A reloader/shooter called me from the range and repeated the same story, the rifle was a new Ruger 30/06, 5 out of 20 did not fire after two attempts and an additional 2 attempts in other rifles, I told them to call Remington, it was more fashionable to blame the ammo manufactures, the owner of the new Ruger gave the 20 rounds, to a friend, he came over that afternoon, with out the box with the numbers necessary to trace, so, we pulled the failed to fire cases down and checked the components, absolute precision with weight and measurements, we punched the primers and saved them, we checked the cases with chamber gages and case gages, we compared the cases that were fired wirh the cases that did not fire, the fired cases seated in my chamber gage with no more than thumb pressure, we then seated the primers that had been hit 5 times in three other rifles and chambered them in one of my M1917s and fired each one, all 5 primers fired with the first primer strike. What can I say, without the lot number on the box no conclusion can be drawn other than my M1917s are not timid about hitting the primer, not new primers, a good case could be made for the primers that were crushed in my M1917 could be called used primers.
As in local superstition, the primer did not accelerate to a speed that allowed the case to outrun the firing pin meaning the fining pin crushed the primer before the case knew it's little buddy was hit, and the primer did not protrude, no powder, no bullet.
As in the 'usual suspects', the owner of the rifle and new ammo, no information on contact was gathered at the range.
F. Guffey
