Tungsten FP Weight

[hottotrot]

How would one go about adding a tungsten weight to one's R700 firing pin?
1) My understanding is that tungsten is difficult to work, due to its hardness and brittleness. Where can one source the necessary part?
2) Where is it installed? Is it a small tungsten washer under the FP spring? Would it require turning down the existing FP shaft, and slipping a tungsten sleeve over the slimmed portion that brings it back to the original O.D. so as to fit under the FP spring?

 

[jepp2]

How would one go about adding a tungsten weight to one's R700 firing pin?

Why would you want to? The trend is to flute or fabricate from aluminum with a steel tip to reduce lock time from lightening the weight.

 

[hottotrot]

Yessir, that is the trend. But I think that trend is off the mark. I currently prefer heavier pins and heavier springs to ensure more consistent primer ignition.
I've heard about some rather reputable folks doing this tungsten thing, but nothing specific.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Why would you want to? The trend is to flute or fabricate from aluminum with a steel tip to reduce lock time from lightening the weight.

That trend has caused a lot of factory firing pins to be reinstalled to fix a gun that appears on target to be severely broken.

 

[10XSHOOTER]

Take a fluted pin and fill the flutes with lead. That will add weight! ????

 

[mauser284]

This is ironic. People treat me like I am an alien from another planet when I tell them to stop making firing pins lighter. I always tell people they want a heavier firing pin and bushed.

You need a tungsten cobalt alloy if you intend to weld it just like tungsten saw blades. If you start with the ring alloy you can easily induction weld it.

Shot of that you would want to friction fit it where you heat one part, cool the other and with the right clearance easily press the parts together. Just like you do with cylinder head valve guides and valve seats. If you go cold enough you do not even need to mess with heat like Ferrari they use a hit of liquid on the valve seats and drop them in place and they almost instantly expand enough to be snug.

Sure you will get a bit more drag by adding mass to the pin body if bore size. If polished and lubed it will not be significant. The pin will not wobble as much in the bolt body. The strike will will be more solid so ideally you would want to do this to a standard sized pin and you want it bushed to minimize primer puncture. It will reduce resonance and bounce on the strike. This mod is perfect for something like a Remington 700 or the like with a fast lock time. On something like a Mauser it might not be of any help and it might slow lock time down more but for target shooting on paper not an issue.

For the record people make too much about lock time on target rifles when it is a much more important thing to consider on hunting rifle and target shooting on moving targets where you must lead the target. Sadly BR types that tend to be analrententive to the extreme have hammered on this to the extreme tot he point that every one focuses on it far too much. Just l8ike the fictitious idea that a short action is stiffer and some home more accurate.

People get too caught up on things that do not always matter to other sports. For instance training to run 110m and 300m hurdles has little significance to a marathon runner and vice versa! It is not about truth or which is better it is about which training method supports your goals.

 

[hottotrot]

Thanks all.
mauser284 - thanks for the perspective. It's easy to get lost in the weeds. So many avenues to accuracy!