Oversize Firing Pin Damage

[DonVoigt]

Originally Posted by Kiwi Mark

Sorry, I'll explain. It's a 9mm, a very tired old lady, 1917 DWM and dressed up with some good looking grips. So off for a shoot, nothing done to the firing pin. Aftermarket mag. After 2 shots, it failed to fire the 3th. Picked up the fired brass, and I could see the pieced primers and could suck air through the case. As well as protuding too much, the diameter of the tip of the firing pin is 1.3mm. The spot of weld was added to the rear of the breach block where the firing pin retainer clicks back in it's final position as it had blow the very thin bit of metal out.
Luger manufactures started to do the gas blow back mod on the front face of the firing pin from 1933, 3 slots. Was it for this reason??

Actually the fluting started earlier, about 1930.
Its stated purpose was to improve striker performance in case of buildup of dirt/oil/powder residue; no mention of gas bypass.

Many think gas by pass is the "reason" for the flutes, see the recent discussion here:
http://luger.gunboards.com/showthrea...ighlight=flute

The surest way to improve gas bypass is to drill a hole in the bottom of the breech block, just aft of the spot where the striker stops against the inside of the breech- this is what the Norwegians and others did fora gas bypass.

Better yet is PM, inspection and correction of a sharp or too long striker nose(firing pin).