Does my 1894c have 2 piece or one piece firing pin?

[cvarcher]

My 1894c was made the first year in the early 80s. How can I tell if it has the 2 piece or one piece pin.If it is 2 piece is there an advantage to going with the kit with the one piece firing pin and lighter hammer spirng?

[J Miller]

Yes, most likely it will have the two piece firing pin. From what I've read here Marlin has been using that two piece design since the introduction of the 1893. (I could be wrong on some of this)

Open your action, look at the underside of the bolt. You'll see the short rear section of the firing pin droop down at an angle. It's under spring pressure and is supposed to do this.
Stick your finger up in there and you can feel it move up and down.

The two piece design is a safety designed into the rifle to prevent it from firing if the locking bolt is not fully closed.
I see absolutely zero advantages to it on a normal sporting, hunting, plinking, rifle. These one piece firing pin kits were thought up by the cas shooters to reduce the effort of closing the action. Supposedly gives them a faster, easier shooting gun. I won't own one myself, I see no use for them for the way I shoot.

Joe

[JimT]

If it has not been altered from the way the factory made it, it is a two-piece as Joe said. My 1894 was modified by me for CAS. It was just a race gun. No safeties any where. I took everything out that could be removed that was not needed and slicked everything else. You could partially work the action just by shaking it hard. The one-piece firing pin absolutely improved things so much it was amazing. BUT .. it is NOT NEEDED on a "working gun" .. one that is used for hunting, ranch work, walking in the woods. It is for Race Guns.... guns that are only loaded on the firing line and are not used for anything except competition.

Here's the article on it. http://www.leverguns.com/articles/taylor/onepiece.htm

[Leverdude]

Yes, most likely it will have the two piece firing pin. From what I've read here Marlin has been using that two piece design since the introduction of the 1893. (I could be wrong on some of this)

Open your action, look at the underside of the bolt. You'll see the short rear section of the firing pin droop down at an angle. It's under spring pressure and is supposed to do this.
Stick your finger up in there and you can feel it move up and down.

The two piece design is a safety designed into the rifle to prevent it from firing if the locking bolt is not fully closed.
I see absolutely zero advantages to it on a normal sporting, hunting, plinking, rifle. These one piece firing pin kits were thought up by the cas shooters to reduce the effort of closing the action. Supposedly gives them a faster, easier shooting gun. I won't own one myself, I see no use for them for the way I shoot.

Joe

Joe pretty much nailed it. It started in the model 1893. Only correction I can make is its not really intended to prevent fireing out of battery, although thats a nice side effect. On our modern guns theres a trigger block saftey that prevents fireing if the actions open, plus the bolt gets in the hammers way pretty soon after opening the gun. The reason it was developed was they found that the Marlin 1889 action would fire without the locking bolt installed at all. So they developed the two piece pin to prevent this. its in Brophy's book somewhere. The 1893 was the next model and very early examples had a one piece pin too. The only real difference between the model 1889 and later guns was redesigning the locking lug and the pin. You can make an 1889 a 1894 or a 1894 a 1889 simply by swapping out a few parts.

The bottom line is that with a one piece pin your gun WILL fire even with no locking lug in place, everything else will work fine. Not sure what would happen but my imagination comes up with some ugly things. I'll add that I'v gotten pretty far along assembling a Marlin and had to back up to drop that lug in there.

You can get most of the bennies of a one piece by straightening out the spring that pushes the pin out of alignment too. Even with no spring the rear piece usually drops away. They make the spring much too heavy IMO from the factory.

[JimT]

The bottom line is that with a one piece pin your gun WILL fire even with no locking lug in place, everything else will work fine. Not sure what would happen but my imagination comes up with some ugly things.

P.O. Ackley took the imagination out of it with his tests back in the 1950's. Using a Winchester Model 94 in .30WCF he removed the locking lug and fired the rifle a number of times trying various experiments such as oiled vs. dry cartridges etc.

The finger lever held the rifle closed in all instances.

I AM NOT SAYING YOU SHOULD DO THIS ... just saying ....

[cvarcher]

OK, I get the idea now!! You are all so very helpful. Thankyou!!

[AJMD429]

P.O. Ackley took the imagination out of it with his tests back in the 1950's. Using a Winchester Model 94 in .30WCF he removed the locking lug and fired the rifle a number of times trying various experiments such as oiled vs. dry cartridges etc.

The finger lever held the rifle closed in all instances.

[Old No7]

"The finger lever held the rifle closed in all instances."

So what 'ol P.O. was really saying was:

Quote: "My fingers held the finger lever which held the rifle closed in all instances."

Glad he could still count to 10!!!

Old No7

[donw]

so...basically, one should leave the two piece firing pin intact for day-to-day hunting, plinking and target shooting?

the only 'mod' that's 'advised' is to straighten the spring that forces the rear portion of the two-piece firing pin downward when the action is levered open? (if one chooses to make modification to the firing pin...)

[adirondakjack]

so...basically, one should leave the two piece firing pin intact for day-to-day hunting, plinking and target shooting?

the only 'mod' that's 'advised' is to straighten the spring that forces the rear portion of the two-piece firing pin downward when the action is levered open? (if one chooses to make modification to the firing pin...)

Basically, if ya can safely put yer car's brakes back together and not kill yerself next time ya drive it, or change a tire, ya ought to be able to remember to put the big honking piece of metal called the bolt block, (aka lock block,) back in the gun if ya ever take it apart. As long as ya do that, the 2pc FP is a non-issue.

FWIW how to tell yer gun has a 2pc vs 1pc firing pin? Simple, turn the gun upside down, open the lever, and look at the underside of the bolt at the back end. If ya see what looks like an offset piece of firing pin hanging down that moves up and down when pushed on hard, and appears to be spring-loaded, ya got a 2pc. if ya simply have a straight FP in line with the bolt, and it rattles when ya shake the gun, ya got a 1pc.

Even for those not engaged in competition, the 1pc allows for a lighter hammer spring, (easier cycling), and is FAR LESS prone to breakage than a 2pc.

[J Miller]

so...basically, one should leave the two piece firing pin intact for day-to-day hunting, plinking and target shooting?

the only 'mod' that's 'advised' is to straighten the spring that forces the rear portion of the two-piece firing pin downward when the action is levered open? (if one chooses to make modification to the firing pin...)

Yep, that's the way I see it. I've had four Marlin 1894s and I haven't altered the firing pins on any of them. Personally I consider it an extra bit of insurance.
And yeah, I do remember to put the locking bolt back in. Just cos I hate having parts left over.

Joe