The left firing pin on my Ranger 16 gauge shotgun is showing considerable wear. By measuring the right firing pin, find it to be around 0.045 or 0.050" too short. I'm really just guessing because the right firing pin is surely worn a bit as well. I have no clue what the true length should be.
What I did know is this: the right chamber fired consistently and the left chamber did not. The strike appeared weaker on the primer, and I was getting about 1 misfire in 4 shots.
New firing pins and springs for this gun are about $36 plus tax and shipping, if they are indeed the correct ones. I never found anything on the internet that listed this exact gun. Savage/Stevens shotguns and their store-branded derivatives sold at Sears Etc, were quite common with the similar model 5001 receiver. Mine is a model 5000 and it is evidently somewhat rare, having been made for just a very short time, right before WW-II.
The available pins probably fit fine but the people I talked to could not tell me with any certainty. Also there was that tax and shipping and the shipping time.
I decided just to make a new firing pin myself and see how well it worked. Since I don't know the exact length, I decided to make it a little bit too long and dress it off later if necessary.
I started with an ancient Craftsman 7/32" dia high speed Steel twist drill, and cut off the tail with a pneumatic cut off wheel. My dad bought that bit back about 1960.
Drill bits are very hard and tough steel, but the tail of the bit is not quite as hard as the flutes. If this one is too soft and mushrooms, I will make another one and case harden it. I didn't do this because I didn't want to buy a whole jar of Casenit for one tiny part. I may decide to make my own bone char and color case harden if necessary. It might actually be better to oil-harden this grade of Steel, but I don't know, and will have to investigate that first.
I don't own a lathe, so I turned this down in my $40 Harbor Freight mini drill press, with a stone, and a file.
I cut it to length, then, I cut a flat spot into it with a Pneumatic grinding wheel and the file.
Finally I hit it with four coats of Perma blue.
I installed it and did dry-fire tests, and everything seems to work fine. If it doesn't rain too much today (I'm not complaining Lord, keep it coming...) I will get out to the range and throw some birdshot through this gun.
This gun had a couple problems with it when I bought it. It had been sawed off, and the stock was chipped and cracked. I had paid $300 plus fees and taxes for it, because it was rare (and this is California...)
But most of all this was the sort of Jed Clampett shotgun that I've always wanted since I was a kid. A 12 gauge, double barrel, mail-order shotgun from Sears.
What I did know is this: the right chamber fired consistently and the left chamber did not. The strike appeared weaker on the primer, and I was getting about 1 misfire in 4 shots.
New firing pins and springs for this gun are about $36 plus tax and shipping, if they are indeed the correct ones. I never found anything on the internet that listed this exact gun. Savage/Stevens shotguns and their store-branded derivatives sold at Sears Etc, were quite common with the similar model 5001 receiver. Mine is a model 5000 and it is evidently somewhat rare, having been made for just a very short time, right before WW-II.
The available pins probably fit fine but the people I talked to could not tell me with any certainty. Also there was that tax and shipping and the shipping time.
I decided just to make a new firing pin myself and see how well it worked. Since I don't know the exact length, I decided to make it a little bit too long and dress it off later if necessary.
I started with an ancient Craftsman 7/32" dia high speed Steel twist drill, and cut off the tail with a pneumatic cut off wheel. My dad bought that bit back about 1960.
Drill bits are very hard and tough steel, but the tail of the bit is not quite as hard as the flutes. If this one is too soft and mushrooms, I will make another one and case harden it. I didn't do this because I didn't want to buy a whole jar of Casenit for one tiny part. I may decide to make my own bone char and color case harden if necessary. It might actually be better to oil-harden this grade of Steel, but I don't know, and will have to investigate that first.
I don't own a lathe, so I turned this down in my $40 Harbor Freight mini drill press, with a stone, and a file.
I cut it to length, then, I cut a flat spot into it with a Pneumatic grinding wheel and the file.
Finally I hit it with four coats of Perma blue.
I installed it and did dry-fire tests, and everything seems to work fine. If it doesn't rain too much today (I'm not complaining Lord, keep it coming...) I will get out to the range and throw some birdshot through this gun.
This gun had a couple problems with it when I bought it. It had been sawed off, and the stock was chipped and cracked. I had paid $300 plus fees and taxes for it, because it was rare (and this is California...)
But most of all this was the sort of Jed Clampett shotgun that I've always wanted since I was a kid. A 12 gauge, double barrel, mail-order shotgun from Sears.
Last edited:
