Older pcps and out of date cylinders.

**Arthur John Smithsplease** · 25-11-2015, 03:53 PM

I was looking at a nice Feinwerkbau P34 the other day, and the cylinders are out of date.

Now I know this is a problem for national and international competitors, but is it really a problem for casual users?

How old does a cylinder really have to be before it needs to be binned as dangerous?

I imagine modern cylinders for later models can be fitted to earlier guns, but the original P34 cylinders are rather nice and compliment the shape of the pistol.

I'm not just thinking about Feinwerkbau pistols, but also Walther lp 200 and 300s and Steyr LP1and 5s, etc.

Am I correct in thinking that new cylinders will fit these older guns?

**nige346** · 25-11-2015, 04:09 PM

Certainly with the Steyr's the cylinders are the same, in all honesty I've never had one checked at any comp, I think it is only ISSF that require checks. I have Steyr ones that are out of date as well as new ones and use all of them as and when I need to, all are in good condition with no dents or damage so I've never been concerned about their safety or ever had a problem. I actually purchased a new one 2 years ago for comps, no one's ever even looked at it. All that said I'm not an expert so these are only my personal thoughts.

**zooma** · 25-11-2015, 04:40 PM

There has already been some fairly well detailed threads about this exact same subject over the last few years on in this target section of the BBS.

If you take a look and read them you can take advantage of some very helpful contributions that have already been made.

As a short summary - in most peoples opinion it makes very little difference to anyone unless you plan to enter some of the live open competitions that specify "in date" cylinders as being a compulsory requirement.

It is not even that useful when trying to age date a used pistol as cylinders are so easily exchanged or swapped between pistols (or rifles).