring. The colt firing pin is made from stainless steel and has no shoulder. When I emailed New Frontier Armory about the problem they sent me the colt style firing pin right away. They are really good to deal with. Link to comment
JHOWARD Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Mine broke in 2 shots. I have an RRA and whatever NFA shipped me to replace theirs if you want to send me a few bucks they're yours. Sold my PCC and dont need them. Link to comment
usmc1974 Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Mine lasted 7 rounds they are going to send me a new pin and spring, but are out of them now and don't know when they will be getting some back in stock. Does your pin look like this? they wanted pictures so I sent some. Link to comment
Frank34 Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Yes. In the meantime you could grind the shoulder off of the pin where the spring is getting stuck so the spring floats on it. Or get them from JHOWARD. . Link to comment
usmc1974 Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 I was wondering, if they send out new ones are they going to do the same thing? Link to comment
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