Acetone on the firing pin

TV-PressPass

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 99.1%
115   1   0
The last time I was out with my fabarm I had a few trigger pulls that resulted in only a click. It was older ammo that had been sitting in my car for most of the summer, and it was getting fairly chilly in the evening when the failure to fire's occurred.

I asked a more knowledgeable friend than I about this, and he said it was possible that the gun oil on my firing pin was gumming up, causing the pin to not strike hard enough.

His solution was to dip the pin, spring and carrier in nail polish remover to clear off any excess oil, then just shoot the shotgun dry. Apparently the russians used to shoot all their guns dry in winter because it was routinely freezing and oil was in short supply.

Does this sound like a legitimate solution? Should I be dipping the whole bolt assembly in the acetone? Or just the spring? I don't want to do anything that will damage the finish, but it sucks when I get a click with no bang.

Any advice would be appreciated! This is really a general firearms question, but since the gun is a tac-shotty I figured I'd post here first.
 
I like to keep the bolt clean, but I do use a bit of oil to help with rust prevention.

The are several other areas of concern if you are having misfires. Just cleaning a bolt assembly may or may not be a solution.

But to answer your question, no, I do not think this is a legit solution.
 
IF the FTF rounds were not showing a proper firing pin indent, then I'd say your buddy was correct - though I find it highly unlikely given the Canadian cliamte at the moment ... if you had asked this in my Febraury, then I'd be more inclined to agree with the concept - but in above 0 temps, I can't see any "moderately applied" oil gumming up a gun ... mabe if you had lots of old "grease" gumming it up it could, but I think a person would knw if their gun was in that kind of condition.

IF the primers appeared to have been struck properly, then I'd say the issue lies elsewhere though I've never had ammo go bad from sitting - even 15 yr old .22's still fire fine in my experience.
 
Take some G-96 in aerosol form and spray the crap out of it.
Leave the bolt assembley face down and allow to drain free. Of course you will have it on some absorbent paper.
If you really want to get carried away you can get the kettle going and place the strainer for the sink and have it set to allow it to drain .
With some dish soap or simple green and a tooth brush give the parts a scalding bath and using an old tooth brush you should be able to clean up most of the affected parts.
Save some very hot water to rinse the soap off.
Drain on paper...the heat should allow the parts to dry .
Then take spray some G-96 and allow the excess to run off, again let the bolt assembly to stand upright to allow excess to drain.
Why not ask opinions of maintenance/repairs when it is a blck/tactical firearm.
Your results may vary, but it worked wonders in my 870 Wingmaster, it also works great on the trigger assembly too.
Anyone know the bag limit on zombies this fall?
Rob
 
The primer's have been struck, but not properly. I was sort of suspicious of the cold weather reasoning for that same reason. It was chilly, but still happy without a hat weather.

Unfortunately all the unfireable rounds were 3" and the buddy I was shooting with was limited to 2 3/4" so we dont know if they'd fire in another gun. They were multiple brands though. Some Kent, some Remington.

As for the zombies, I'm pretty sure varmint rules apply. That means baiting is okay!!
 
If the primers were not struck properly, then there is certainly "something" not right ... either a build up of some unnamed "gunk" or a mechanical fault with the firearm itself.
 
Back
Top Bottom