Firing Pin

[Guest cactusrat]

I have a 12 gauge Twist Shotgun that belonged to my Grandfathers father. It is in excellent shape except for the firing pin and the stock, my grandfather hand carved a cherry stock when he was young. Does anyone know where I can get a firing pin made for it?

[Garufa]

I have a 12 gauge Twist Shotgun that belonged to my Grandfathers father. It is in excellent shape except for the firing pin and the stock, my grandfather hand carved a cherry stock when he was young. Does anyone know where I can get a firing pin made for it?

Do you mean your Great Grandfather's shotty? When you say twist do you mean damascus or a "twist" steel barrel? You may not want a firing pin if so!

[Guest cactusrat]

I guess I should have beem more spacific, it's a damascus twist. I've shot it a few times, it has a home made firing pin and the last time I shot it it punched a hole in the primer, thank God for eyeglasses

[Garufa]

You may not want to shoot it at all. I am by no means an expert but have heard my entire life to not ever shoot one. Primarily due to the old technology used to produce the barrels, they were designed for black powder and modern shell pressures could blow them up.

Seems like there was a thread here recently about this. You might want to search and maybe Google it for awhile.

[Mark@Sea]

I'll second the 'don't shoot' advice. If you really want to shoot it, though, shotgun loaders are cheap, and black powder is readily available...

On the subject of firing pins - I made one some months ago for a pistol my wife just had to have - an old S&W lemon squeezer in 32 S&W. Chucked a drill bit up in a lathe, turned it, tempered it with a propane torch and a coffee can full of peanut oil. It punctured a primer, so I made another one, this time slightly shorter, and rounded and polished the end to a fare-thee-well. Tempered it, reassembled the pistol, no problems since.

By the way, until you've completely stripped and reassembled a lemon-squeezer, you don't know what joy is.

[Guest gcrookston]

I would consider any Damascus gun unsafe to shoot until proved with modern ammunition.

That being said, there is a small and enthusiastic market for fine examples of these antique guns for sporting purposes among the double gun crowd. Last I checked, Birmingham Proof House was the only facility offering proofing on vintage and antique weapons and they were backlogged over a year for this service. As I recall it's an expensive proposition and not without the risk of destroying an otherwise collectible gun.

An acquaintance of mine in Wyoming collects only ruptured and burst guns and barrels. The last time I was to his place in Laramie he had most of a wall filled with unwound barrels. -- That's incentive enough for me to not hazard shooting one.