Winchester M-12 misfiring

[ckid]

I am looking at a friend's Win M-12 that has a misfiring problem. It misfires about 2 out of 3 times, when it does fire the pin impression in the primer is rather light, when it doesn't fire there is hardly a mark on the primer. Upon dissassembly I noticed someone has tried to build up the top of the firing pin retracter with weld. Before I order a new retracter I thought I'd ask a few questions.

1) are worn retracters a common ill in M-12's?

2) could there be another issue causing this and the original retracter was Bubba'd" under a mis-diagnosis?

 

[guntech]

A lot of model 12's are very worn.... Have a gunsmith examine it and tell you how bad it is. You won't get it fixed on the internet....

a broken firing pin may be the problem...

 

[ckid]

Thanks for the input Dennis, from the look of everything else inside the gun wear appears to be minimal, that's why I am puzzled by the welding on the top of the retracter.

 

[catnthehatt]

If it is a broken pin ( I've busted several over the years)
an easy way to tell is to open the gun, hold it muzzle down, and take a look at the face of the breach block.
If the pin is broken you will see it.
If you can't, the pin is okay.
Many M12's will fire with a broken pin, BTW.
Cat