Could there be an issue with my firing pin?

[gonoles_1980]

I have a charter arms 38 special snub nose. I took out 20 of my reloads today, had two dud's, also had 50 factory wadcutters, had two duds. All of the bullets have an indentation in the primer. Last time I thought it was my reloads, but I'm beginning to wonder, I've had a 2% failure rate with factory loads, though it was primarily just one brand causing the problem.

Both the factory wadcutter, 148gr and my reload, 158gr LRN (3.5gr Win231) had the same sound when I fired them. But it just seems 4 duds in 70 rounds is way too high, two reloads, two factory bullets.

 

[Jim Watson]

Try depressing the firing pin with a punch or even a pen point.
Is it spring loaded to the rear?
Does it protrude a bit less than 1/16" when pushed forward but only when pushed?

With the gun EMPTY, pull the trigger and hold it back.
Is the firing pin protruding and visible from the side?

The beryllium copper firing pin is supposed to be very tough, but it might be damaged.

The transfer bar might be deformed, a friend beat a Ruger Blackhawk transfer bar too thin to transfer. But it took a lot of shooting.

My first suspect is the firing pin spring. If it is squashed and not holding the firing pin to the rear to be struck by the hammer/transfer bar, it will give misfires. I had a Python to give mystery misfires that way.

 

[gamestalker]

You might have a weak main spring? Or if it has a strain screw, it might not be threaded all the way in, or may have worked it's way out some. I had this happen on a few revolvers over the years. I've also had a FP get chipped, which was causing inconsistent detonations.

I had one revolver that gave me fits while trying to solve the problem. As it turned out, I had to replace the main spring, and also replace the FP with an extended one.

One good thing, when a wheel gun has this type of problem, it isn't usually to difficult to diagnose, as there are only so many possible causes.

GS

 

[rcmodel]

I bought two different new Charter snubs back in the day.

Both of them misfired DA like yours with factory loads and my reloads.

They went in trade for a S&W Chiefs Special I should have bought in the first place if I could have found one at the time.

My opinion is, it was just the nature of the beast with at least the early ones.

rc