Close call with the young American 32s&w

[Tripplebeards]

I learned a lesson yesterday...to wear eye protection!

I was shooting my 1904' young armerican and had a few pieces of the primer come back and hit me in the face. Missed my eye by a 1/4". I have a small cut in my cheek about an inch from my eye and two red spots right in the corner of my eye socket. I got lucky. Never had that happen in 35 years of shooting but I'll never be dumb enough to find out if it will happen again.

So I was using mag tec ammo that was rated at low velocity and safe to shoot in my pistol. I don't blame the ammo. What was happening is the extremely long firing pin was completely piercing the primer and I was getting blow back. I wonder if I file the firing pin down if it will keep it from penatrating the primers eliminating the deep strikes or is this normal operation of the design? This explains why my hand turned silver from shooting it the last session. I think this pistol might just reside in a shadow box along with a 1904' ad I found.

Anyone else have any issues like this?

[Drm50]

Hang that dude on the wall. If it is Young American I'm thinking of its was a very cheap pistol in their day. They are listed with a hundred other similar pistols of the era. These little guns are known to shave lead and pierce primers. I'm not talking just about YA all similar revolvers had same issues. Most books list them as Saturday Night Specials and can't begin to list them all.

[Gewehr-Guy]

^^^Good Advice^^^ Now go find a nice little S&W 32 to play with and you'll soon forget the Young America

[Tripplebeards]

Yeah, just wanted to shoot it after I restored it from the dead. It was given to me years ago. Looked like it was found on the bottom of the river. It was pitted really bad and had white corrosion on it. The inside of the barrel was remarkably clean. I sanded and polished it with a dremel and some chrome polish. Needless to say it's not very accurate. It will sit in a shadow box when I get to the hobby store to buy one.

Here are the primers...

[RED BEAR]

never had a young american but do have a few h&r ivor johnson and a few others .i would try taking a little off firing pin. i will not have a gun that i can not shoot. i know these were cheap in there day . but i still think cheap back then is still a lot better than cheap today . and yes some have lead but a little work will correct the timing. i reload for mine and load light but they are a blast to shoot. i get these guns really cheap and have had to play with a few.

[NoZombies]

I believe this is a non-rebounding design, so protrusion should be easy to measure. From there figuring out how much to remove is easy, and make sure the tip is rounded.

Even if you're not planning to shoot it any more, making it safe to do so is probably a good idea.

[OldBearHair]

Right on NoZombies I will add a suggestion as far as a tool. Use a big nail or similar piece of steel and grind it on the point to look like the firing pin. Then use it to punch a cavity centered in a copper rod that you can spin, then add some grit and oil to shorten the pin like NoZombies suggested. Helpful to center drill the copper rod a tad before punching the cavity. Next comes the polish.

[Alferd Packer]

I would peen the tip with a hard hammer.Also i like to shoot those oltimers with wax bullets and a primer only. Crayon pieces also shoot well. Then there's plastic glue bullets as well. My two cents.

[RED BEAR]

i have a thames arms top break were the cylinder is adjustable you can adjust cylinder gap but in order to get the primers to go off constantly you have to move it back so far that the cylinder binds on the frame. i think the firing pin needs to be a little longer although it doesn't look worn. i have found that with some of these little guns some people will put the wrong parts in them.

[Tripplebeards]

I had a little black mark in my cut where the primer chunk hit me in the cheek. I squeezed it the other day and had a good size sliver of metal come out almost a quarter inch long. I tossed it in the garbage and cleaned my wound with peroxide a few times. Guess I should have looked more closely to see if it was a lead shaving off the Boolit. It was sore for a few days but now is almost healed up and looks like a little red spec. I got lucky, could have lost an eye.

[Rodfac]

Time to retire that old war horse, short of that, I'd recommend a GOOD GUNSMITH. This is not the time to play shade-tree gunsmith.

I've had a pierced primer on an M1 Garand and the results were spectacular, peppering my face with brass shards, and hot powder gas at an estimated 45,000 lbs pressure.

I was wearing Ray-Ban shooting glasses at the time and they were the ONLY reason I was able to go to USAF Pilot training two years later (a life time goal). The incident occurred while shooting the Nat'l Match Course in a USAF sponsored match.

Keep safe and let a pro handle the problem, but were it me, I'd retire that pistol with full military honors!.....Rod

[Tripplebeards]

Rod, you hit it on the head. I already retired it and just haven't found a shadow box to display it in. I don't plan on ever firing it again in my lifetime. Maybe I'll sell or trade it for a 17 hornet or rem 17. It's gotta be worth $250 or so I would guess to a collector.

I think the only safe way to shoot this pistol is with a snowmobile helmet and some Welders gloves. When I started with this box of ammo I could feel shrapnel spray on my hand every shot and my fingers and hand looked like someone painted it with aluminum spray paint.

[NoZombies]

Rod, you hit it on the head. I already retired it and just haven't found a shadow box to display it in. I don't plan on ever firing it again in my lifetime. Maybe I'll sell or trade it for a 17 hornet or rem 17. It's gotta be worth $250 or so I would guess to a collector.

I think the only safe way to shoot this pistol is with a snowmobile helmet and some Welders gloves. When I started with this box of ammo I could feel shrapnel spray on my hand every shot and my fingers and hand looked like someone painted it with aluminum spray paint.

If you find someone willing to give you $250 in cash or trade value, let me know...