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Off center firing pin

1265 Views 5 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  muddcatt54
This story is too good for me to just bury it in the Other Handguns section (as a continuation of an old thread of mine). So about a month and a half ago I got a great deal on a used Ruger P95 9mm. It was barely used looks like only one box of ammo had been shot through at all if that. I owned two of them previously so I knew what I was getting into, P95's are supposed to be super reliable war horses, if you can't kill em with the bullets you can pistol whip your enemy to death with one. So I took it to the range three times, first time 90 rounds went great, second time 90 rounds had some failure to feed/eject issues that was likely caused by me forgetting to lube the pistol before shooting (a rookie mistake, it was still in the break-in phase). But the third time....

So I took it to the range again about a week ago. This time I was shooting plain Winchester White Box 115gn FMJ. And then it happened right from the first shot, the gun started misfiring about every third or fourth round. Out of 90 rounds I'd say maybe 12 or 14 did not fire on the first try (they all went bang on the second shot double action). I could not figure out why the Ruger suddenly was giving me such weird problems, so I researched. I got all kinds of theories, but when I examined the spent brass I got a better clue. All the shots had the firing pin indents off-center on the primers. So I decided to take a look at the breech face of the pistol. After nearly 300 rounds the brass had rubbed in the usual circle of the rims and primers on the breech face and sure enough I could see the firing pin hole was OFF CENTER. Yep, someone in the factory drilled the firing pin hole off center in the slide, I guess that means I will need a new slide. I haven't called Ruger yet, I don't even know if they can replace it as they stopped making the P95 in 2013. I'm not the original owner so I don't know if this is covered under warranty, guess I'll have to call to find out. Weird thing is though it shot fine with all other ammo up until now and only problems just with the Winchester stuff.

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I would try another ammo. It could be the barrel is not locking up fully. It could be off, but working before and not working now, suggests a variable... ammo

Clean everything, lube it up and try a couple other ammos.
Is the firing pin hitting the primer?
Slightly off center primer strikes are not necessarily an issue. Since it was working before, I would assume the firing pin channel didn;t wallow out all the sudden. Like above try different ammo. Also if you haven't yet , take the slide apart and clean the firing pin channel and extractor arm etc...You can at that time look at the face of the firing pin and determine if it has any chipping or malformation. ON the painful side - misalignment of the slide to magazine after shooting a few hundred rounds , but working of previously. Could be a cracked frame or slide allowing components to walk out of true. I have found plenty of used Ruger PX slides on the internet - some for as low as $50, some even are fully assembled. So you might look on the internet and ebay for a replacement slide. Good luck - your P95 is a rugged, reliable firearm and I am not finding much online other than a few broken springs and one cracked slide , that may have been a result of non factory ammo.
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I'd send it to Ruger. Most likely they may replace the slide for you. ;)

RUGER stands behind their products period!

:cool:
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I have a RIA 1911 9MM that does the same thing and all of my ammo goes bang but I only shoot my own reloads and all my cases are mixed because I'm too lazy too separate them. In fact all three of my 9mm's leave a different primer imprint but the RIA really the out there is no doubt what gun those cases were shot out of hope you get it fixed.
Could you be having a light strike occasionally next time it happens let the pistol set for awhile then eject it and check it out. I vs noticed my RIA primer strikes are not as deep as they once were so I need to tear down the slide and and clean out the firing pin channel. Could it be dirty enough to be pushing the firing pin off to one side just a thought
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