Weirdest thing, Shadow 2 firing pin popped free at the range

Trinimon

Trinimon

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Had the weirest thing happen at the range today. After shooting around 100rnds, I swapped over to test some 45LC loads on my SAA. I went back to shoot my Shadow 2, insert mag, snap the slide to chamber a round and I noticed the round got hung up on the feed ramp. I racked the slide again and something few out and hit me in the chest then fell to the ground. I thought it was the jammed round and glanced down to the ground and noticed a familiar looking piece of metal. Turns out, it's my Shadow 2's firing pin! WTF? First thing that came to mind was, I hope I didn't lose my firing pin spring and the little firing pin stop.

Luckly for me, I found the firing pin stop and the spring was still in the slide. It would have sucked if I'd lost those parts 'cause my BB course is this weekend. :p

Can't say I've ever had that happened before and I've got about 1K rounds through that pistol already. I could only guess that the firing pin might have gotten stuck forward and me working the slide to cycle another round made the firing pin stop fall out and the firing pin popped clean out when it got dislodged.

Anyone else ever had this happen?
 
are you doing the BB course at sharon? i know leo is teaching on there on saturday.

as for the firing pin situation ive never had it happen before.
 
thechineseguy said:
are you doing the BB course at sharon? i know leo is teaching on there on saturday.
as for the firing pin situation ive never had it happen before.
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Yup, I'm taking the course with Leo on Saturday. Guess I'll be bringing a backup pistol and holster with me. lol

bsand said:
ive got 3k + rounds on my shadow never had anything remotely similar happen to that.
Clean your firing pin channel, could be gunked up?
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Yeah, I ran a q-tip down the channel and there was a bit of carbon in there. Hopefully that was the cause.

owlowl said:
So neither firing pin stop nor the pin itself were broken, but they just came lose?
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Yup. Replaced the parts and banged out another 130rnds without incident.
 
MET said:
I swipe a red Sharpie over the base of my range brass and had a firing pin stick due to the build up from the marker.
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Interesting you should mention that. I did mark a few cases when I did a test load but it was only about 10pcs. I don't think there would be much buildup from those. I'll flush out the channel with some brake cleaner as McClean pointed out and make sure it's clear of any gunk.
 
Trinimon said:
Interesting you should mention that. I did mark a few cases when I did a test load but it was only about 10pcs. I don't think there would be much buildup from those. I'll flush out the channel with some brake cleaner as McClean pointed out and make sure it's clear of any gunk.
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It happened after around 300rds on my CZ Shadow years ago, the red marker was seen a good 1/8" up from the tip of the firing pin. I was surprised at the build up. In your case I doubt 10 marked rounds would gum things up.
 
MET said:
It happened after around 300rds on my CZ Shadow years ago, the red marker was seen a good 1/8" up from the tip of the firing pin. I was surprised at the build up. In your case I doubt 10 marked rounds would gum things up.
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Well, I flushed it with some brake cleaner and ran a q-tip down the channel. It came out a little dirty so I grabbed some Flitz polish, a fresh Q-tip and a Dremel (I see people cringing already, lol) and lightly ran it through the channel. Q-tip came out pretty dirty. Flushed it again with some more BC and wiped down with a clean Q-tip and it was nice and clean. Lightly lubed a Q-tip and ran it down the channel then ran a dry Q-tip after to remove any surplus lube. Added a small drop of lube to my fingertip and worked it around my fingers then lubed the FP spring and firing pin and reassembled.

Dry fired a few times and all seems fine. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it for now. I'll have to track down a spare FP stop and add that to my save-a-day kit.
 
Trinimon said:
Yup, I'm taking the course with Leo on Saturday. Guess I'll be bringing a backup pistol and holster with me. lol
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nice. i wanted to sign up for that course but have already committed to the TDSA Advanced Pistol 1 course at silverdale on the same day. i watched Leo teach the first BB course of the year at sharon and hes a really good instructor.
 
thechineseguy said:
nice. i wanted to sign up for that course but have already committed to the TDSA Advanced Pistol 1 course at silverdale on the same day. i watched Leo teach the first BB course of the year at sharon and hes a really good instructor.
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My buddy took that BB course earlier this month. He had nothing but good things to say about Leo and the course overall. He got rained on two of the days. Hopefully the weather holds up this weekend.
 
Small world.
Trinimon, I will be at Sharon this Saturday and will drop by Leo's course - hope to put a face to the CGN handle. My son was in the course a few weekends ago and I was lending a light helping hand. Hope you have fun - the course is good training. The El Prez drill is always fun for new IPSC shooters.

Thechineseguy, there were a number of folks who stopped by the BB course so we may have met. Hope you get into a course soon.
 
Yep heard from a few that Leo is a great instructor. Yer gonna love IPSC!

Sounds like the buildup in your firing pin channel was likely the culprit.

I twice had a similar problem with firing pin getting stuck in forward position and on one occasion the firing pin stop also fell off. And it was a pain to unstick the the firing pin.

In my case I do regularly clean my firing pin channel. My problem was I had installed a reduced weight Firing pin spring which was recommended to me by a CGN sponsor when you install a lower weight hammer spring. Turns out the reduced weight firing pin spring was too light and was allowing the firing pin to go too far forward. Wore a slight grove in the firing pin and it got stuck in forward position. Then firing pin stop fell off when I racked slide. Happened twice with 2 different reduced weight firing pin springs in my Shadow 2.

Since then have gone back to the factory firing pin spring and zero problems.

I also installed same reduced weight firing pin spring in my Shadow but have had no problems with it at all with tons of rounds down range. So seemed to a Shadow 2 only issue. Other than that Have had no other issues with either of of my S2's.
 
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Pr589 said:
Small world.
Trinimon, I will be at Sharon this Saturday and will drop by Leo's course - hope to put a face to the CGN handle. My son was in the course a few weekends ago and I was lending a light helping hand. Hope you have fun - the course is good training. The El Prez drill is always fun for new IPSC shooters.

Thechineseguy, there were a number of folks who stopped by the BB course so we may have met. Hope you get into a course soon.
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you were the only person that had a son in that course. we chatted briefly but never formally introduced. i was sitting at the same table as you in the clubhouse last saturday while i had breakfast. you were chatting with a friend and darrell. damn it, i feel like a stalker. lol

i loved watching everyone doing the El Presidente drill. looked like so much fun.
 
Pr589 said:
Small world.
Trinimon, I will be at Sharon this Saturday and will drop by Leo's course - hope to put a face to the CGN handle. My son was in the course a few weekends ago and I was lending a light helping hand. Hope you have fun - the course is good training. The El Prez drill is always fun for new IPSC shooters.

Thechineseguy, there were a number of folks who stopped by the BB course so we may have met. Hope you get into a course soon.
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Cool! Pop by and say hi. Your son was probably in the same course as my buddy.

Northaways said:
Yep heard from a few that Leo is a great instructor. Yer gonna love IPSC!

Sounds like the buildup in your firing pin channel was likely the culprit.

I twice had a similar problem with firing pin getting stuck in forward position and on one occasion the firing pin stop also fell off. And it was a pain to unstick the the firing pin.

In my case I do regularly clean my firing pin channel. My problem was I had installed a reduced weight Firing pin spring which was recommended to me by a CGN sponsor when you install a lower weight hammer spring. Turns out the reduced weight firing pin spring was too light and was allowing the firing pin to go too far forward. Wore a slight grove in the firing pin and it got stuck in forward position. Then firing pin stop fell off when I racked slide. Happened twice with 2 different reduced weight firing pin springs in my Shadow 2.

Since then have gone back to the factory firing pin spring and zero problems.

I also installed same reduced weight firing pin spring in my Shadow but have had no problems with it at all with tons of rounds down range. So seemed to a Shadow 2 only issue. Other than that Have had no other issues with either of of my S2's.
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Well, I think I've narrowed down the cause. I took a punch and worked the firing pin by pushing it into the channel from the back of the slide. It felt pretty gritty and a couple times it got hung up. I removed the FP stop/FP spring, flipped the FP end-over and worked it back/forth at the hammer end of the channel. It was getting caught up. I figure the channel was milled out pretty roughly. I made a custom sized rubber polishing bit for my Dremel to fit the channel and polished it for a couple mins. I could still feel the ridges of the milling but it does not get held up anymore.

I think the other part of the issue as you pointed out is the lightened FP spring may not having enough "umph" to snap it back to the FP stop.

From testing with a punch and a dummy round, when firing a round, the FP doesn't extend past the depth of the FP stop so technically, the FP stop shouldn't come loose. I do recall dry firing the pistol before casing it to shoot my other pistol. I have a feeling when I dry fired it, the FP got hung up inside the channel and the FP stop fell out when I racked the first round.
 
If you think the reduced power firing pin spring might be a problem then take it out and go back to the stock one. You don't need the reduced power one likely anyways...
 
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