A guy in Boise showed me a trick with a broken firing pin spring

This was maybe two years back, a fella brought in a really old .22 bolt action that wouldn't fire. The firing pin spring was totally shot, and he didn't want to wait for a mail order part. He was an older machinist, and he just took a ballpoint pen spring from his pocket. He cut it to length with some side cutters, then used a butane torch to heat and anneal the last coil on each end so it wouldn't snap. We popped it in, and it ran like a top for a test cycle. He said, 'Sometimes the fix is in your shirt pocket, not the parts bin.' I've used that trick three times since on plinking guns when a customer needed it fast and cheap. Anyone else have a good field fix for a small spring in a pinch?

2 comments

2 Comments

sanchez.holly17d agoMost Upvoted

Ever try a spring from a clicky pen?

sanchez.holly17d agoMost Upvoted

What kind of weirdo hasn't? It's a whole thing. You get that little metal coil and just start messing with it, stretching it out and then trying to squish it back. Totally ruins the pen, but it's like a law of nature or something. My desk drawer is basically a spring graveyard at this point.