Movement of the firing pin of the M16 type rifles is, however, only a very small part of the lock time of the rifles. Lightening the firing pin produces virtually no improvement in lock time. No engineering or experimental data has been provided which supports a change to titanium firing pins. Titanium is strong, but doesn't handle impact well. For this reason alone it is less suitable than steel for use in firing pins.
Titanium is lighter than steel.
The steel firing pin retains a slight momentum as the bolt carrier closes. This momentum normally causes the primer to be lightly indented by the firing pin, and can cause slamfire if the primer is overly sensitive. A titanium firing pin has less momentum, causes less indent, and reduces the possibility for slamfire. Demand engineering test data to support claims of accuracy improvement of any sort. We conclude that the titanium firing pin is one of many fad items separating shooters from money otherwise better spent, and recommend against them.