Think of a cheap diamond set, you know where it has a diamond the size of a grain of sand surrounded by a quarter inch of chiseled metal. That is what the firing pins on my R&D cylinder are starting to look like. The hammer on my pietta has an eighth inch notch cut where the hammer hits the nipple. I have fired about 200 rounds through it and think it isn't going to get any worse, but not 100% on that.