TargetTalk

Lucky I had one spare.
How often does it happen?
Should I get a few more spares?

Do you often drop the hammer on an empty chamber?
The sharp shoulder design of the SP firing pin places great stress on the juncture of the pin and the end cap (terminology?) if the forward momentum of the unit is not absorbed by a cartridge base.
The original design of the High Standard firing pins had a similar sharp shoulder design and firing pins would typically last about 1500 rounds. High Standard quickly changed to a sloped shoulder design and the problem just went away. Don't ask how I know about this.
I have carried a spare firing pin for my SP since I first heard of this tendency for breakage a couple of years ago but I have not had to replace one yet, and I have over 10,000 rounds through mine.
Being a bit of a old timey shooter, from the days of sometimes overly long firing pins ruining a chamber face, it has become ingrained in me to never drop the hammer on an empty rimfire chamber.
I count my shots. Always. Whatever kind of shooting.
Gene

I think that is unusual. The firing pins in the SP and SP New are identical. I have one of each. I've had the SP for about 6 years and many tens of thousands of rounds. The SP New has a few thousand rounds through it. I know I should count my rounds but in truth, I'm terrible at doing that, so I end dropping the hammer on an empty chamber all the time. I have yet to break a firing pin.

Nicole Hamilton wrote:I think that is unusual. The firing pins in the SP and SP New are identical. I have one of each. I've had the SP for about 6 years and many tens of thousands of rounds. The SP New has a few thousand rounds through it. I know I should count my rounds but in truth, I'm terrible at doing that, so I end dropping the hammer on an empty chamber all the time. I have yet to break a firing pin.

I doubt it's rare but by the same token it's probably not all that common. You should always have a spare unless you like to wait, especially for inexpensive parts like firing pins, springs, ejectors and extractors.