Broken firing pin on Hammerli 160

jipe · Post by **jipe** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 12:15 pm

The firing pin of my Hammerly 160 just broke (actually not the firing pin itself but well its small side pin used by the cocking lever to cock the firing pin => the firing pin is not cocked anymore by the cocking/loading lever).

Is this usual ? I thought that the fring pin of the Hammerli 160 (and latest FP60, the whole breech+firing pin is identical on the two pistols) was very strong and almost never break !

Should I buy a second spare one (its pretty expensive for what it is, about 55Euros) ?

jacques b gros · Post by **jacques b gros** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:59 pm

Had the same problem, with a 150, back in the days it was a new pistol...happened during a competition.

With some difficulty removed the firing pin, turned it around and used the other side of it.

The broken part was later welded back in place in 5 minutes and it worked well until I sold it.

Good luck

jipe · Post by **jipe** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 2:14 am

Thanks for the information. I am not sure that the firing pin of the 150 is identical to the one of the 160 and FP60:

As you can see, its a kind of cylinder closed on the front end, open on the rear end with on the front/closed end the pin that hit the rim of the 22lr cartridge (the actual firing pin) and on the rear/open end, the pin used for cocking it.

Mine is broken more or less in the middle. I have now two pieces: the front part with the real firing pin and the rear part with the cocking pin !

jacques b gros · Post by **jacques b gros** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:19 am

It is not the same...mine had two cocking pins, and was broken very close to it, but not in half like yours, just the pin and a small part of the cilinder.

I don't know how much would cost to try to weld it, since it may not work, but get another one before you have to get one made on order...hammerly parts are endangered species.

Good luck

jipe · Post by **jipe** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:28 am

jacques b gros wrote:It is not the same...mine had two cocking pins, and was broken very close to it, but not in half like yours, just the pin and a small part of the cilinder.

I don't know how much would cost to try to weld it, since it may not work, but get another one before you have to get one made on order...hammerly parts are endangered species.

Good luck

I do not think that it can easily be welded: it is hardened steel.

As said its pretty expensive for what it is but still available since the complete breechblock assembly of the 160/162 is identical (even the part numbers are the same !) to the one of the new/still in production FP60. I think thare there is much more identical parts on the 160 and FP60: the trigger assembly (excluding the trigger blade itself) seems also the same. Actually, the real new parts are the frame, barrel, front sight mount/compensator and rear sight.

Reinhamre · Post by **Reinhamre** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:48 am

Yes, this happens if the breech was not closed completely and the pistol is fired. Your firing pin could also have been extremely brittle due to badly hardened steel, make use of the guarantee.

Always use an empty shell and dry fire the pistol after shooting. Do NOT cock the mechanism again before loading. IF you do, make sure that the set trigger is NOT activated BEFORE opening the breech.
And yes, I know that we usually make sure it is not loaded BEFORE we pull the trigger but in this case it is better to do it the other way round, do point the gun in a safe direction as always! It IS not loaded, is it?

I have had two broken firing pin change on guarantee. Now I carry a spare part breechblock assembly in my shooting bag so it may not happen again :-)

Kent

Spencer · Post by **Spencer** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 5:18 am

Reinhamre wrote:Always use an empty shell and dry fire the pistol after shooting. Do NOT cock the mechanism again before loading. IF you do, make sure that the set trigger is NOT activated BEFORE opening the breech.
Kent

The empty shell needs to be removed from the pistol before it is cased for removal from the firing point.
6.2.2.5 Before the shooter leaves the firing point, the shooter must ascertain and the Range Officer must verify that the action is open and there is no cartridge or pellet in the chamber or magazine.
This would include an 'empty shell'

Spencer

jipe · Post by **jipe** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:03 am

Reinhamre wrote:Yes, this happens if the breech was not closed completely and the pistol is fired. Your firing pin could also have been extremely brittle due to badly hardened steel, make use of the guarantee.

Always use an empty shell and dry fire the pistol after shooting. Do NOT cock the mechanism again before loading. IF you do, make sure that the set trigger is NOT activated BEFORE opening the breech.
And yes, I know that we usually make sure it is not loaded BEFORE we pull the trigger but in this case it is better to do it the other way round, do point the gun in a safe direction as always! It IS not loaded, is it?

I have had two broken firing pin change on guarantee. Now I carry a spare part breechblock assembly in my shooting bag so it may not happen again :-)

Kent

Thanks for the information. I found a spare firing pin in stock (69Euros, thank you Walther !) and replaced it. It cannot be done on the shooting range (while replacing the complete breech assembly can be done) but is pretty easy.

While doing so, I looked more in depth how it works, what totaly confirm your explanation: if the pistol is fired when the breech is half open, the cocking pin on the firing pin assembly hits the cocking lever what will give you a good "chance" to break the firing pin assembly in two just like mine was. I think that the worst case is the breech half open since then the firing pin will start to move and hit the cocking lever when moving at "full speed". If the breech is fully open, it hits the cocking lever sooner and may be with less energy ?

Dry fire on the Hammerli 160 is not an issue: just cock the trigger and that's it, the firing pin is not cocked and there will be no risks of damage.

The issue is to remove the last shot empty shell or when cleaning the pistol: in order to do this, you need to open the breech what will cock the firing pin. Then you need to uncock it, the only way to do so is to fire the pistol by using the trigger (you cannot leave the firing pin cocked since it will weaken the trigger pin spring). But firing with an empty pistol is not good (there is no firing pin protection system like on other hammerless pistol design) => you must leave something in the chamber, an empty shell or a plastic dummy shell.

The installed/broken firing pin had not the same surface finish as the new one (the broken one was brown finsihed while the new is silver/grey). Since its an old model, I have unfortunately no warranty on that pistol.

Last remark: all this discussion is totaly valid for the new/latest FP60 since all that part of the pistol is identical on the FP60 and old 160 (spare parts number are even the same). When Hammerli designed the new FP60, they just reuse all these internal parts with just a new frame around it.