T-Gewehr Trigger Extended Firing Pin

Good Morning All,

A small group of T-Gewehr shooters from Miami, Maryland, Upstate NY, and Canada have been working with me in a discussion about extending our firing pins. In 1918, the T-Gewehr came with a 60/1000ths protrusion mimicking the GEW98 of the day. The primers on the original T-Gewehr cases are smaller than our 50BMG primers and seem to have been softer too. Often, it takes a second and sometimes a third trigger pull to setoff our 50BMG primers. Understanding that we are trying to headspace our rounds in a rifle that was rimmed, we do have to deal with several variables.

When we consulted USGI standards, we saw a call for about 80/1000ths pin protrusion for the 50BMG. I contacted Nathaniel at Myers Arms and he agreed to reverse engineer a test pin with an additional 20/1000ths. Nathaniel and his team did an outstanding job as you can see below. At the range today, I had 16/16 first pull ignitions. I am not sure if this is related, but I also nailed 6/6 at 100 yards!

Randy

Attachment 139563Attachment 139564

Nice, a simple parts change that can be changed back if one wanted. Good deal.

Thanks. We struggle a bit head spacing with the 50BMG cases in a rifle designed for rim-head spacing. This was why I had the bolthead modifications done prior to this new pin. Now, it seems like all is as well as can be. However, these are fixes for a problem that we thought we had settled till our brass producer went bankrupt and there went the dreams of OEM-spec cases.

To be honest, I think I am off the OEM case quest. The "thumping" and accuracy are good enough for my 67-year old shoulder. My T-Gewehr is the queen of the range!

Randy

I wouldn't see headspacing a .50 cartridge to be such a labor. Should be straight forward. Even with a bolt gun, there are a few after all.

Not a big deal but still a bit finicky at first. I got the hang of it now and pretty much in production mode. That would be batches of 20 for the sake of my shoulder.

Randy