[AoxoMoxoA]

Since my FN 1906 is essentially the same gun as the 1908, I'd like to get some opinions on the following issue I'm having. I just picked up the gun (below) which is in very nice condition, and brought it to the range for the first time today.

The problem I'm having is that the gun will not fire with a full magazine in the mag well. It will only fire, at most, a mag loaded with no more than two rounds. I rack the slide, chambering a round (leaving 5 in the magazine), pull the trigger - to which I can hear the firing pin slip off the sear, and nothing. Rack the slide once more, ejecting the live round, then fire again with the same result. I repeat this until there is one in the chamber and one in the magazine, then it will fire the last two.

At first, I suspected the magazine, so I borrowed my friend's perfectly functioning 1906 to try his magazine, but had the exact same result. I then compared firing pin springs. Mine was a bit shorter (maybe a light strike?), so I swapped out his spring with mine. Same result. I then swapped his firing pin, spring and spring guide - installing all three into my pistol, with the same result - again.

I don't know where to turn next in diagnosing this issue.

Your thoughts and experience will be much appreciated...

 

[AoxoMoxoA]

Solved...

 

[Oyeboten]

How'd you solve it?


I have been thinking about what you had described, but I had not come up with anything yet.


Lovely little "FN" by the way!

 

[AoxoMoxoA]

How'd you solve it? I have been thinking about what you had described, but I had not come up with anything yet.

It turned out that it was the "tail" of the firing pin catching the rim of the topmost round in the magazine, prohibiting it from moving fully forward to strike the primer. When the last round was chambered, there was nothing for the firing pin tail to catch on, thus it would fire...

When I slid a cartridge casing up the firing pin channel slot, the rim would "catch" the firing pin tail enough to grab it. In small increments, I reduced the depth of the firing pin tail with a stone until a cartridge case slid down the channel didn't catch on it. I then lightly polished it with some 1200-grit emery cloth. One must remember that on these old pistols, the parts were individually fitted to the gun, so it's very likely that the firing pin I have is not original to the gun, and may have been thrown in by a past owner without regard to fitting it. So additional fitting was necessary. Part of the fun of owning these old pistols. Also at play here is the fact that my firing pin spring is pretty much spent, when compared to the spring of my friend's gun.

At the range, I loaded a magazine with the full 6-rounds and had a misfire on the third shot. Ejected the round manually, and the last three fired without issue. Upon inspecting the unfired round, and in looking at the fired casings, the primers looked to be lightly struck. I stretched the already spent firing pin spring (since it's the only one I have), loaded up another magazine, and all fired without incident. I then repeated with another full magazine. On the next, the light strikes started to creep back in, and upon looking at the spring (and the weakly struck fired casings), it had retracted back to its shorter length of the first mag. I'm positive this spring is toast, and I now have a replacement on order.

In the end, I think this issue was a combination of two things; The firing pin tail not being properly fitted to the pistol, along with a worn/weak/shorter firing pin spring that may not even be the correct one for the gun.

 

[Oyeboten]

Very interesting!


I myself have a nice m'08 Colt .25 ACP, but, I never really shot it or looked at it's mechanism critically.

Until recently, I did not even know these were 'Striker Fired'.

Good luck with the new parts!