Henry and the 66's Firing Pins

[Bryan Austin]

What is the history on this subject? What is the improved firing pin on the 66 and why did they revert back to the original design? (I forget what sn#'s)

I have noticed on several fired case examples that some of the dual firing pin marks are more narrow and deeper than some.

What's the story?

Here are a few misfired or spent cases that show the firing pin imprints
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Jy0pGqWPRx2HOQqufbcnEM1lv6tCWBJsCOB8vLIDOIg/edit#gid=1599374672

[Bryan Austin]

Am I missing something?

[Tascosa Joe]

Bryan:
I find the pictures you posted the link to are very interesting, but I know very little about the subject. 

[Coffinmaker]

  Hey Bryan 

I could give ya a WAG (Military acronym for Wild Assed guess).  But that is all it would be.  I have no clue for what, why, where, when nor however.

Hysterical - er - Historical stuff like this is hard to come by.  All the folks who knew are no longer able to communicate.

Stay Safe Out There

PS:  At first glance I thought your were talking about modern replicants and had a really snazzy answer.  Oh well.   

[KWK]

Pirkle's book doesn't mention any variations on the striker in the '66. I don't own a copy of Madis' book, but I might be down by a library that does and will try to remember to have a look.

[Bryan Austin]

Thanks guys, I have absolutely no idea myself......I'll leave it here for a while and see if we can get some data.

[Tascosa Joe]

I thought someone more knowledgeable than I would post something but here goes..... I drug out my Madis Winchester book.

There is very little written on the subject I quote from page 97 of his book:  "In shape and appearance, early firing pins were made exactly as on the Henry Rifle.  Between numbers 24,000 and 26,000 the firing pins were less pointed in an effort to aid ignition, but soon the old pattern was again adopted.  The rimfire '66 was made with twin wedge-shaped firing pins to the end of the model's production".

[Bryan Austin]

I thought someone more knowledgeable than I would post something but here goes..... I drug out my Madis Winchester book.

There is very little written on the subject I quote from page 97 of his book:  "In shape and appearance, early firing pins were made exactly as on the Henry Rifle.  Between numbers 24,000 and 26,000 the firing pins were less pointed in an effort to aid ignition, but soon the old pattern was again adopted.  The rimfire '66 was made with twin wedge-shaped firing pins to the end of the model's production".

THANKS!  So basically only the less pointed pins were on 60's between 24,000 and 26,000 and all 66's should be pointed (wedged). Of course there are gunsmith work exceptions I guess.

Although that certainly answers my question, it doesn't help identify 60's and 66's with pointed pins....oh well, I tried...lol

THANKS!!!!

[Tascosa Joe]

The way I understand it, the sharper pins were only on the '66 s in the SN range.

[Fox Creek Kid]

Another possible reason is that then, just as now, too many knuckleheads dry fired and broke the FP tips as well as caused chamber mouth dents. I would think the blunter one would cause less damage than a sharp one as well perhaps. Spencers were bad for this as well.

In the Madis book he also covered another problem that required the co. to supply gunsmiths with a special tool to aid in removing the snap collar collet on the bolt face of the Henry & '66 models for issues.