Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Misfires?

Got a call from an old pal in Amarilla yesterday who said his son's 300 WSM had three misfires with some 300 WSM Remington factory ammo loaded with the 180 SS II., and wanted to know what was wrong(?) He had bought 4 boxes of the stuff and the first three rounds went "click".

Damned if I knew but we went over possibilities.... he said it never happened before with the rifle, and I said you have any other ammo handy?

Yes was the reply and the son was sent to the back door to touch off a round and I heard the BOOM over the phone...(Gawd I love Texas!

I told them contact Remington and send all the stuff back(same lot number);take the rifle to the smith for a thorough check of firing pin protrusion, headspace, and maybe check that firing pin spring to make sure it is not weak. Later I thought about drag of the pin from a gunked bolt body but that would be pretty obvious.

Anyone think of anything else? Ever seen this happen?

Personally I have had more misfires with factory ammo than handloads myself....still not very confidence inspiring.

Be good to know what rifle make/model.

I have an 8x57 that if feed Remington ammo will fire one out of 5. Never missed a beat with PMC or Win factory ammo nor with reloads with virgin Winchester or once fired Remington brass.

I was at the smith when we checked it all out, and it truly must be a matter of ammo that just meets the specs at one end and a chamber the meets them at the other end.

Ive had a similar experience...never one where the ammo or components caused a misfire, in either factory or hand loads...

Not because they were factory remington, but because it was a second hand (used) rifle that got neglected. The bolt body was full of grease and grime so it wasn't striking the primer hard enough. Degreased the inside of the bolt body, spring and firing pin and haven't had a problem 1 since.....

Happened to my brother with a 270 WSM, his fault, bolt was rusty and gunked up inside.

Scott it is a M70;not sure if it's a New Haven or a SC.Relatively ne within the last 2 years or so.

They said it never happened before this bunch of ammo.....curious thing but you could be right about the spec thing.

Had a bad box of Hornady Superformance 325 gr. 45-70.

The rifle was a H&R Handy rifle and Hornady blamed the gun.

So I tried them in a Browning 1885 and they misfired, so I guess that rifle was bad as well...

Never been a Hornady fan and that didn't help.

Had a hare-lipped muzzleloader hunter on a pair of 6 points at 70 yards. He leaned against a quakie, with me behind looking over his shoulder as he fired. Only the cap went off, powder was wet....The 2 bulls thundered outta sight.


He turned with eyes as big as saucers, and said "My kott-tamn gun mith-fi-ewed"........

Holy [bleep], I'm Rollin'!!!

So was I......

Laffin

I laughed at that one.


Bob, one would think if it was a headspace issue with the ammo that the claw would hold it tight enough to fire. I know I've fired a 7x57 in a 30/06 M98 and there is LOTS of headspace there but the claw held it firm.

I'd also make sure the bolt was in full battery when the trigger was pulled.

Scott all issues for sure....but he fired the thing, while I was on the phone, with other ammo.....I think they said the first three from the offending box of ammo went click...

I am thinking a bad bunch of primers myself, but headspace of that ammo could for sure cause it...I am just suspicious of the ammo.

Anyway I told them to have the rifle checked out regardless.

I have a Ruger Hawkeye in .35 Whelen that had the same issue with a box of factory Remington 200gr. core-lok's. The headspace on the mis-fired rounds were well below specs on my gauge. Only 3 rounds of that one box, all other boxes of remington's i've shot have went bang so I never persued any further.

my thoughts too

I've had more misfires out of Remington ammo than all the others combined by a factor of about 10X. It's the reason I don't use Remington primers in anything. I've had a couple of misfires out of CCI primers, but nothing like the Remington factory ammo. My hunting loads all use Federal primers even if another brand gives me slightly better accuracy. I've never had a misfire out of a federal primer.

A buddy of mine just bought a new Marlin 336 .30/30, and at the range last Sunday, we had two misfires out of a box of Remington ammo. I KNOW I retried at least six times to get it to go off, and so did Jim, when he had the same problem.


I just put it down to Remington's quality control, a sadly normal story nowadays.

You know what that reminded me of.