I found a small allen-head set screw at my local hardware store, then drilled & tapped the smaller (rear) portion of the firing pin hole to match the set screw. But the more I thought about doing all that work for a questionable result, the more I reconsidered.Īfter mulling it over, I finally settled on something simpler. I pondered for a few days, and had just about decided to enlarge the hole for the cross pin and use a new, larger, cross pin (which I would have to make and then harden) to crowd the firing pin forward. The difference was almost nonexistent simply replacing the cross pin wasn’t going to solve the problem. Was this the whole problem? To find out, I reassembled the parts, making sure the cross pin and firing pin were both engaging with virgin surfaces, and again measured from hammer spur to firing pin tip. (Photo © Russ Chastain)Īs you can see, the pin has been beaten until it began to take on the shape of the firing pin groove. That deformation, along with some corresponding deformation of the firing pin, allowed the firing pin to move back into the hammer too far, which contributed to my problem. The cross pin is made of soft steel, which is why it is slightly deformed in the middle. Using a pin punch barely smaller than the cross pin, I drifted the cross pin out of the hammer while supporting the other side of the hammer. The pin could wiggle a short distance in & out of the hole in the hammer.Īt this point, I measured the distance from rear of hammer spur to tip of firing pin with the firing pin pushed into its hole I knew I needed to make that distance greater than the 1.660″ I measured. A cross pin (middle arrow) retains the pin in the hammer, but not rigidly. The hole (right arrow) goes all the way through the hammer, and is of larger diameter up front, where the firing pin (left arrow) is. The firing pin lies in a hole in the hammer. I started looking more closely at the hammer, to see just how things were put together. (Photo © Russ Chastain)Īs you can see in the photo, the firing pin wasn’t really protruding forward as far as it ought to.
![colt saa clone colt saa clone](https://www.alloutdoor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/traditions-sa-45-08w-660x390.jpg)
When it failed to fire, it was because of light primer strikes, so I started looking for the problem, after completely unloading the gun, of course.
#Colt saa clone how to
How to recover my lost love? Repair, of course! I’d gotten an Italian-made copy of a 45 Colt single action in a trade, and liked it, but when it failed to go bang every time, I became less fond of it. 5 Photos of Firing Pin Repair on a Colt Single Action Clone