I bought a cheap Turkish Over/Under

[BOBGBA]

...I paid a few months ago to have a firing pin and mainspring replaced in my browning (that wasn't supposed to ever have problems ). I was getting light strikes on the lower barrel and I didn't know how to deal with it myself....

Do you have an idea on how many rounds have been put through the Browning, prior to the firing pin failure?

[md2020]

About 3-4K I estimate

3k rounds by the previous owner (which he said was an estimate on the high end). maybe about 1K by me at the time.

Not 100% sure the firing pin failed.

I was getting light strikes on the lower barrel. Didn't know what to do. The gunsmith said it was the "mainspring", which he replaced. Was still having the same problem afterwards. I took it back and asked that they go ahead and replace the firing pin and anything else they suspected to avoid return trips. That made it better. But still got the rare light strike, which I found to be annoying and embarrassing.

Somebody suggested that I stop shooting the cheap federal ammo and get something different. I switched Winchester ammo and not one problem since.

The gunsmith did somehow determine that the main spring for the lower barrel needed replacing on a 1 year old gun.

I reload now, winchester and/or gun club hulls, and preferably winchester primers, because that's what work best for me with that gun.

If it says "Federal", ammo, primers or hulls, its not for me.

[ceh383]

When it comes to firing pins on Brownings, the lower has been an issue, particularly with hard primers.
Since all I have is Cheddite primers, known to be hard on the lower pin, I bought spare pins for my 28ga before I even picked up the gun. I also ordered a 12ga 725 Golden Clays, I pick it up next week...Already have a set of pins on order.

[BOBGBA]

About 3-4K I estimate

3k rounds by the previous owner (which he said was an estimate on the high end). maybe about 1K by me at the time.

Not 100% sure the firing pin failed.

I was getting light strikes on the lower barrel. Didn't know what to do. The gunsmith said it was the "mainspring", which he replaced. Was still having the same problem afterwards. I took it back and asked that they go ahead and replace the firing pin and anything else they suspected to avoid return trips. That made it better. But still got the rare light strike, which I found to be annoying and embarrassing.

Somebody suggested that I stop shooting the cheap federal ammo and get something different. I switched Winchester ammo and not one problem since.

The gunsmith did somehow determine that the main spring for the lower barrel needed replacing on a 1 year old gun.

I reload now, winchester and/or gun club hulls, and preferably winchester primers, because that's what work best for me with that gun.

If it says "Federal", ammo, primers or hulls, its not for me.

When it comes to firing pins on Brownings, the lower has been an issue, particularly with hard primers.
Since all I have is Cheddite primers, known to be hard on the lower pin, I bought spare pins for my 28ga before I even picked up the gun. I also ordered a 12ga 725 Golden Clays, I pick it up next week...Already have a set of pins on order.

Thanks for your replies. That's good information for all of us to keep in mind, in case we run into similar issues.

[md2020]

When it comes to firing pins on Brownings, the lower has been an issue, particularly with hard primers.
Since all I have is Cheddite primers, known to be hard on the lower pin, I bought spare pins for my 28ga before I even picked up the gun. I also ordered a 12ga 725 Golden Clays, I pick it up next week...Already have a set of pins on order.

I never knew it was an issue... until I had the issue.

It could happen again. Firing pins might just be a wear item

I will be a little more prepared to deal with it myself next time.

[JagerDog]

About 3-4K I estimate

3k rounds by the previous owner (which he said was an estimate on the high end). maybe about 1K by me at the time.

Not 100% sure the firing pin failed.

I was getting light strikes on the lower barrel. Didn't know what to do. The gunsmith said it was the "mainspring", which he replaced. Was still having the same problem afterwards. I took it back and asked that they go ahead and replace the firing pin and anything else they suspected to avoid return trips. That made it better. But still got the rare light strike, which I found to be annoying and embarrassing.

Somebody suggested that I stop shooting the cheap federal ammo and get something different. I switched Winchester ammo and not one problem since.

The gunsmith did somehow determine that the main spring for the lower barrel needed replacing on a 1 year old gun.

I reload now, winchester and/or gun club hulls, and preferably winchester primers, because that's what work best for me with that gun.

If it says "Federal", ammo, primers or hulls, its not for me.

I've heard of issues with AA hulls. Apparently the rim is rather thin, so shell fits deeper into the chamber, inducing light strikes. Bottom barrel on Brownings appear more sensitive to this for some reason.

Browning supposedly added some length to the firing pin at some point as well.

[bigbearbear]

I've heard of issues with AA hulls. Apparently the rim is rather thin, so shell fits deeper into the chamber, inducing light strikes. Bottom barrel on Brownings appear more sensitive to this for some reason.

Browning supposedly added some length to the firing pin at some point as well.

I didn't know that was the reason but I did hear complains about AA shells not firing when wife and I were members at Sunnyvale and shot a lot of trap. Interesting, issues seems to be mostly for O/U shotguns. There was also a batch of Remington Gun Club that had similar issues as well.

Oddly enough, they shoot just fine with my Benelli auto. I received quite a lot of free ammo when members found out their gun won't shoot those shells reliably and gave those to me.

[md2020]

I've heard of issues with AA hulls. Apparently the rim is rather thin, so shell fits deeper into the chamber, inducing light strikes. Bottom barrel on Brownings appear more sensitive to this for some reason.

I tend to over analyze everything. This is my understanding after I hired the world renown google investigative service to get me information on the FTF issues with the lower barrel.

The angle of the lower firing pin, the lower velocity impact point of the lower pin, thin rims on cheap hulls, rounded and recessed primers... all, or a combination of, factor into reasons I was getting a FTF on 1-2% (or less) of the federal top gun shells in the lower barrel.

I since come to understand why they changed the main spring the first time. It was actually a good logical guess.

Funny thing is... it went bang 99% of the time, yet that 1% really bugged the living heck out of me.

[BOBGBA]

I tend to over analyze everything. This is my understanding after I hired the world renown google investigative service to get me information on the FTF issues with the lower barrel.

The angle of the lower firing pin, the lower velocity impact point of the lower pin, thin rims on cheap hulls, rounded and recessed primers... all, or a combination of, factor into reasons I was getting a FTF on 1-2% (or less) of the federal top gun shells in the lower barrel.

I since come to understand why they changed the main spring the first time. It was actually a good logical guess.

Funny thing is... it went bang 99% of the time, yet that 1% really bugged the living heck out of me.

It's annoying when you spend money on a gun and it doesn't go bang 100% of the time.
Even .5% failure is not acceptable.
1 in 1000 might be acceptable at the range (not for HD though) and go unnoticed. You would probably just blame the the ammo.

I do know of other Browning O/Us that needed the lower firing pin replaced.
As you said before, firing pins are wear items (just like other guns). But not at 3 to 4 thousand rounds!
Hopefully Browning has figured out if the firing pin needs to be longer, harder or both. Don't really want pierced primers either.

Ammo manufacturers cutting costs (using cheaper materials) certainly hasn't helped.

I never noticed any of this when I started shooting shotguns a few decades ago. Of course we pretty much used pump shotguns and Remington Peters Blue Magic shells (for the most part) back them. Not an O/U amongst us.

[md2020]

This Tristar shoots but doesn't feel as good as my browning. The one thing that is noticeably different is the trigger pull. It takes an act of congress to get this gun to fire. According to my rough and crude fish scale measurements, the current trigger is over 7.5 lbs. That's about equal to the weight of the gun, which is too much.

The sear spring is the only thing putting pressure on the trigger. I found a similar sized spring at mcmaster-carr that is rated for 6.1 lbs. I got a dozen of them for $5

Its a $375 gun, so I got nothing to loose. So I bought and installed these new springs to replace the existing sear springs. Took me 10 minutes.

When I dry fire I can definitely tell its easier to pull. Still not the same as my browning, but much better.

I'm going to shoot it tomorrow. Let's see if the gun holds up to amateur gunsmithing skills.

[ceh383]

It might not look like it but the sear/hammer interface plays a big part in it, so do the hammer springs.
Changing the sear springs should be safe but don't mess with the sear/hammers. That is a job for a qualified smith.

[md2020]

Took the Tristar out to the sporting clays range with the plan to use it for the entire session. (Thanks for inviting me Chuck!) . I brought the browning as a backup, but didn't need it since the Tristar ran flawlessly for 135 shots. I actually liked shooting it more than I thought I would. I even hit a few clays

Trigger pull was definitely lighter. Still not quite a smooth as the browning, but it no longer hurt my finger to fire the gun. I'm going to leave it alone.

The hammer springs still feel a little stiff while re-cocking the gun. But it will loosen up.

Did notice that the gun feels "different" than the browning. Its slimmer through grip for sure. the LOP seems to be just a hair shorter, but just a hair. And it swings faster. Don't know if this is better, just feels different.

My arms are admittedly a little weak (ok... very weak after surgeries on both shoulders). The browning gets a little heavy after a while, especially the left arm holding up the forend. This Tristar never once felt heavy. That, I can say, was better than the browning for me.

And, it seems to shoot softer. Or maybe I mean to say it doesn't have the kickback of the browning shooting the same 1oz, 1250fps reloads. This part was also better than the browning for me.

Not saying that the Tristar is better than the browning. I'm saying that I now have something to compare and I definitely like aspects of the lighter feeling and softer recoil of the Tristar

The browning, according to my scale, is only .3lbs heavier. The barrels of the browning, are .3lbs lighter than the Tristar barrels. I do not believe that the overall weight of the guns is what causes that heavier and slower feeling

I tried to get a sense of the balance point. The Tristar seems to balance about a 3/4 inch behind the hinge pin. The Browning seems to have a balance point about a half inch in front of the hinge pin.

I have no idea what all this means.

I also don't know how I will go about getting a slightly lighter feeling from the browning and get it to swing maybe just a little bit faster (but not quite as fast as the Tristar)

I guess I have some more learning to do.

[ceh383]

You're more than welcome!!!

Glad you liked the way the TriStar felt, you shot it well given the difficulty seeing the targets... Or, maybe that was just me
Put about 1/2 pound in the Browning stock, shot works well for this.

I only put 40 thru my new gun before I left, I was not seeing very well at all. It's funny, but the black left to right crosser, "A" on station 14 I think, was the best view I had of a target. The cream puff "D" target on that same station looked like a 30" fuzzy beach ball, I had no idea where to shoot...

Things should be better for the Bonanza Blast next Sunday, will you be there?

[md2020]

You're more than welcome!!!

Glad you liked the way the TriStar felt, you shot it well given the difficulty seeing the targets... Or, maybe that was just me
Put about 1/2 pound in the Browning stock, shot works well for this.

I only put 40 thru my new gun before I left, I was not seeing very well at all. It's funny, but the black left to right crosser, "A" on station 14 I think, was the best view I had of a target. The cream puff "D" target on that same station looked like a 30" fuzzy beach ball, I had no idea where to shoot...

Things should be better for the Bonanza Blast next Sunday, will you be there?

1/2 pound in the stock... isn't that a lot? Adding to the back I imagine will lighten the front. That would bring the total weight of the gun to over 8lbs. Does that matter?

We all were guessing at some of those targets and where they were. It added to the challenge. I enjoyed it. We closed the place down at 10.

I plan to be there next Sunday if life doesn't get in the way as it normally does.

[ceh383]

The browning, according to my scale, is only .3lbs heavier. The barrels of the browning, are .3lbs lighter than the Tristar barrels. I do not believe that the overall weight of the guns is what causes that heavier and slower feeling

I tried to get a sense of the balance point. The Tristar seems to balance about a 3/4 inch behind the hinge pin. The Browning seems to have a balance point about a half inch in front of the hinge pin.

These two things seem backwards to me. If you have a heavier gun with lighter barrels, it should swing faster. The balance point of the Browning would indicate heaver barrels to me. I would check the forend weight, that could be the difference.

I also don't know how I will go about getting a slightly lighter feeling from the browning and get it to swing maybe just a little bit faster (but not quite as fast as the Tristar)

Adding weight to the stock will move the moment of inertia closer to your body, this results in a faster feeling swing.

1/2 pound in the stock... isn't that a lot? Adding to the back I imagine will lighten the front. That would bring the total weight of the gun to over 8lbs. Does that matter?

Perhaps 8oz is a bit much. Start with 4oz and work up from there as required.
A heavier gun will have less ACTUAL recoil. If the lighter gun FEELS like it has less recoil then the stock dimensions are different and it fits you better. The first thing I would look at is pitch angle. It could be a combination of several factors. Pitch angle, drop at comb, drop at heel, cast at heel, cast at toe.