10mm Star Megastar broken firing pin?

[nitzer]

Just bought this gun on Gunbroker and tried to fire it today. First pull on the trigger...click...second...click. Ejected the round and tried another round. Still nothing, not even a light strike on the primer of either round. I field stripped it and using the end of the disassembly tool, pressed on the firing pin. It did move back and forth freely, but it wasn't protruding through the hole in the slide at the back of the chamber. In fact, the rear of the firing pin would depress past the point of being flush and still not protrude into the chamber at all. The best it would do is be flush with the hole in the slide. I can only assume that the tip of the firing pin has sheared off. I have spent a few hours looking for a replacement pin, but not having a lot of luck. Does anyone know of a gunsmith that could possibly fabricate a new firing pin if I sent them the whole slide assembly?

Thanks....

 

[Autopistola]

Sucks to hear that, those are really cool pistols. I can't answer your question but I do know it is possible to fabricate new firing pins or even build up your old one. If you haven't detail stripped it, are you absolutely sure it's a broken firing pin or possibly just some obstruction?

 

[nitzer]

Well I'm no gunsmith, but when I depress the pin manually from the hammer side it sinks lower than where the hammer strikes. It looks like the firing pin is traveling about an 1/8". Detail stripping it looks to be beyond my skills. I have a detailed parts breakdown in the manual that came with it and it looks like I would have to punch out at least one roll pin just to get the ambidextrous safety off. I just don't want to screw it up any further than it is already. The Megastar safety doesn't lock the trigger/hammer from moving, it actually depresses the firing pin flush with the hammer bed. In other words, you can still pull the trigger and the hammer will fall even when the gun is on safe. It won't discharge on safe due to the fact the hammer never makes contact with the firing pin in it's retracted/"safe" position. The whole deal just chaps me because I have wanted a 10mm Megastar ever since I found out about them about 5 years ago. Up until this point I haven't been able to afford one (had been going for $650-$800). Now in this recession, I have seen the prices on them fall into the $425-$650 range. I picked this one up for $513 on Gunbroker plus shipping and FFL transfer of course. The other issues would be that I live WAAAY up north in MN so any work on the gun would probably have to be done outside my area and I'm sure there aren't very many folks here in MN familiar with this gun. It had occured to me that there could be some sort of a blockage or maybe the hammer spring was shot, but I thought that would lead to some light strikes and not a complete miss of the primer all together. I have Emailed a couple of guys that carry some Star parts to see if I can get a new firing pin. If I can, I'll buy 2...

 

[schmeky]

Nitzer,

I'm going off a bad memory, but I "think" I remembering reading, years ago, the Megastar's had a 2 piece firing pin. So it may be possible, due to the age and sitting around in the box, there's a problem with the "folding" design of this pistol's firing pin. Could be a little rust, crud, or even a build-up of lube that's dried out, causing the problem.

Pin may not be broken. I thought about buying one of these as well, but parts can be a problem. Even the best guns need parts occassionally.

How's the stock SA trigger pull by the way?

 

[nitzer]

I found a place that has parts and they do have the firing pin. In Spain of course. From the breakdonw pic in the manual, the firing pin looks to be one piece. The single action side of the trigger isn't terrible, but it isn't great either. It does have a long reset. It's almost like having a two stage trigger. There is a lot of take-up before it fires. I mainly wanted the gun to carry with me during deer season since the 10mm is legal for deer here in MN. It is an exception to the case length rule. I'm leaning away from the firing pin being the problem. Stupid me forgot about the firing pin block on this gun. With the firing pin block depressed, the firing pin moves freely through the hole. Now I'm leaning more toward the hammer spring. I think I located a smith up here so I might just have him look at it to see what he thinks before I go and buy a bunch of parts from Spain. I may do that anyway. They have the factory mags in .45 and 10mm for $50/piece which is much better than the over $100 prices on Gunbroker when they come up. I might just buy a bunch of parts regardless just so I have them just in case.