Service Intervals
Proud owner of a 1931 Fabrique Nationale 6.35mm pocket pistol? Perhaps you own one of our PSP or PSA-25 pistols? Concerned about when to replace a spring? Something isn't working right? Want to repair, re-finish or transform your prized Baby into a work of art? You’ve come to the right section of our website! Scroll down for lots of useful information about your little beastie.
Attention Fraser/Bauer .25 caliber pistol owners: we love you guys but we cannot offer repair/rebuild/refinish services for these pistols. They are all over the place with respect to dimensional tolerances and are made from investment cast stainless steel - which does not take a finish. However, we will give you a $200 credit against the suggested retail price of any of our new machined billet PSA-25 pistols should you decide to trade in that Fraser/Bauer for one of ours. All the technical stuff below applies to your Fraser/Bauer pistols as well - so read on!
RECOMMENDED PSA-25 SPRING REPLACEMENT SCHEDULE:
Firing Pin Spring: after every 500 rounds, or upon compression of the firing pin spring of more than 1/4 inch from original length of 2 1/16 inches, or after 5 years, whichever first occurs. If the firing pin spring is compressed replace it. When we send you a new firing pin spring remember: one end of this spring is slightly crimped. The crimped end is the end into which you insert the cocking indicator assembly. Don't screw this up!
Recoil Spring Assembly: after every 500 rounds, or upon visible compression or deformation of the inner or outer springs or retaining plates, or after 5 years, whichever first occurs. If the recoil spring assembly is compressed or deformed replace it. NOW!
Magazine (Body, Rounded Follower and Spring): after every 500 -rounds, or after five years, whichever first occurs. Our rounded follower magazines with removeable bottom plates (which are made for us by Mec-Gar of Italy on our tooling) are the best of their type in the world. However, the body of the magazine is not heat treated and is thus subject to bending, burrs and dents. it's just in the nature of the thing. So inspect the magazine often and using a Swiss file or 320 or 400 grit sand paper remove the burrs, smooth out the dents and bend back into shape the "lips" of the magazine where the bullets come out. Don't worry about the looks of the magazine. They are like razor blades and meant (in due course) to be replaced. Probably 9 out 10 problems with semi-automatic pistols has to do with magazines that have wandered off the reservation. If you want smooth firing action replace them often.
Cocking Indicator Assembly: after every 500 rounds, or upon failure of the internal cocking indicator piston to retract; or upon failure of the internal cocking indicator spring to retain its elasticity, or after five years, whichever first occurs. If the cocking indicator assembly has failed replace it - now. Most cocking indicator spring assemblies fail because (i) they ae not properly installed into the drilled hole in the cocking indicator post of the pistol frame or because the end user is pushing 35 grain ammo through the pistol. Pay attention during reassembly of your PSA-25 - and do not push 35 grain ammo through it - ever!
Sear Spring: after every 750 rounds, or after five years, which ever first occurs. If all of a sudden the Trigger action is terrible or the Transfer Bar Assembly is not flush up against the bottom of the Slide, you have a bent Sear Spring inside that pistol. Often times this condition is due to a Friday night attempt at the kitchen table to rebuild your Baby - at which you have (unfortunately) failed. The least stressful solution to this problem is to send your pistol to us to be torn down into its individual parts, inspected part by part, ultrasonic cleaned, rebuilt and test fired - as replacing the Sear Spring is not for the faint of heart. What better time to have your Baby serviced then when it isn't working. You weren't supposed to remove those grip plates anyway!
Extractor Spring: after 750 rounds, or after five years, whichever first occurs. If the Extractor Spring is bulging out over the Extractor you need a new Extractor Spring. Don't fiddle with trying to replace this spring, just send the pistol to us for servicing.
Trigger Spring: after 750 rounds, or after five years, whichever first occurs. Trigger Springs loose their mojo faste than most other springs in a Baby. But again, it is best to send the pistol to us for servicing as the trigger spring is connected to the Trigger, which is connected to the Transfer Bar, which is connected to the Sear Spring....you get the picture, don't you?
Magazine Catch Spring: after every 750 rounds, or after five years, whichever first occurs. Especially if you have lost this spring after dropping your Baby on the heel of the pistol frame. If you currently have a nylon injected black polymer magazine catch in your pistol, consider upgrading to a steel magazine catch.
OTHER SCHEDULED MAINTANENCE INTERVALS:
Check press fit of Sear Pin in Frame: after every 100 rounds, or once a year, whichever first occurs.
IMPORTANT NOTE: the Sear Pin should NOT be able to be removed from the Frame by pressing on it by hand pressure using the tip of a small diameter punch press. Try to press the pin out from the right side of the pistol (barrel pointing away from you). If the Sear Pin can be pressed out by the process described above DO NOT USE THE WEAPON AND CONTACT US. If the foregoing condition exists with your pistol the Sear Pin MUST be replaced and doing so will require special handling by us (or a qualified gunsmith) of the pistol frame and new Sear Pin. If you do not heed this advice you run the risk of having the frame/slide lock up after firing of the pistol and rendering the pistol a total loss.
Check functionality of Sear in Frame: after every 100 rounds, or once a year, whichever first occurs.
IMPORTANT NOTE: a machined pin is held in place in the body of the Sear with cooper brazing. This machined pin has a flat surface on its right hand side. To inspect this flat surface, remove the slide and point the front of the pistol frame toward you. If the flat surface of the pin is not at a 90 degree angle to horizontal this means that the cooper brazing has failed and that the pin has rotated away from its perpendicular position to horizontal in the body of the Sear. This condition will cause intermittent stove-piping of ammo. The Sear MUST BE REPLACED to re-enable proper functionality of the pistol.
Check Extractor: after every 500 rounds, or once a year, whichever first occurs.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Extractors are heat treated but after repeated use, the area of the Extractor that "grabs" the empty shell casing (aka: the "claw") and flings the shell casing out of the ejection port on the right side of the Slide will wear out. If the pistol fails to eject empty shell casings after cycling the Extractor should be replaced.
Check Magazine: after every 100 rounds, or once a year, whichever first occurs.
IMPORTANT NOTE: the original 1931 model Fabrique Nationale 6.35mm flat follower magazine (and virtually all brands other than the rounded follower PSA magazine) should NOT be used in any FN Baby Browning, PSP-25, PSA-25 or Fraser/Bauer .25 pistol - as virtually all of these magazines contribute to ammo stove-piping during firing of the pistol. The original FN Baby Browning flat follower magazine was SUPERCEDED in 1984 by a rounded follower version. The rounded follower version of the magazine was redesigned on a collaborative basis by engineers from Fabrique Nationale, Mec-Gar and Precision Small Parts Ltd (our former parent company up in Canada). This was the only time these three companies saw eye to eye on anything having to do with the Baby Browning pistol. The re-designed magazine works!
On the subject of "burrs”, the magazine body of the PSA-25 rounded follower magazine is NOT heat treated (because the thickness of the metal is so thin that it would warp if it was heat treated). De-burr the metal build up on the "lips" of the magazine body as needed every 100 rounds or so using a fine (not coarse) Swiss file. Repeat: fine Swiss file, not coarse. Don't worry about re-bluing or plating the de-burred magazine. You're going to replace it soon enough anyway. If the "lips" of the top of the magazine have splayed outward, simply press them back together (against a table for example) so that the spread from the left to the right side is slightly greater than the diameter of a .25 caliber shell casing.