Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Had a hangfre in a Model 99

Last week at the Campfire hog hunt, I creep down a TN hillside, spot a toothy boar, and close on him. I aim a .300 takedown, circa 1927, and take the shot.

click it says.

I lower the rifle, wonder if I had the safety on, touch it, and boom! it fires. Total elapsed time from the first pull to the shot, maybe five seconds. The shot went harmlessly off into the trees.

I've previously fired the rifle perhaps 30 times, a box of factory loads, then half a box of mild handloads, one of which was the hangfire. The firing pin indentation looks normal on that case. The handloads were carefully put together, taking care not to excessively resize them. The load was 39 gr of Varget, under a 150 speer softpoint, CCI BR primers. They shot very accurately.

Thinking about it, the angle of the shot was well down hill, so it's very possible that the powder was shifted forward - but I would still expect Varget to be relatively easy to light off.

After I got home, and making sure it was unloaded, I tried several tests pulling the trigger with the safety on (and partway on) to see if I could make it fire by releasing the safety. I never could duplicate the fault.

Any one have a similar experience? I would like to (safely) duplicate the problem, if I can, rather than just assume it was a bad primer. Suggestions are appreciated.

Had that happen a couple of times over the years with various rifles. If you're hearing the click when you pull the trigger, then I believe it's a primer or powder issue and not a gun issue. I remember quite vividly the time I had about a 60 second hangfire on a 7mm Mag. Several in the army on M16's, was actually pretty common there.

Now if you heard nothing when you pulled the trigger and then a click and boom when you touched the safety, then I'd worry about the internals.

Have to agree with Calhoun on this one.

+1, sounds like an ammo problem.

Glad you you had it pointed safely when it cut loose.

Rod

I've had hangfire due to a dirty firing pin, and in very cold temps when any residual oil thickened and hung the pin. Very frustrating! I have missed ptarmigan and grouse before and one dandy caribou because of a stuck pin and then hangfire. Always a bit scary as well.

Never had one, I have loaded over 80,000 rounds of 12 gauge target loads and approx 1500 centerfire rife rounds. I had only 3 rounds that did not go off due to a crushed primer from a piece of something getting into my Lee hand primer that prevented seating the primer without using a lot of force. Also in 20 years of competive shooting I have never had anyone in my skeet or trap line have that happen when I was standing there. I always thought of Hangfire as "Western Legend"

I'll go out on a limb and say I'll bet you've not had much experience with muzzleloaders.

I picked up an 1899 chambered for .303 and had a hangfire on the first shot. Second one did the same thing, and split the case. Of course I never ran into the seller at another gunshow. I asked several of the dealers I knew well, and no one knew who this guy was or where he came from. Lesson learned-do my homework first before laying down my money.

Saw it happen once with a Colt 1911A1, startled the heck out of all of us. The shooter was pretty savy and kept it pointed down range after the click.

Saw one on a Win 94 .25-35 with factory ammo about 1964. Shooter was ex military and knew just what to do.

Never had one myself even with the handloads.

With all the shooting that I have done over the last 45-50 years to have never had one "Hang Fire" can only be attributed to all my clean living.

I think Calhoun has it right. I have had hangfires no fun.

I have had 2 non fires in my 99EG 308 with CCI 250 primers. Sat for over 2min after squeezing the trigger no fire. I opened the receiver and spinned the round, and closed it. Squeezed trigger, BOOM, both times did the same thing. Not sure why. I have fired over 300 reloads mostly the same primer with W760. I did see a dent in the primers that did not fire. Never touched the primer with my hand so no oil on the ignition side of primer. Just one of those things.

Is the "click" in the trigger works or the firing pin hitting the primer but not igniting? A primer igniting would be more than a "click" sound.

Tex-n-cal sounds more like the safety was blocking but was not fully engaged.

Isn't a hang fire when the primer fires but the powder does not or the firing pin does not release in a timely manner? Can a primer be slow to activate? I thought a primer would either fire or not on impact.

Rooster99 - A light primer strike might leave a dent but not activate the primer. Need to determine why it was a light strike. Guess it might be a hard primer.

Just thinking out loud on the keyboard....

From what I know a hang fire is a delayed primer combustion. When the primer ignites and the powder doesn't burn like it should is what they call around my parts a Quib......... Which can also be a round with no powder just a primer sometimes a quib will jam your barrel other times it might just have enough strength to bust your chronograph, ( not mine someone else, another story.) Either way quib or hangfire, or no-fire all unsettling and lethal if not handled properly. With my no fires I stayed in the shoot ready position for at least two minutes, before doing anything else, (very long two minutes) Like I said it only happened twice could be hard primer. I bought some made in Ukraine 9mm ammo and have had 3 no fires out of 5 boxes, but I did change the hammer spring in my beretta to lighten it up. I had a no fire once with some old savage 250-3000 ammo "original savage brand", that buck gotta way. Never used that ammo again it was old.

I have had cartridges get a dented primer, some would fire with another try, some would not. Cleaning around the firing pin would usually resolve the issue. I have had plenty of delayed BOOMS with muzzeloaders though.

A "hang fire" is an ammunition problem. The result is the cartridge firing sometime beyond the moment the trigger was pulled but the cartridge fired after a pause. A "miss fire" is most often a mechanical problem in that the firing mechanism didn't properly do its job and the cartridge never did fire. The cause of "miss fires" can be harder to find than the cause of "hang fires" since a "miss fire" can be caused by both mechanical or ammunition faults given that quite often a "miss fired" cartridge will often fire when rotated and fired again as stated above. In my limited experience if such occasions happen often its usually the firearm. It it seldom happens its the ammo.

It's been over a week since the incident, and memory of how something "felt" in the middle of an AD is a bit suspect But my recollection is that at the intended shot, I got a non-normal trigger break. Then I touched the safety and it moved a little before the rifle fired.

But I have tried to duplicate the problem, unsuccessfully.

I've never had a hangfire that lasted more than a second. I have had them when I was experimenting with reduced loads, but it was just long enough to perceive the delay. I too have occasionally had misfires with factory ammo - a bunch with .22 LR, and a couple with centerfire ammo. Always nice to have an old fashioned gun, Like a Springfield 03, or a 1911, where you can leave the action locked, recock the striker, and try again

I'll try the remaining rounds of that batch, then disassemble, and thoroughly clean & lube the action.