The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

Today I got myself a second P64. This was a local face to face sale. I got the gun (1974 model), two mags (both with matching numbers with the gun), and police holster for $140.00. Not a bad price and the gun looks almost new. The owner told me that sometimes the gun would not fire in single action. The owner stated it was okay in double action. So I am thinking the gun needs a good cleaning. Got the gun home and broke it all the way down to clean it. But the gun is clean. It looks like he did a good job on cleaning the gun. Put it all back together and notice that the firing pin does not stick out the back of the decocker/safety as far as my other P64. The back of the firing pin just clears the end of the decocker/safety. There is a big night and day different between the two on how much sticks out. The firing pin is in seated correctly. It looks like the back end of the firing pin is shorter, like someone cut some off. I did not break down my other P64 to check its firing pin, just look at it with the slide off. So this might be the problem with the gun not firing during single action. When I put a pencil in the barrel and fire the gun in single action the pencil fly’s out. But a pencil is not as hard as a primer. If work and the rain don’t get in my way tomorrow I will run some rounds through the gun. But, I am thinking that I will need to go on a firing pin hunt. So, does anybody here have one for sale and/or know where I can find one?

Firing Pin = $10 + shipping from some Polish feller on Gunbroker.com:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =253589252

Now, I would take the firing pin out of both pistols and measure them. You said this is a '74, what year is your other P-64? Some random modifications were done to these between years 72/73 so I don't know if your other one was pre-72. I thought someone said a long time back on here that the firing pins can be different. Don't take me up on that, maybe Norm will comment here.

I'd say get yourself some good ammo and try it out and make sure it's all okay. I can't see someone hacking or filing off the back part of the firing pin. If anything, I would think that would make DA worse as the hammer only moves about 1/2 to 3/4 back and then slams forward. SA goes the furthest and would have the most momentum. So, I don't believe that to be the case at all. Maybe when you shoot it you'll get a better idea of what is going on.

Mine is a 72 and I'm pretty sure mine sticks about 1/8" or so out the back of the safety.

My other P64 is a 1970 model. The firing pin sticks out the back twice the distance as the 1974 P64.

These are measurements I took of mine from my 1972.


The measurement that mine protrudes out the back of the safety is 0.070" or about 1/14" (0.071").

Could have been bad ammo. I'd run some known good ammo through it before tearing into it.

As Stover said and I had also mentioned, the ammo... If he had some bad ammo, I wonder how his experiment went with it. When he says it worked fine DA, I wonder if he actually tried DA on the first shots or if he tried SA and it didn't go off and just pulled the trigger again for DA and it went off (double striking) the primer. It is possible the ammo was crap. You'll definitely have to do your own research. Let us know on here what happens.

got a break in the rain and work so i was able to run 50 round through the p64. 25 rounds of american eagle 95 gr fmj and 25 rounds of monarch 94 gr fmj. i had no problems, all round fired. check the primers and they all had good hard hits. so it looks like i don't have a problem. the only thing i can say is this p64 kicks like my other one,,,sharp.

Glad to hear!!! He must have had a crappy batch of ammo.