Broken Striker Sleeve

[Allen Humphrey]

Week before last I shot an 80 shot across the course NRA match with my 1903. That night while cleaning the bolt, I noticed the split striker sleeve shown in picture. No big deal and I have several replacements to choose from, but I'm just curious if anyone has seen the same type of failure? Seems that most "03 parts" auctions have a few sleeves in the pile which might indicate a common failure point......or that a good many get lost trying to assemble/dis-assemble the striker assembly :) Done that.

[Darreld Walton]

I confess, that I've put more than a few of 'em into a sub-orbital trajectory while trying to reassemble 'em and lost them to unfinished interior walls and deep shag carpet.
As to a failure, I wonder if dry firing with some sloppy tolerances between it, and the firing pin wouldn't crack it over time. Just thinkin', which is a dangerous state of affairs around my house!!!

[Allen Humphrey]

Yes, they fly fast and far. Interesting thought on the dry fire. I use a dummy bullet with a hard rubber primer for practice, but during 3 minute prep time at matches I usually take 2 or 3 trigger pulls per stage.

[Emri]

I have seen them fail before, but can't say it is a "common" failure. But I don't have them (03's) in my shop every day.

[jgaynor]

The striker set up on the 03 and its descendants was a weak point. I believe it was assumed that the striker tip would be the part that would break so it was made easy to replace in the field. In so doing the designers created a weak interface between the firing pin and the striker.

Regards,
Jim