These Gun Parts Fail First (Keep Spares)

Guns, like cars and other machines, have a lot of moving parts.

Movement creates friction, friction creates wear, and wear results in failure.

Consequently, these gun parts will break down, or fatigue, and need to be replaced.

Keep your eye on these first.

Return/Recoil/Buffer Springs

All semi-automatic arms have, in some form or other, a spring that returns the action to its original position, whether or not blowback, recoil, or gas-operated.

That spring, whether it’s called a return spring, a recoil spring, or a buffer spring, plays a critical role in resetting the action to complete a cycle and load a new round.

These are often the first parts to wear on any gun. If you keep just one spare gun part in your workbench, make it a recoil spring for your firearm.

Firing Pin Springs

The firing pin spring is the spring that stores and releases energy through the firing pin, igniting the primer.

These springs, though they take less abuse than recoil springs, are also prone to fatiguing. What you might notice happening is that your gun only fires a certain portion of the time when you pull the trigger.

Upon inspection of the primer, you may notice weak indentations that may be the calling card of a fatigued firing pin spring. Replace the spring and the issue should resolve itself.

On another, separate note, firing pins themselves are subject to a lot of abuse during the firing sequence. With each pull of the trigger, they slam into the primer, hard.

Over time, they can crack or break, in which cause they will need to be replaced.

Trigger Springs

The trigger spring is a relatively innocuous part that is responsible for resetting the trigger to its original position once you pull it.

If the trigger spring becomes fatigued, the trigger may not reset, which will make it difficult to fire the gun. They usually last a long time, but if you are confident that all other gun parts are in working order and the trigger isn’t resetting, it could be this part.

Extractor and Ejector Springs

Are you starting to notice a pattern yet? So far, pretty much every gun part we’ve covered has been a spring, and we’re not even done with them.

Extractor and ejector springs make sure the rounds are extracted and ejected reliably, and these parts often wear out long before the extractors or ejectors themselves break.

Replacing the springs could solve the issue. Just make sure you clean the bolt face and the area around the chamber before jumping the gun (excuse the pun) and replace the springs. A very dirty gun can hamper cycling, and the spring might not be the problem.

Extractors

The extractor is a small, hook-shaped piece of steel that is responsible for grasping the casing rim and pulling the cartridge out of the action when it is opened.

These small pieces of steel, like firing pins, are often subject to a great deal of force during cycling, and they can be quite fragile. They break not infrequently, but since they are usually fairly affordable and easy to replace, this isn’t a huge deal.

Just make sure you have spares.

Magazine Springs

Keeping with the spring trend, we have another gun part that is not technically a firearm part at all: magazine springs.

If you have a mag fed firearm, box, tube, or otherwise, if the spring that feeds ammo to the action gets worn out, the gun will probably start to jam.

Fortunately, for most firearms, replacing a mag spring is a fairly easy and straightforward process. Either remove the base plate (or follower) or for tube mags, take off the end cap, remove the old spring, and feed in a new one.

Roll Pins

It’s not so much that roll pins fail as that they can be easy to lose. Sometimes roll pins work loose and get lost; if that happens at the range, you could be dealing with an issue.

Have a few spares in your range bag or bench. They are cheap and worth their weight in gold if you lose one.

For Gas Impingement Systems: Gas Tube

If you have a firearm with a gas impingement system, like an AR-style rifle, the gas tube has a flared end that creates a seal between the end of the tube and the key. Over time, this flared end can become flattened or deformed, compromising the seal and resulting in sluggish cycling.

It’s not something that will happen overnight but you may have to replace the gas tube after a while.

Sometimes: Barrels

Though they don’t belong on a list of gun parts that fail quickly, rifled barrels do burn out, and there are some cartridges that are notorious barrel burners, including:

• .220 Swift
• .22-250
• .264 Winchester Magnum
• .243 Winchester
• 7mm Remington Magnum
• .270 Winchester

If you shoot one of these cartridges and notice that accuracy starts to taper off after 1,000 or so rounds, you might need to re-barrel the rifle.

Gun Parts for a Wide Range of Popular Platforms

If it shoots, we’ve carried gun parts for it at some point or other. Whether you need a new recoil, spring, sear, barrel, strock, muzzle device or buttplate, we probably carry it in our collection of shotgun, hangun and rifle parts.

If you don’t see it on our website that doesn’t mean we don’t have it in our showroom or that we can’t get it for you. Whatever you’re looking for, give us a call at 610-250-3960 and let us know what you need and we’ll help you find it.