Browning SA22 light firing pin strike / Failure to fire

LongJohn

LongJohn

New member
Rating - 100%
13   0   0
Location
Cape Breton, N.S
I was asked to look at a Browning SA22 which will not fire. After a thorough degreasing & cleaning of the bolt & action everything was reassembled with a very light lubricant. I noticed the firing pin strike on the cartridge rim was very light; visible but light. Repeated tries on the same case yielded the same results; 6 different brands of ammo were tried.

The firing pin tip looks sharp as I was concerned that the rifle was dry fired too much mushrooming the firing pin but this is not the case. I removed .0005 from the face of the bolt which should allow the firing pin to travel a little further but still no go.

The rifle was produced in 1977 & functions in all other aspects but the firing.

I am wondering if the firing pin spring is a little weak ? Can a spacer be installed into the hollow bolt to compress the spring a little ?

I am at a loss here guys; any help would be greatly appreciated.

LongJohn
 
Likely you're right about the spring - it's 45+ years old prob. A spacer might work, maybe 1/2" or so ? Or get a repl from Numrich ?
Also, is the case rim getting 'crushed' a lot? 'New' theories for other rifles lead to strike 'avoiding' the rim by a few hundredths or so - see RFC for 'Re-profiling firing pins' for a lot of discussions on this. The strike may go deeper if it doesn't have to 'crush' so much ?
 
LongJohn said:
After a thorough degreasing & cleaning of the bolt & action ...Can a spacer be installed into the hollow bolt to compress the spring a little ?
Click to expand...

Detail strip or just kinda hose things off real good?

No, don't use any spacers.

~ Clean the chamber, check for burrs at the chamber's opening.
~ Clean the inside of the breech bolt where the firing pin travels.
~ Clean the face of the breech bolt, scrape out the crude from the rim recess.
~ Clean under the extractor, make sure it moves freely.
~ Clean the manual safety, make sure it moves fully to the "Fire" position.
~ Make sure the disconnector is disengaging when firing.
~ Weak firing pin spring.
~ Barrel installed too far forward.
 
It's a take down rifle. Is the receiver tight on the barrel? There should be a barrel adjusting ring and a barrel adjusting follower with a tiny spring.
 
In order, I would look at the pin in relation to the bolt face. Pin should freely go through the bolt and nearly reach the front face of it. Get in to the hole the pin goes through, with a bit of wire or an ice pick, or similar tool and really dig, to see that there is not a built up layer of hardened crud blocking it.
All the power in the world won't make the pin fire the cartridge any better, if it is short stroking.

Then look for any burrs or other damage than might be slowing the pins travel. Watch the rear support column, on the trigger housing, I have seen those damaged by too many HV loads. The bolt beats on it, in recoil, and can bend it.Crooked springs don't transfer energy very well. Check also the fit of the spring in the bolt, as well as on the spring guide.

You should be able to find a reasonably useful replacement spring locally, if only to try out. Dunno if they still do, but CTire and Home Depot both used to have bulk hardware selections you could pick through and those selections had a bunch of springs. But springs are not something that just 'go soft'. They break, or they were badly heat treated, or mistreated, at some point along the way, but they seldom if ever go from being a good spring to a not good spring without breaking.
 
Sounds like you’ve covered all the bases. Headspace (by headspace I mean barrel position) could be a problem, especially if it’s a takedown model. Short of that, a new spring and/or firing pin might be needed.

Might be worth it to disassemble the bolt and soak it for a few days in mineral spirits or hoppe’s 9 or whatever (it’s all the same) just to make sure your firing pin is travelling all the way forward. After decades carbon and gunk and waxy old oil can build up.
 
Soak the action block in carb cleaner or brake cleaner. Then blow out a few times. 60 years since I had mine apart so can the spring be pulled longer if I remember right it was sort of long so a half inch would maybe work.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try them all. It is a take down model.

The action was completely taken apart; squiggly springs and all for a cleaning. I used a dental pic to get down into the bolt hole where the firing pin face would butt up against it when at rest but did not soak over night. I'll disassemble the bolt, I did clean under the extractor , soak overnight & blow dry with compressed air.

I figured tighter was better on the barrel fit & mister man it took a lot of twist to get it to release / unscrew. Note to self back off 1 spline on the splined lock ring.
I did clean the breech / chamber area but I'll have a really good look for burrs just in case I missed something.

Thanks again, stay tuned for an update.
 
Update:

Success !!

I dissembled the bolt completely & soaked it in white (napta) gas for a couple of days. I did get a little more grunge sediment in the bottom of the clear container.
While tracing/scraping the contours of the bolt with the dental pick I noticed there were some slight burs on the extractor which I cleaned up with a small stone. All soaked components were dried & lubed with LPS1 for some lubricant along with the firing pin barrel & springs. This evening I tried three different brands of ammo & a couple of shorts just to see; all went well.

Many thanks to all who posted; it's much appreciated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom