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Hi folks,

I have a new S&W 41, and I've been twiddling with it a little. I notice that the pin that goes through the slide and holds in the firing pin, spring, and extractor, has a "cup" driven into it on the right end, preventing it from being removed.

It looks like I'll need to get that pin out if I ever want to work on my extractor. Whats the right way to remove the pin?

Thanks!

Removing the stop pin on a Model 41 is fairly easy. You drift the pin to the left side of the pistol. That is placing the punch in the cupped side of the pin and drift it. The cup doesn't prevent movement it is there to prevent the punch from slipping and possibly marring the pistol's finish. The pin will not remove to the right. The pin hole has a little ledge on it that prevents the pin from moving to the right. Once the stop pin is removed the firing pin assembly can be slid forward and out of the slide. Then you can take the extractor out of the slide.

Here's an exploded view of the M-41's slide.



Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

aha! thanks bullseye. I tapped it a little harder and the pin moved. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't about to mess something up

I notice a lot of posts in various places where people have stovepiping mentioned getting their extractor tuned helped. Are there any obvious things I could check for myself to make sure my extractor is set up right?

Thanks!

Sometimes you have to get a little aggressive with the stop pin to get it out of the slide.

I have a procedure that addresses this problem from an old friend of mine, now deceased, Austin Behlert. He studied up on why the M-41 had cartridge ejection problems and discovered the extractor was often the culprit. He created a extractor tuning procedure that later was published. I'll put it up on the server and drop a link in this post.

http://www.guntalk-online.com/images/behlert1.jpg
http://www.guntalk-online.com/images/behlert2.jpg

I have used this procedure several times and it definitely makes a difference in reducing/eliminating M-41 failures to eject.

Hope these pages help.

R,
Bullseye

Bullseye, you're the best

I also read a post over on pistolsmith.com where a fellow mentioned that many 41s, rather than having too heavy a recoil spring, have "overcock". I am assuming he means that the slide travels too far to the rear. Can you shed any light on what he means?

thanks again!!

Not really. The slide on a M-41 can only travel so far to the rear. Once it moves to it's limit it will strike the frame. One reason why S&W recommends standard velocity ammunition vice high velocity is to prevent frame battering.
Wolff sells a multi spring kit that contains a series of different weight recoil springs and I have seen buffers for keeping the frame safe.

Over cocking is a term usually related to the hammer camming over center and hanging up on the strut in a way were it won't release properly. I haven't experienced this situation with any of the M-41's I own or worked on over the years.

R,
Bullseye