Bent firing pin

[jatx]

I just returned from a week down in Nacogdoches with Paul Howe for CSAT's Tactical Rifle Instructor course (which I highly recommend). I took two rifles down - a 10.5" LWRC M6A2 and a 14.5" Noveske N4 Light. After the first day, I switched to the Noveske because the other instructors were complaining about the muzzle blast from my SBR, which has a PWS FSC muzzle device.

The photos below are of the firing pin from my Noveske after a day of moderate shooting (approx. 400 rds). I experienced no major failures with the weapon and it was both clean and well-lubricated, although the trigger did seem to "stick" or fail to reset several times during rapid fire sequences (2-3 rds per second).

While cleaning the weapon at the end of the day, I was surprised to see that the firing pin was both bent and the head mushroomed. I showed Paul and, after the expected ribbing about fancy rifles, he admitted that he had not seen many firing pins like this come out of functioning weapons. Lucky for me, he had a replacement on hand.

Any ideas on what might have caused this? I inspected the bolt and saw no obvious signs of damage and the weapon seems to be running fine with the new firing pin. Are there any other things I should check for damage?

Thanks guys.