Baby Browning Troubleshooting Help?

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DonP

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For the last few years I've been interested in some of the older Mouse Guns in .25ACP. From an '08 Colt Vest Pocket, Baby Browning and a bunch of others that made it here before the ban on "Saturday Night Specials" ... that drove the criminals to much more reliable and powerful guns (another triumph for our legislators, duh!).

Actually, I'm a little amazed at the number of Baby Browning clones I've come across that Europe turned out; from a really well made CZ Duo complete with Nazi proof marks ... to pretty much any Spanish fabricator with a metal mill and a name. One of my favorites is my Spanish made "Protecter" yes, that is how it's spelled on the slide.

Last month I picked up a pretty nice exact US clone, a Bauer .25 in Stainless made in Fraser Michigan. It's so close the parts can exchange with my original Baby Browning.

The Problem:

For some odd reason, the striker won't cock on the Sear. For some reason it just won't catch. I've taken it down several times to make sure nothing was blocking the movement of the trigger connector bar, striker, striker spring or the loaded chamber indicator. The magazine dis-connector is working fine too.

It's making me crazy, since this tiny gun only has 34 or 35 parts. It's a John M. Browning design and it's supposed to be simple! What am I missing or overlooking?

As always, any help is appreciated.

Any experience with this on a Bauer or Browning?
 
Problem solved! When I took out the firing pin, spring and cocking indicator, I noticed that the firing pin spring didn't go all the way into the "socket", somewhere along the line the end of the spring had been stretched so it didn't bottom out. So the spring was too long for the sear to catch the small hook on the firing pin. I swapped it for a spring from another Baby Browning I have and it works fine. So I have an order in to Numrich's for a new spring, firing pin and indicator. Thanks for the response and help.

Check both sear and striker's cocking notches - they should be with sharp corners, both with positive (less than 90 degrees) engagement angles - looking like these here:
https://jack-first-gun-parts.myshop...aby-25-pistol/products/browning-new-baby-sear
https://jack-first-gun-parts.myshop...-pistol/products/browning-new-baby-firing-pin
 
DonP

I have always been fascinated by the design and craftsmanship that went into making these tiny pistols. Finally found a Baby Browning several years ago LNIB at a price I couldn't believe and snatched it up before someone else got it! One Beautiful Baby!

 
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I picked up a Bauer that needed some work...it was sold as a "parts gun", and I got it cheap. Played around with fixing various issues and got it working. It was a fun home Gunsmithing project, especially tearing it down completely and reassembling it, a zen puzzle exercise.
I agree, not safe to carry cocked and locked.
 
They are great little guns. I picked up a Baby that was rusted and in bad shape and took it apart and cleaned it and re assembled it and its ugly but its amazingly reliable. Once you understand how they hold the firing pin you would never carry one cocked.

I found they are not simple to get back together either! I really struggled with getting mine back together but eventually got it working just fine.
 
I have the Bauer as well, but not as a carry gun. I do sometimes carry it as a backup, and I handle it otherwise from time to time. I've been keeping the striker cocked on an empty chamber just to see if I can get it to drop, but no luck so far. Still, it's chamber is never loaded except at the range. Clearing a live round from the chamber is also a risky move, to be done slowly, as the firing pin can strike the primer of a round during brisk slide-racking.
 
With both Browning Baby and Bauer .25 the firing pin always strikes the primer when unloading life round - it also serves as an ejector.
 
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