Man did I get lucky!
My AKV has about 800 rounds on it. I removed the bolt/carrier to check to see if anything needed oil before going to the range. While handling it, one of my fingers slide onto the bolt face. After a second, I realized I felt a bump on the bolt face where the firing pin hole should be. After first I thought it must be a bur on something, until I looked at it. The firing pin was protruding out of the bolt face as far as it could go and was stuck/jammed in that position. I could not push it in.
If I would have inserted a magazine and racked the slide to load a round, even without pulling the trigger it would have slammed fired and gone FULL AUTO until the mag was empty. To top it off, I was getting it ready for a range trip to test out a 50 rd drum magazine (magpul D50), which would have made this situation much worst.
I used a roll pin punch to remove the firing pin retaining roll pin, and the back half of the firing pin came out. I had to use a pick to pull out the firing pin spring because it would not fall out and seemed a bit stuck at first, don’t know if that’s normal. But the firing pin half that was sticking through the bolt face was stuck really tight and I couldn’t push it out. I had to use a brass punch to knock it out, using 5-6 hard strikes before it finally came free. I never found any other pieces that fell out or was stuck in the firing pin channel, so I’m not sure what was holding the firing pin in that stuck position. I did clean the channel real good.
The firing pin is broken between the area where the fat end that holds the spring and right where it is turned down to the thin firing pin profile. Also, I noticed the roll pin was badly damaged with a round profile of the firing pin, Like the firing pin was slamming into the roll pin. A chip missing out of the roll pin at one end. Could this chip have fallen inside the channel somehow and caused the firing pin to stick? If so, I never found the missing chipped piece. I guess it could have broken off while I removed it but if so, I never found it.
I’m not sure if the spring (which seemed stuck at first), played a part in the firing pin sticking out like it was.
I had a spare firing pin spring and noticed the original was shorter and missing a couple spring coils on each end, like the new one had. The new one is on top and the old is on the bottom.
Does anyone know how this could have happened?
I feel I was extremely lucky to find this before loading it. I mean what are the chances, I normal don’t check the firing pin on guns as I load them. This would have been so easy to have missed that I just don’t know how I found it.
How can I get parts to repair it without sending it in for repairs?
I have a AKV repair kit, but it doesn’t include the roll pin, and this should be a warranty repair anyway, but I don’t want to send it in over a roll pin.
Any ideas?
I went ahead and contacted customer support. I’m waiting for their response. I’m not sure what will happen since I did see this on the website:
“All complete firearms need to be returned in full for repair. Replacement parts will not be issued or sent to the customer.”
Does anyone know how the roll pin got that half round imprint on it from the firing pin? I think that probably started the whole mess if the chipped roll pin piece got inside the firing pin channel.
Maybe whatever jammed up the firing pin caused the back half of the firing pin to hit the roll pin during some dry fire? Keep in mind the spring was in there getting pushed around when I dry fired it. I don’t do a lot of dry fire with the AKV, but I have done it occasionally. I just can’t figure out how that roll pin got damaged.
Has anyone else ever pulled their roll pin and saw an imprint shaped in a half circle on it? See on pic-4.
I wonder if we need to start checking for it.
I’m still a little shuck up about what could have happened! Usually, I don’t have as good of a grip on the gun as I do when I’m shooting it, because I’m looking to make sure a round is going in the chamber before I shoulder it. Thank God I didn’t have a reason to load it in my home.
I had bought a bond arms Derringer in 410/.45 colt about 25years ago. Always wanted one. Any way when I got home I went to load it and before I slapped it closed I noticed some scratches by the firing pins.Upon closer inspection someone had dry fired the pistol to the point wher they hammered the firing pins into the holes. The scratches were from someone trying to fix it!
If I had clicked it closed I would have has an AD in my house with both barrels!
I took it back to the local gun store and bitched they sold me a used gun as a new one. Yellow tags were used white were new.They admitted they bought it from someone that walked in and said it was never fired. They already did the background check so they would only give me store credit!
Send it back PSA will make it right!
Customer support has already reached out to me after I submitted a repair claim yesterday. Wow, that was fast! They are sending me the parts. That’s total awesome, I love PSA support!!!
This is the way I wish all manufactures would work. Keep up the great work PSA!
In the future, I’m going to keep an eye on the firing pin before I load it, just to make sure this doesn’t happen again. What a freak thing to happen. At least I can rely on PSA to fix it if something happens.
I received all the parts and have them installed. Seems to be functioning good with snap caps. I’ll keep an eye on the firing pin when loading ammo though. I’m going to be paranoid for a while with it.
Customer Service was great, we exchanged some friendly emails, and they shipped everything quickly!!!
I was just looking into this on my AKV and was going to use the AKV emergency kit. I’m getting some light strikes / failure to fire, in fact it won’t fire at all. I wanted to take the pin out of the bolt to check and…
I noticed that when I was looking for the retainer pin to punch and it seems like I don’t have one? See the pictures. Maybe it is in a different spot on this generation than in the video I was watching on youtube? Just want to be sure that if I somehow blasted those pins out I get replacements and can fix the firing pin correctly. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
