Dave asks me today, "What's bad about not having a firing pin spring?" Well, the thing that is bad about it is that if you don't you increase the chance of your firing pin getting stuck and kicking off the round when the bolt closes. Below is a simple flash animation illustrating the principal. When you click FIRE, the hammer swings closed agains the firing pin, which hits the bullet and launches the projectile. When you hit go the second time, you see the bolt slide back, removing the empty cartridge and the bolt move forward, pushing the next bullet into the breech end of the barrel. If the firing pin did not have a spring and got somewhat stuck in the forward position, there is a good change the bullet will fire at that point rather than when the hammer falls.

What's the deal with embedding swf on blogspot? I can't ever get it to work...