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Old March 5, 2018, 09:21 PM   #51
4V50 Gary
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Join Date: November 2, 1998
Location: Colorado
Posts: 21,824
Before you buy, suggest you examine one alongside a M-1 Garand. Pay particular notice of that piece of metal inside the receiver that spans from left and right. It's a couple of inches from the backside of the receiver. That is called the web or bridge of the receiver. For a better view you should field strip the M-1A and the M-1 Garand.

That part serves to cam the firing pin tail away from the bolt face. You don't want a firing pin to be protruding when the bolt goes forward. If it did, you'd have an out of battery firing which can injure the user, spectator and damage the firearm.

If you look at the casted web/bridge on a Springfield (below Serial #49,000 which is every new one they make), they cast it with a huge lump on that bridge. Contrast that to the M-1 Garand and note how clean that is. On the casted Springfield receiver, the tail of the firing pin must work extra hard to overcome that lump. Given time, the tail can break and then the firing pin remain forward its own. Therefore it becomes incumbent for the user to examine the firing pin for signs of wear and to replace it if it appears to be cracking.

You won't find that defect on the Smith Enterprise receiver or the ones that are forged and milled (forgot who does that).
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