maxfaxdude Posted January 14 Report Share Posted January 14 My Owen is producing light primer strikes with some failure to fires which may be due to a weak recoil spring. I contacted Warkwicks in Victoria, Australia about having a mainspring shipped to me in the U.S. via an ATF Form 6. Anyone know of an OWEN SMG parts source that is stateside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APEXgunparts Posted January 14 Report Share Posted January 14 OWEN parts in the USA, no. Sources for springs, yes. Measure the spring wire diameter, count the coils, measure the ID and OD and check McMaster-Carr and any other source for commercial springs. Also, you may have worn down the firing pin nib that is on the OWEN bolt face. Happens with lots of SMG's (like Thompson M1A1's) where the firing pin is a part of the bolt. If so, then seek out a good machinist to create a solution. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APEXgunparts Posted January 15 Report Share Posted January 15 I should have asked this in my last post, if you do find a suitable replacement spring for your OWEN from a commercial source in the USA, PLEASE share / post that information for the other owners of OWEN SMG's. It is always a good idea to have spares! Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsonlmg41 Posted January 15 Report Share Posted January 15 The hoarder in me says no way, but I probably have one I could part with? Are you sure it's the spring? Is it a new occurrence or has it been like that since you got it? I just got two guns (not Owens) in that looked unfired. After hand cycling them I found out neither actually would work reliably thus the owners probably just put them aside instead of getting them fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxfaxdude Posted January 15 Author Report Share Posted January 15 On 1/14/2025 at 11:00 AM, APEXgunparts said: OWEN parts in the USA, no. Sources for springs, yes. Measure the spring wire diameter, count the coils, measure the ID and OD and check McMaster-Carr and any other source for commercial springs. Also, you may have worn down the firing pin nib that is on the OWEN bolt face. Happens with lots of SMG's (like Thompson M1A1's) where the firing pin is a part of the bolt. If so, then seek out a good machinist to create a solution. Richard Richard, The "nib" on the bolt face looks good. The gunsmith and I both believe its malfunctioning is due to the recoil main spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APEXgunparts Posted January 15 Report Share Posted January 15 Here is a picture of my OWEN bolt face, for a crude visual reference. Hope it helps. Do you have a STEN bolt to reference it against? I had something similar with the PPs-43, and it turned out to be the "firing pin" in the bolt face. Fortunately in the case of the PPs-43 it is replaceable. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxfaxdude Posted January 17 Author Report Share Posted January 17 Richard, I will check the bolt face on my Owen. This does help! Thank you! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NambuLMG Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 (edited) MaxFaxDude, Is your Owen barrel a REWAT or is it an unmolested original chamber? -Rick Edited January 24 by NambuLMG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APEXgunparts Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 On 1/16/2025 at 11:34 PM, maxfaxdude said: Richard, I will check the bolt face on my Owen. This does help! Thank you! John I wish I had a protrusion height on the "firing pin". I suspect it will approximate that of the STEN gun. Plenty of STEN bolts around! Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsonlmg41 Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 I'm going to guess it may be more of a tube issue than the spring or FP protrusion, but that's my pure speculation. Sometimes the barrel is too far out as well? Having intimate knowledge on these(even though I forgot most of it) there are some critical tolerances that might not be to spec on a tube gun? Sometimes you have a gun that works for a while, but is on the edge of the tolerances and due to dirt or wear, it slips just over to the "marginally" function side. A piece of debris lodged in front of the charging handle collar would keep the bolt handle from riding fully forward into the divider, thus limiting bolt travel. Loose set pin on the barrel or egged barrel hole would allow the barrel to move slightly forward leaving a light strike. Even pushing forward on the front grip could be an issue? Fixed firing pins are pretty easy to fix using a couple different methods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxfaxdude Posted January 26 Author Report Share Posted January 26 (edited) 6 hours ago, johnsonlmg41 said: I'm going to guess it may be more of a tube issue than the spring or FP protrusion, but that's my pure speculation. Sometimes the barrel is too far out as well? Having intimate knowledge on these(even though I forgot most of it) there are some critical tolerances that might not be to spec on a tube gun? Sometimes you have a gun that works for a while, but is on the edge of the tolerances and due to dirt or wear, it slips just over to the "marginally" function side. A piece of debris lodged in front of the charging handle collar would keep the bolt handle from riding fully forward into the divider, thus limiting bolt travel. Loose set pin on the barrel or egged barrel hole would allow the barrel to move slightly forward leaving a light strike. Even pushing forward on the front grip could be an issue? Fixed firing pins are pretty easy to fix using a couple different methods. johnsonlmg41 has been kind enough to send me a repro mainspring from Warwick's in Australia. A big THANK YOU to Jeff! Compared with the old mainspring, the new mainspring is at least 1 inch longer and has a larger wire diameter than the old spring and measured 8 lbs versus about 6.5 lbs force on my gunsmith's spring scale. He has yet to test fire the gun but said the bolt now comes forward against the breech with a lot more force. And johnson, you may be right, the way the barrel fits into the receiver is a little wonky... We shall see... The picture below shows the old mainspring on the left next to the new repro mainspring on the right. Edited January 26 by maxfaxdude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APEXgunparts Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 If that new spring fits and works, please count the coils, measure the wire diameter, outer diameter and inner diameter and document this on a post here. It will be interesting to discover if this is a spring that can be procured commercially. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxfaxdude Posted January 30 Author Report Share Posted January 30 On 1/27/2025 at 1:02 AM, APEXgunparts said: If that new spring fits and works, please count the coils, measure the wire diameter, outer diameter and inner diameter and document this on a post here. It will be interesting to discover if this is a spring that can be procured commercially. Richard Richard, Will do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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