Model 51 slide jammed closed

[hkp7fan]

I took my .32 cal Model 51 (SN# PA 69903, 1922 or 1923 [edit - the reference on this forum says 1925]) to the range a couple weeks ago. After the first magazine, the slide jammed while closed, and will not open. I can move it about 1/4" to the rear, and then it encounters a hard stop. I tried all the standard things I could think of, and nothing worked to get it open.

I began to take everything off of the pistol that I could remove, in order to try to get a look at what is happening inside. I removed the grips, the grip safety, and the takedown pin. I now can see quite clearly that when the slide moves rearward, the firing pin remains in place and does not move to the rear. This seems to be blocking the slide from going any further.

A wooden dowel inserted into the barrel to try to push the slide to the rear ends up with a hole in the end from the firing pin, and the pin does not budge. I cannot get the slide far enough to the rear to get a grip on the barrel to pull it forward.

I have a second Model 51 in .380, and have taken that down to compare, and I don't see what the firing pin could be catching on. It just will not move to the rear with the slide and breech block. When the slide is retracted as far as I can get it (about 1/4", just barely far enough to remove the takedown pin), the firing pin is visible through the ejection port, still protruding through the hole in the breechface.

As an aside (or maybe not?) I recently bought some parts from Jack First, including two firing pin springs. When they came, the springs did not fit - they had too many coils. Even when fully compressed, they did not fit and the pistol could not be assembled. The people at Jack First told me that they had previously sold these with no complaints, and refunded my money. But I wonder what was going on? Did the internal dimensions of these pistols change during production? Is it possible mine has mismatched parts? It worked fine before this.

I am stuck. Does anyone have any experience or ideas that may help? Thank you.

[Mainspring]

There might be debris or damaged parts that are not allowing the hammer to rotate from fire to cocked. I'm not positive but I don't think the firing pin can prevent the slide from the moving.

The barrel might be bulged.
Broken or damaged breech block.

[hkp7fan]

Thanks - I thought about the hammer and other internal parts, but thought I'd ask before driving out more pins and dropping more parts out. I can see from the bottom that the hammer is cocked, but it doesn't drop when i pull the trigger (with magazine in and grip safety replaced and compressed).

I agree on the firing pin, unless it broke or bent somehow.

I think my next step will have to be dropping out as many of the other internal parts as I can while the slide is still in place, and see if that frees it up.

I don't think I'd know what to do about the breechblock if it's the culprit.

[Mainspring]

I would go slow, some of those parts are meant to come out the top of the frame.

Some of the info I have dates to the 1950's, which was a time when parts were readily available. A "broken breech block" is the only description given, no hints on diagnosis or removal. It would not have been uncommon to cut parts off and replace them as needed.

I would turn the pistol in all directions while trying to pull the slide to the rear. Shaking, bumping etc. might dislodge pieces that are binding.

[hkp7fan]

Thanks, I've been doing that and will continue. I am slathering it with penetrating lubricant and tapping it in all directions, letting it sit, doing it some more, etc. The last thing I want to do is to force anything. The thing is, it doesn't feel "stuck" in the sense of sluggish movement. It moves a certain distance to what feels like a hard stop, and that's that.

I haven't had time to mess with it this week, so it will continue to sit in the drawer in pieces for awhile. Maybe someone will have a more specific idea with a solution.

It sure would be a shame to have it permanently deadlined!

[hkp7fan]

Success!

Fortunately, I also have a Model 51 in .380 as well as the .32 that was jammed. After a ".380 Day" at the range (HK4, Remington R51, Colt 1908, Savage 1907, Savage 1917, and CZ-83), I took a very close look at the Remington .380 to see how it looked and try to figure out what was wrong with the .32.

With the grips off and using a flexible bore light, I looked at the bottom of the breech block as I retracted the slide, noting the positions of the visible parts. Everything looked fine on the .32 except for the firing pin. Whereas on the .380, I could see the firing pin spring as the slide retracted, on the .32 I could not, and the pin did not retract (as described earlier). I had already noted that as viewed through the ejection port at the point where the slide would not move any more, the firing pin looked as if it was pointed slightly downward.

After comparing the pistols carefully a few times, I decided that I would just retract the slide on the .32 by main force. I used a pistol bench block, pointing the pistol downwards over the large center hole and leaning heavily on the grip to force the slide back while the barrel protruded into the hole. This technique gives much more leverage than trying to grip the slide and pull it back. After a little hesitation, the slide let go. After that I was able to disassemble it normally and examine the internals.

The culprit was a broken firing pin. It broke off just in front of the collar, and somehow jammed the breech mechanism enough to keep it from opening. Either that, or it was bent and jamming the slide, and my opening it by force broke the firing pin at that time (this seems more likely, now that I think of it). Everything else looks fine, so I plan to buy a replacement firing pin and spring, reassemble the pistol, and consider myself fortunate that it wasn't more serious.