SU-22 Broken Firing Pin

We shot my SU-22C at the Kentucky KTOG Konvention (see the KTOG Goes Local forum for more details), and we finally broke my SU-22C. I have no idea how many thousand rounds of .22 LR ammo have gone through my SU-22C, but it's a LOT. We shot about 1200 rounds at the Konvention.

At one point, I managed to lose a round on top of the bolt and it apparently dropped in behind the bolt and the hammer beat it up some (see below). I dumped it out, and I managed to shoot it a little more, but the firing pin was broken. The back of the firing pin was protruding from the back of the bolt, but the front part of the broken firing pin would hang out the bolt face (see below), catch the first round stripped off the magazine and not allow it to be inserted more than half way up the bolt face.



The steeper angle of the ammo would tend to misfeed and would need to be gingerly worked in by hand. Oddly, after the first round off the magazine, it seemed to function just fine with a two piece firing pin! I didn't shoot it much after that, because the firing pin hanging out the front of the bolt face could potentially cause a slam fire, including firing out of battery! I'd never shoot a center fire weapon in this condition because it'd be much more likely to slam fire and firing out of battery would be much more dangerous.

A replacement firing pin and a spare firing pin are on order! Kel-Tec customer service is the best!

I have five Kel-Tec weapons, I've shot the crap out of them, I don't particularly baby them, and this is the first time any part has broken and needed to be replaced. I've ordered spare parts a couple of times before, and I was unable to convince Kel-Tec to charge for spare parts that were not warranty replacements. I'll see if they charge my credit card this time. I doubt it'll be much if they do.

Sorry for posting this twice, but I wanted a copy in the thread that's serving as the chronological record of my SU-22 (from the first manufacturing batch), but I also wanted a thread devoted to this so future searches could find it more easily. We should probably discuss the broken firing pin in this thread.

 

Kel-Tec charged my credit card $24.68 for the two SU-22 firing pins, one was presumably a warranty replacement. With the free stuff they've sent before when I tried to pay them and they wouldn't accept any money, I figure I'm still money ahead.

 

My two SU-22 firing pins from Kel-Tec arrived in today's mail. They cost $24.68. I just opened the package and it felt a bit heavy. They tossed in two extra firing pins for my SU-16 and PLR-16 as well! Bonus! I was going to order those! Sweet!

 

Find a couple of boxes of Blazer .22 LR ammo and I'll gladly repay you, and maybe even a small finder's fee as well! I bought it at Sportsman's Warehouse, before they folded and haven't seen it locally.

I think it's pretty obvious that I enjoyed Brennan shooting the SU-22. I don't have kids, so I live vicariously through my friend's kids. Thanks for loaning him out.

 

The Kel-Tec Two Part Guarantee: If your firing pin breaks in half after a gajillion rounds, you get to keep both parts!

I finally replaced my SU-22C firing pin at about 5:00 AM on Friday morning, in the great Liberty4Ever tradition of late, where I do the minimum possible just before a range trip. All too often, I take a dirty gun to the range and clean it there before shooting.  :-[



Yes, the part numbers are the same for both springs. Kel-Tec used the same spring for two different functions. Actually, from the inappropriate part name on the exploded view bill of materials, that spring is also used on the sight on another Kel-Tec firearm.

Replacing the firing pin was fairly easy. Don't lose those two little springs! Align the two sides of the bolt properly and torque the two cap screws to keep the bolt halves together. I wanted to use blue Loctite on the screws, but my bottle of blue Loctite was gelled. If it works loose, I'll put blue Loctite on there next time. The screws seemed to have thread lock on them from the last time, so hopefully the bolt halves won't work loose.

I cleaned the firing pin channel and other internal areas on the bolt with a dry Q-Tip, but I resisted the urge to put a film of lube in there because I didn't want oil in the threads that would help the screws work loose. Considering that I have MANY thousands of rounds through the SU-22C with no malfunctions, and this was the first time I've disassembled the bolt, it was surprisingly clean in there. I wonder if it slings the debris out as the bolt cycles? Self cleaning?

We shot about 300 rounds on Friday and the SU-22C performed flawlessly, other than one Blazer round with no primer. That's the first of those I've had with the cheap bulk pack Blazer, although 1% to 2% of the Federal bulk pack .22 LR ammo has no priming material.

I'm still loving the little SU-22C, and it's always popular at the range. I let a couple of Appleseed guys shoot it, and they liked it, even though I think they were 10/22 guys.