Home Forums Lever Action Central Rimfire Levers Ruger 96/22 mag, failure to fire

About 20% of the time. Firing pin strikes are on the light side. I have cleaned, lubricated the action, and did very minor firing pin modification, which slightly improved it. Also checked the tightness of the barrel wedge. Ok, there. Any ideas? Parts are non existent for this rifle. All I did to the firing pin was to essentially make the striking suface a little smaller.

Have you checked the chamber edge. Not specific to the 96/22 but have encountered a couple different 22 lr or mags with a slight burr on the edge of the chamber. Typically were the firing pin lines up with the edge of the chamber. If the gun has been dry fired and sometimes only takes a couple times,the edge of the chamber is peened over by the firing pin strike, creating a burr. That burr keeps the round from chambering all the way. When you fire the gun some of the energy of the firing pin is used to seat the round fully before it actually imparts energy to striking the rim of the case. A dirty or rough chamber can cause similar problems again from the round not being fully seated prior to the firing pin strike.I would check for a burr and a good chamber cleaning and light polish would be an easy thing to try.

I'll try that as well. Easy, and won't mess anything up. I bought the rifle used. It had not been fired much, and I actually have not looked at the chamber, just the bolt/hammer, etc