Colt Series III question

[evan price]

I own a Colt King Cobra in 4" matte stainless. The gun has been mine for over 15 years and it shoots well. I bought it used in 1991 for $300 including a hard case and a box of Hydra Shok ammo.
I have been trying to look at the sticky about how to judge a revolvers' condition however I can only get internet access from work and the company I work for blocks all gun related content.. (But not THR for some reason..) so all I can read are the posts on THR.

My question is this: I have shot over 1000 rounds of .357 158GR through this gun while I have owned it and no idea how many from previous owner. Since I have had it I noticed from round 1 I fired the firing pin is not hitting the center of the primer, it's offset.
I checked the headspace and cylinder slop. It looks good, I have just under .002 of end slop on the cylinder. The barrel to cylinder gap is .006-.008 with slop factored in. I have a little rotational slop in full lockup but looking down the bore the cylinder to barrel alignment is just fine.
My problem is I realized that the firing pin is not centered in the frame. There is a small circular hardened steel disc that contains the firing pin. I assume it is this the back of the cartridge should be pressing against when the cartridge fires. What is actually hapenning is that there is now a crescent shaped worn spot on the rear frame adjacent to the metal disc containing the firing pin, on the side towards the cylinder release. It looks like the cartridge is sitting slightly towards the cylinder release and overlaps off of the hardened disc the firing pin is in. Then when it fires the edge of the cartridge is pressed into the stainless steel slightly and off of the disc.
Does this make sense? I can try to get a picture. When I look down the bore, the firing pin is actually not centered within the concentric circles of bore & cylinder.

Anyone seen this before? Should I be worried? I never noticed it when I bought the gun and hadn't yet until I read the info on here and decided to check it out. The gun shoots fine and it's not like I shoot a thousand rounds a year through it. It was my first and still favorite gun.

Thanks.

 

[Jim Watson]

How far offcenter is the firing pin strike?
Have you EVER had a misfire you could blame on that?

If not, don't worry, be happy.

 

[dfariswheel]

You shouldn't be having off-center primer strikes.

I recommend sending the gun in to Colt for a check up.
These later series Colt revolvers have the firing pin retained by the hardened bushing and a pin.

In order to repair the assembly, Colt has a special press and support dies which are used to press out the bushing and it's retaining pin.

These assemblies CANNOT be replaced or repaired without the press and support dies, since attempting to drive them out will usually damage or even ruin the frame.

Colt should be able to repair whatever the problem is, and if it's a factory defect, they usually don't charge for it.

 

[evan price]

The gun has never failed to fire correctly.
The pin indentation is about a millimeter or two over to the side.
I am primarily concerned about the fact that the hardened firing pin bushing is not centered with the bore and therefore the rim of the cartridge case has been pounding the stainless steel frame beside the bushing, causing visible wear.
Basically, is this normal or something I should worry about?
How do I contact Colt for info?

 

[Jim Watson]

The condition is certainly not normal, the question is what can be done?
Is Colt still set up to service a discontinued model like that? I dunno, call them up and talk to a human.
http://www.coltsmfg.com/cmci/custserv.asp