HK-4 Misfires

[bstrutton]

Hi. My friend's father gave her an HK-4 (circa early 70's) and she's shelved it for many years. She recently joined us at the range & brought it along to try it out. It's got the .32 barrel installed & that's all she has.

Unfortunately it misfired at the range. First round fires, extracts, feeds but then fails to fire subsequent rounds. Looked at by 2 different gunsmiths w/out much luck. 1st wrote "firing pin catching on safety" but didn't know how to fix. 2nd said just needed good cleaning & charged her $40 & said was good...

We had it out again this weekend & similar problem. 1st round always fires fine. Sometimes rapid fire will work but most times rapid & slow fire results in sporatic misfire of rounds subsequent to 1st. Many times additional trigger pulls on same round would fire.

Was wondering if anyone could comment on potential problems / cost to fix. Also, a list of a few 'smiths experienced in the HK4 would be appreciated.

In addition, she's thinking CCW & moving to more recent pistol like my USP compact or similar competitor. Assuming we could fix the gun, any idea what it should bring ? How about in this condition ?

Thanks in advance !

-Bill

[Toad]

I would actually agree with the second gunsmith. I bought a HK4 in .32 and it wouldn't fire at all. I was afraid that perhaps the firing pin was broken or something. I took it all apart and soaked it in mineral spirits overnight. I then thoroughly cleaned the slide(after totally disassembling it) and put it back together. When I took it to the range the next time it worked fine. It seemed there was some gunk or something that was slowing the firing pin down once the hammer hit it.

Try doing the same-a thorough soaking/cleaning of the upper.

[Landpimp]

make sure your not limp wristing the HK4, they are sensitive to this it seems, hold em tight and they should work 100%

[dinguskang]

Hi,

I had a similar problem. Make sure the firing pin return spring is on the end of the firing pin. There should be a tiny spring on the bullet end of the firing pin that pushes the pin back after striking the primer. It's about 3/8" long and 1/8" in diameter, it sits on the end of the pin, the round part, and butts up against the square part.

Mine fell off when I was trying to pull the pin out, and didn't notice when I was turning the breech face around to switch from .380 to .22. It won't return the pin to where it needs to be when your hammer hits it on the second or following shot.

Gene