'91 Argie firing pin question

[dualsport]

I may have asked this before, memory is poor, is it normal for an 1891 Argentine Mauser firing pin to protrude a little from the bolt face when the bolt is out of the gun? A picture in Frank de Haas' book 'Bolt Action Rifles' shows the bolt out and the firing pin is poking out a bit, good to go?

[220swiftfn]

I *think* so...... The '91's cock on closing, I just can't remember if the pin retracts any when you open the bolt...... I'll check later, and if nobody else pipes up, I'll let you know what mine looks like....


Dan

[NVcurmudgeon]

My 91's firing pin does not protrude with the bolt out of the rifle, or even with the bolt in and not cocked. Thanks for sending me to check for you. I just discovered that the safety doesn't have a detent for the middle position. If the safety is moved even slightly past the fire position the striker is moved back and the rifle is in a not too reliable safe condition and the bolt is locked. Guess the three position safety began with the 92 or 93.

[C1PNR]

Um, not to contradict anyone, but I just checked my '91 Argie Carbine and, yes, the firing pin does protrude.

What the heck, it's in the fired position so it should. It is a cock on closing design so this is, or should be, normal.

When I cocked it and put the safety on, I couldn't open the bolt in any position the safety was in.

Just what I experienced.

[dualsport]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm looking real close at my Argie as I had an 'incident'. Pierced primer. Brain dead, I fired another one to see what's up. The gasses from the pierced primer were rude, bit me, flung the firing back so hard it broke off a piece of my irreplaceable Buehler safety. I'm sick about that. It's a bubba gun I picked up for fun and have hunted with it. It seems all else is ok but without that safety it's a new game. Somebody bent the bolt, installed the safety, and a very nice Redfield Jr. one piece scope mount. I can pick up an issue safety but don't know if that will clear the scope. The upside is I can strip the bolt now in no time. My best theory on the pierced primers is headspace caused by brass shortened by low pressure loads. I pulled down the rest of that batch.