Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats New Rifle Misfires

Dear Gentlemen:

I recently completed building a custom rifle on a commercial 98 mauser action in .30-06 Ackley; this is the double square bridge action originally imported by Legacy Sports International.

My problem is that every now and then the firing pin will indent the primer, but will not fire the cartridge. When I rechamber the round, typically it will fire. I do not think this is a primer problem, or a primer seating problem. I reload for all my rifles and do not have this problem with any other rifles and have been using the same batch of CCI 200 large rifle primers. I believe that the problem is a weak firing pin spring. The rifle makes a dull thud when I have dry fired it, versus a more powerful sound coming from my other bolt rifles.

My question is, which poundage of spring should I use for a replacement. Brownells sells four different weight springs, 22, 24, 26 and 30 lb. Wolff springs. The gunsmith at Brownells tech support wasn't really willing to recommend a weight, but said that the standard weight was shown to be 19lbs and thought that any of the springs would be satisfactory. I would think that lock time would be best with the strongest spring, but am I overlooking anything, perhaps other than the pain in the fanny of installing a 30 lb. spring?

Thank you for any input,

NCBullshooter

reckon you could call a tech at brownells?

I had to go to a 22 lb. or 24 lb. spring (I forget which) on one of my Mexican Mausers to get reliable ignition. We never could figure out why this was necessary. Both the gunsmith and I completely stripped the bolt and measured and cleaned everything. There were no significant differences between the dimensions of the bolt and components on this rifle and those of two other rifles that worked fine with the 19# springs.

There are at least a half dozen 'smiths here on the fire that could probably figure this out for you...

My opinion is the 24lb spring. 30 is unneccessary. Most bolt guns are in the low 20 range.

Dave

I would be for checking the chamber first. Setting back your shoulders a little too far or having a sloppy chamber could easily give you enough headspace slop to cause an occasional misfire...

Thank you fellas,

I think that a stronger spring should give more positive ignition and should improve locktime. The firing pin strike on this mauser sounds very soft.

Sitka Deer, your suggestion about checking the chamber is very good advice because I failed to mention in my post that the misfires I've had were all during fireforming new .30-06 brass to .30-06 Ackley Improved and I bet that the difference in the shoulder dimensions could be causing an occasional misfire.

I'm going to order a new 24 lb. spring because I would like a more positive and quicker strike, but I bet the occasional ignition problem is related more to the case differences while fireforming.

Thanks again for the suggestions,

NCBullshooter

i thought a crush fit was standard for the AI chamber and a standard case?

woofer

The crush fit is a necessity and if you don't have it with a standard cartridge you will have excessive headspace and it will cause misfires.

well, there ya go, nc.
hope yer mauser ends up doing well for you.

Might I suggest that you remove the action from the stock, and try again?
Bolt handle clearance is a common problem on "new" sproters, as it will hold the bolt slightly out of alignment causing the FP to hang up slightly inside the bolt.
Another place to check clearances is the "fingernail" cut in the tang.
Did your smith replace the bolt handle, and if so did he get the handle root block in the correct location?
Over rotation of the bolt can also cause this problem, but is less common than under rotation.
IOW, changing the spring might hide the symptom, but not cure the root problem.

Thanks again all.

Regarding the question of "a crush fit" in the chamber...honestly I don't know, but the gunsmith who installed and chambered the Douglas barrel is very experienced and another custom riflesmith who I showed some fireformed cases thought that they had formed correctly. The gun is shooting sub 1", with several 3/4" and 5/8" groups, while fireforming the first 50 rounds of brass, so I'm thinking that the chamber was cut correctly. It has only misfired on two rounds, but they were in the last five rounds I shot. (The first range session I shot 25 rounds with no misfires. A few weeks later during the second range session I shot another 25 rounds with 2 misfires in the last five shots.)

Regarding the bolt handle, the action is a new commercial mauser action and the bolt is one-piece from the factory, not a welded on handle, and there have been no alterations to the bolt other than lapping the locking lugs and squaring the bolt face. I re-checked the bolt clearance in the stock and the bolt seems to be closing completely and bottoming into the bolt cut-out in the action, nor is it binding at all front to back.

I'm hoping that the problem is simply a weak spring.

Thanks again for the input and if anyone's interested, here's a picture of the rifle. Other than this misfire glitch I'm pleased with it, I did all of the work myself except for installing the barrel (I lapped the lugs, squared the bolt face, polished the rails, jeweled the bolt, finished inletting the stock, pillar bedded the action and free-floated the barrel, blasted all the metal and coated it with Duracoat and coated the stock with Duracoat also, brown with black specks, and installed the recoil pad. .30-06 AI; Legacy Sports 98M Action made in Italy, 3-pos. safety, 5 round magazine, 23" Douglas #2 Contour, 2.5# trigger, Bansner stock, 1" Decelerator, Talley bases and rings, Sightron 3-9 x 40; Weighs 8.8 lbs.)




Best regards,

NCBullshooter

The more info you post the less inclined I am to believe it is the spring... Get a chamber cast to find out just how generous your chamber is. As a bettin' man I would say it is slightly generous and a field gauge will probably not go, but a no-go might...

Sitka Deer,

Thanks for your expertise. If the chamber is slightly generous, do you think that it would still be a problem when I begin shooting fireformed brass? Or would it only be a problem during fireforming?

Thanks again,

NCBullshooter

It would only be a problem when fireforming or if you resize your brass a bit too much. I have a Whelen AI with "generous" headspace and it simply means I have to pay a bit more attention...

Nice rifle - too bad it's acting up. Have you stripped the bolt and checked the innards for burrs or excess lubricant? It seems obvious, but sometimes it's the culprit.


Okie John

NCBS, who built your rifle?

Hillbilly Bear,

Fred Cianciolo in Simpsonville, SC (gun-shop.biz) squared the action face and installed and chambered the barrel. I had squared the bolt face, lapped the lugs and smoothed the rails before delivering the action and barrel to him. All of the other stock work and metal finishing I did myself.

thanks,

NCBullshooter

If chambered correctly, a true AI rifle should fire factory ammo. I'd definitely have that checked. Talk to the smith. There are variations in gauges and factory cases, but usuall not to that extent. Typically, the NO-GO gauge is what is used for the GO gauge in chambering AI's.

If you don't want to talk to go back to the smith about it, then seat the bullets into the lands with a mid-range charge and fireform away. Like Sitka said...it's only a problem with the fireforming. After that, just be sure you aren't pushing the shoulder back when re-sizing your reloads.

AI
"Typically, the NO-GO gauge is what is used for the GO gauge in chambering AI's."

Actually the AI chamber is supposed to be a touch shorter than the parent. As the No-go is longer than the Go gauge, I think your statement is incorrect.
art

You're correct. It's the opposite.. The standard GO is the NO-GO in AI's...