Firing pin springs - power.

[NTSOG]

G'day,

I've had some misfiring with my elderly Anschutz 1532 rifles [.222 Rem]. I suspect the compression springs have not been replaced since the rifles came out of the factory decades ago. There are no springs available from Anschutz and US suppliers will not ship to Australia. I have spoken to Jubilee Spring Sales in NSW and they will make duplicates for me. The only issue is that I don't have clue what power they produced when new. The folks at Jubilee should be able to measure the power in my existing tired springs which I will send to them for reference. To get any information from Anschutz is nigh impossible. Can anyone suggest what power such springs should be new?

Jim

[bladeracer]

G'day,

I've had some misfiring with my elderly Anschutz 1532 rifles [.222 Rem]. I suspect the compression springs have not been replaced since the rifles came out of the factory decades ago. There are no springs available from Anschutz and US suppliers will not ship to Australia. I have spoken to Jubilee Spring Sales in NSW and they will make duplicates for me. The only issue is that I don't have clue what power they produced when new. The folks at Jubilee should be able to measure the power in my existing tired springs which I will send to them for reference. To get any information from Anschutz is nigh impossible. Can anyone suggest what power such springs should be new?

Jim

The old fix would be to give the spring a stretch to make it longer.

Measure the existing spring - overall length, pitch, outside diameter, and wire diameter. Then stand it on a scale with a rule and measure how much weight you have to apply to compress it 1mm, 10mm, 20mm, etc. I would expect it to be a linear rate spring (rather than progressive). It might take 100gm to compress it 1mm, 1000gm for 10mm, 2000gm for 20mm. With suspension springs I apply known weights and measure the compression. With this info you should be able to order some springs of similar dimensions with different rates.
There are lots of spring sellers on Ebay for example. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/296009976195

When I lost the main spring guide rod in the Norinco JW21 lever-action I just tied a length of bungy cord around the hammer and it worked just fine for 1306rds until I got a new guide rod.

[NTSOG]

G'day BR,

I tried a version of your method and was only able to compress one of the springs 2.3 cms with a force measured at about 3.75 kgms. That was all that was possible without a major incident under load. I did some research about springs and the details of spring design are extremely complex and require a lot of mathematical ability and some knowledge of physics. I think I'll send the sample springs to NSW and let the professionals work it out [safely] for me.

Jim

[Tinker]

Have you tried Wolff Gunsprings in the US? I recently bought some new striker springs for a Martini Cadet from them. Postage is expensive though.

[Wyliecoyote]

For a small rifle primer and 80 thou firing pin you will need a preload of around 24 pounds for reliable ignition. For a 0.062" firing pin diameter you could go down to around 20. Measure the spring OD and the wire thickness then the cocked length. Those three things are the most important so as to avoid coil bind and pin or bolt drag. From there any good spring maker can supply the correct length spring or you can source a good manganese spring from any supplier and cut it down yourself. Don't get anything exotic like a stainless spring, get manganese steel as it will last 10 times longer.

So those four things, outer diameter, wire thickness, minimum compressed length and finally preload.

[NTSOG]

G'day Tinker,

I thought Wolff did not ship to Australia - now I see they do ship internationally. They offer springs made specifically for my rifles. I'll contact them. Many thanks.

Wyliecoyote that's the sort of information I needed. Interestingly the springs sold by Wolff in the US are rated at 24 lbs. which is a little higher than Anschutz springs ex-factory.

Thankyou both for your advice,

Jim

[Larry]

Depending on the bolt design you may be able to bush the spring. I have had to do this before in a target rifle that was giving light strikes. The way to do it is get a split washer and place it in line with the spring even a flat washer works it just makes the spring compress a bit more.

[NTSOG]

G'day Larry,

In the short term I can see that being a handy 'fix'. In the case of the 1532 bolt I don't think there's room.

Jim

[NTSOG]

Tinker when did you last buy from Wolff Springs? Their website states:

"Due to changes in US Export regulations we are temporarily not accepting international orders at the present time. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. We hope to begin accepting international orders again in summer 2022."

Well we are way past June 2022!

Did you have to get approval from Customs to import the springs? Wolff state that they ship springs marked as 'springs for use in firearms' so the declaration to Customs is explicitly clear. i can't find any restriction related to springs for firearms on the Customs site.

Jim

[allan]

Have you tried Wolff Gunsprings in the US? I recently bought some new striker springs for a Martini Cadet from them. Postage is expensive though.

THIS....An email to Wolff wouldn't hurt.
I've bought heaps of springs from them over the years for Anschutz 1532, 1808, 1710 & Walther.
I've never had to produce a B709A import permit but all these rifles are now gone and I haven't ordered any in quite a while.

[Tinker]

Tinker when did you last buy from Wolff Springs? Their website states:

"Due to changes in US Export regulations we are temporarily not accepting international orders at the present time. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. We hope to begin accepting international orders again in summer 2022."

Well we are way past June 2022!

Did you have to get approval from Customs to import the springs? Wolff state that they ship springs marked as 'springs for use in firearms' so the declaration to Customs is explicitly clear. i can't find any restriction related to springs for firearms on the Customs site.

Jim

That was last year. I had to order some Enfield springs as well to get over their $25 threshold for international orders.
I didn't need Customs approval, and they arrived by standard mail.

[NTSOG]

G'day Allan,

I've contact Wolff by E-mail twice in the last couple of months and heard nothing. I'll try to put in an order see if it goes through.

Thanks for your advice.

Jim

[NTSOG]

I received this E-mail overnight from Wolff Springs:

"Thank you for your email. Unfortunately we are still currently unable to process export orders at the moment. Legally we do not have anything stopping us from exporting to Australia or any non restricted country. Our delay is our actual order processing system. Currently our system only handles United States based addresses and shipping labels. We are working on a new system for export orders that will handle all the paperwork and documentation for shipping labels and address formats. Once that system is back online, we will be able to resume exports directly. I apologize for the inconvenience. We were hoping to be back online by now, but we’ve had some other major changes that we had to complete before the export system can be put back online. We are hoping exports will be available again shortly.

Thank you

Sean Wolff

W.C. Wolff Company"

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So I'm moving to Plan B: Jubilee Springs in NSW to have them make some copies for me.

Jim