Firing Pin Spring Pressure Questions

[David Lott]

Hi guys, I am kinda new and young to the firearms industry but I am a problem solver type person. I learned to reload from David Tubb on centerfire then got the itch to do rimfire, after learning how to shoot tiny groups I became spoiled on accuracy and precision. Fast forward to 22s and what I bought left a lot to be desired, tried Vudoo and they were a huge improvement but lacked balance in PRS so I decided to try my hand at building my own. 3 years in and over 150 rifles built I am searching for the next improvement which leads me to the fire control system, I read that it matters but no actual why it matters. In racing, we increase spring pressure to prevent valve float, in firearms specifically rim fires Who knows the whys? too soft vs too hard?
I built this jig to test with but looking for experience on what exactly to look for other than what it reads.

Also thoughts on round flat pin vs chisel.

 

[TRSR8]

I think you would be farther ahead by directing more effort to proper and repeatable case penetration.
You want that for absolute primer ignition without excess penetration which often results in unwanted vibrations, think absolute repeatable ignition.
You’re looking for the rim to close up under the pin….no more.
You can make a gauge with dial indicator to measure consistent penetration under FP.

 

[David Lott]

I think you would be farther ahead by directing more effort to proper and repeatable case penetration.
You want that for absolute primer ignition without excess penetration which often results in unwanted vibrations, think absolute repeatable ignition.
You’re looking for the rim to close up under the pin….no more.
You can make a gauge with dial indicator to measure consistent penetration under FP.

On the chisel point we are getting .022 of penetration, currently testing a flat round pin to see any differences in consistent ignition, first test looked promising but want to validate a larger sample size before drawing any conclusions

 

[TRSR8]

I’d bet you won’t do better than a mid width chisel, probably still the most common FP tip ….good for my four rifles.

 

[Tad_Earhart]

Ha good to see someone else make a spring tester for these. I like how you went about yours and how easy and simple to use it is. I made mine out of a cheap drill press fixture that converts a hand drill into a drill press for a lever type tester and wish it was more like yours and a screw type to set spring height. There is info to gain with the fixture but more on the preliminary side of checking springs before developing ignition on the rifle itself. PM sent for more info.

Tad