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Uberti Cattleman Retractable Firing Pin Fix With a Shim


Taos

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I keep seeing folks speaking of problems with the retractable firing pin safety on newer Uberti Colt 1873 clones.

I know fixes to the problem have been posted by many, but I keep hearing of folks with the problem, so this is my 2 cents:

 

My pistols are Taylor/Uberti Runnin Iron.

 

One pistol started to light strike a while back, maybe 1000 -1500 rounds ago.  I called Taylor's and they told me what to do to fix it.

Seems the spring loaded rod that goes through the hammer and behind the firing pin will develop a burr on the beveled end, the end that goes up behind the firing pin when the trigger is pulled.  (circled in yellow in picture, look close you can see the burr)

To fix it take the hammer out of the gun, the rod out of the hammer and file the burr off.  Then polish.  That's one way, but it's just going to burr the end of the rod again, eventually.

 

When I took mine apart to fix I remembered reading something from someone who simply removed the rod all together and put a shim behind the firing pin.

With it all apart I saw how easy this would be to do.

 

So here's what I did:

*Remove the hammer.  Now if you are not competent enough to do that you should leave it alone and get someone else to fix it.

*Punch out the pin that holds the rod in place, it's the pin towards the bottom of the hammer.   Both of mine were fairly tough to punch out so you'll need a fairly sturdy punch.

*Remove the rod and the spring.  Put the rod, spring and pin away, you will not need them again.

*Knock out the pin holding the firing pin in place.  You do not need to knock it completely out, just enough to get the firing pin out.

 

Get a 7/32 drill bit.  Stick the butt end into the firing pin hole in the hammer.  It should go right in with little play (some play is OK, in fact, needed).

 

Now comes the fun part and hopefully you have a rotary tool (Dremel), a cutting disc and sanding drum.

The rod that goes behind the firing pin measures 0.09 in. where it goes behind the firing pin.

*You need to cut a piece off the butt end of the 7/32 drill bit.  It needs to be real close to 0.09 in. thick.   Having a small adjustable bench vice to accomplish this will help a lot.

Try to cut the drill bit as square as possible, this is going to be your firing pin spacer.   (when I cut mine I attached a magnet to the vice to catch the little bitty spacer)

*Clean up the cut side of the shim with a rotary tool sanding drum, it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth or perfectly square to the other side.  (I was able to get the tiny shim in my little vice to clean up.)

*Measure it.  I can not be thicker than 0.09 in.  Or less than 0.08 in.  So, you have 0.01 in. to play with.  0.08 - 0.09 in.  

When the thickness is good polish it up with 600 grit paper, doesn't need to polished anymore than that.

 

When the spacer is done, drop it in the hammer, put the firing pin in the hammer and knock in the pin to secure the firing pin.  

Polish the hammer where the pin went in, it surely left a burr.

Put the gun back together.

 

You now have a non-safety floating firing pin.  

 

Don't load 6, don't put a live round under the hammer, and go shoot.

 

 

1208116098_Uberti-ColtFiringPinSafety.jpg.94585027a9c55a2800efbed78c82572b.jpg

 

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That works too. I just pushed the safety rod up all the way, put a new notch in it at that point and re-installed the pin. It works fine and all my original parts are still in the gun if I need to go back to stock, like if I sell it.

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