Light strikes with a Taurus Tracker 22LR

Sorry for the long post. I have one of the earlier Taurus Trackers, in 22LR only - model 2-990069, serial number ES434xxx. I tried some lighter springs from Wolff to improve the trigger pull and I started getting light strikes - so, I put the original springs back in, but I'm still getting some light strikes. With the original springs back in, the rounds all fire, eventually, usually with an extra turn or two around on the cylinder, and then the rounds fire - its a range gun only, but it's annoying.

While I had the side plate off to put back in the original springs, and do some cleaning and inspection, I read many posts about light strikes with 22LR revolvers - there were a few suggestions about removing a coil from the firing pin spring to reduce the resistance when it moves forward to fire a round (I didn't do that) - when I looked at how much the firing pin protruded through the frame with and without the spring (with the cylinder out), I didn't see any difference in how far it protrudes. The firing pin and the other action parts all seem to move smoothly.

I also read about the transfer bar - when I pull the trigger and the hammer drops, the transfer bar comes up enough so that it fully covers the back of the firing pin and moves the firing pin through the cylinder wall.

I tried several different type of 22LR ammo yesterday at the range and they all had failures to fire \ light strikes - Federal, Remington, Winchester, CCI Stinger. So, I'm guessing that it's NOT an ammo problem. Pushing in the bolt and opening the cylinder, I can see the firing pin protruding when I pull and hold the trigger in DA. I took out the firing pin - it's clean and it seems to move back and forth as it should when I push it and release it from inside the frame. I can see the transfer bar coming up between the firing pin and the hammer as I think it should. While I tried one of the lighter Wolff hammer springs, I took that out and re-installed the original Taurus spring - it's a 2011 gun, so I'm wondering if the hammer spring has "gone bad".

i checked again and the firing pin definitely protrudes through the cylinder wall. Holding the trigger, the firing pin protrudes enough so that the cylinder won’t close because the firing pin is protruding.

Something else i just noticed shown in the attached picture - the extractor doesn’t seem to be lined up perfectly with the chambers in the cylinder - not sure if what’s shown in the picture is normal or not. 22LR rounds load and extract OK, but the extractor looks a bit “offset” from the cylinder chambers.

I'm going to send the gun to Taurus, but before I do, does anyone have a suggestion as to what might be going on with this revolver? Thanks in advance for any guidance.

"How thick is the transfer bar" - I used a digital caliper to measure the thickness - it's 0.08" - I don't have the tools you mentioned to measure the depth of the transfer bar recess or how much the firing pin protrudes through the breech face - BUT, I can tell ya that, with the gun disassembled, when I manually push the firing pin forward without the spring, the amount of protrusion looks to be the same as it is when the hammer strikes the transfer bar and pushes the firing pin forward.

"I have to tentatively disagree about the extractor" - I noticed those ridges, too - they're only on some of the points of the extractor \ star - I smoothed them down a bit.

A poster on a different forum suggested that dirty chambers or a slight irregularity with the star might be causing the rounds to not seat in the chamber correctly - so, I also thoroughly cleaned the chambers with a bore brush and some non-chlorinated brake parts cleaner, in addition to smoothing down those ridges in the extractor \ star - a 22LR round now drops in and seats completely, as well as extracts smoothly.

Stay tuned for an update after my next trip to the range.

"How much does the firing pin protrude through the breech face when held forward by the hammer and transfer bar?" "Surely you must have some cheap feeler gauges from the auto parts store" Nope, I don't have a set of feeler gauges - but thanks for the memories - I haven't used feeler gauges since I set the points and spark plug gaps on my own cars 40 years ago - and I have absolutely no idea where the feeler gauges that I used to have disappeared to. BUT, I can tell ya that with a 22LR round in one of the chambers with the cylinder open, it looks like the back of the 22LR case protrudes ever so slightly past the end of the chamber rim - and, with the cylinder open, pulling and holding the trigger so the firing pin stays forward it's far enough forward so that the cylinder can't be closed.

BBBBill - "How much does the firing pin protrude through the breech face when held forward by the hammer and transfer bar? " - I bought a set of feeler gauges - best I can tell, the firing pin protrudes the same amount as the thickness of the .035 gauge. I opened the cylinder, manually pushed in on the bolt, and pulled and held the trigger - then I measured the firing pin protrusion. My next step when I get to the range, is to check and see if it fails on random chambers, or on specific chambers each time around, and if the failures are repeatable.

Took the gun to the range and the light strikes continued - so it's gonna go off to Taurus for repair - they estimated that it's be a 12 week turn around. I didn't see any pattern about if the light strikes were happening on a specific chamber - the rounds all fired after a turn or two around on the cylinder, so it doesn't look like an ammo problem. I am wondering if the firing pin has become damaged (chipped, deformed, etc.), and maybe now it's shorter than it needs to be? Can anyone measure the length of the thin part of the firing pin that should be protruding through the chamber wall in their Tracker 22LR? And maybe a picture of the business end of the firing pin, so I can tell if mine is as it's supposed to be, or not?

That looks like it sticks out about as far as my firing pin does, but the end of my firing pin looks different - perhaps mine has become damaged? I took out the cylinder and cleaned it thoroughly - chambers, and also under the extractor - it was clean as a whistle when I took it to the range, but again, with different types of ammo, I got lite strikes - no discernible pattern on whether it was the same chambers that gave me light strikes. I was gonna look for a new, stiffer spring, but since I had already put the original spring back in and still had light strikes, I figured that I had run out of patience and I sent the gun off to Taurus yesterday with a $50 FedEx label I purchased from Taurus - they told me it'd be a 12 week turn around - thanks for all the suggestions and guidance - LOL, as relatively simple as they look, they can be frustrating, especially with 22LR ammo - keep ya posted.

Thanks for the response - yeah, your firing pin looks different than mine - hopefully, Taurus Customer Service will figure it out and send me back a gun that's pretty close to 100% - in 12 weeks or so! What I'm hoping is that they tell me what was wrong with the gun, rather than just that the gun is "within specs" or something like that. As simple as the revolvers are, relatively speaking, I learned that there are A LOT of things that can go wrong that don't look like they're wrong to the inexperienced eye (mine).

I received the gun back from Taurus a few days ago - I was surprised because given the 12 week turnaround window they originally gave me, the gun came back in a couple of weeks. The gun works much better than before, and I only had one or two light strikes across 5 or 6 different types of ammo - about what I'd expect with any 22LR ammo. Aside from me having to pay to ship the gun to Taurus, the repair was free so that was OK.

The Warranty Repair sheet that they sent back to me with the gun was troubling though - I provided a lot of detail about what was going on with the gun, but they must have ignored all that because the "Area of Concern" said "Firing Pin Spring", and "Replaced Existing" - I never said anything about the firing pin spring. They did have "REPLACED MAIN SPRING ASSEMBLY" in the comments section, and I guessed that's what resolved the problem - I'm still wondering though how that fixed the problem, because when I tried a lighter main spring from Wolff and started getting light strikes, I immediately put the original spring back in, and still had light strikes. LOL, another reason why I'm not a gunsmith, I guess.

One other thing - they did note that they tested with CCI 22LR 40 Grain - Mini Mag Round Nose - I always those rounds to be reliable and work flawlessly - I would have like to seem test with something less reliable.