Primer, temperature or rifle?

B

Bill Daniel

New member
A question for my TFL hunters and shooters.
Today while practicing target shooting from field position for my up coming first deer season (age 63 late bloomer) I had several rounds that required two trigger pulls to fire the round. My practice load uses a MagTech 9 1/2 primer, 40 grains IMR 4198 and a Berry’s bullet 350 grain bullet in my Henry 45-70. The temperature this morning was 38 F. The firing pin and its travel look good and I can see no difference in the indentations between the first and second strike.
Is this a primer, temperature or rifle problem?
Thanks.
All the best,
Bill
 
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Your primers are not being seated deep enough when loaded (probably). The first hit is pushing it in a little bit and the second hit is setting it off. The second possibility is that the firing pin isn't hitting the primer hard enough. Even though they all look the same, none of them are good enough for 100% reliability.
 
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My 1st guess is primer. Not seated deep enough, or simply bad primers. Temperature shouldn't be a factor, maybe 100 degrees colder. It could be the rifle
 
Was the bolt clean? Carbon build up could've caused the firing pin to bind and not allow it to hit the primer hard enough. You could take your bolt apart and clean it thoroughly and eliminate that possibility. It would also clean out any other foreign material.

As others have stated, check your primers to ensure that they are seated properly. If other ammo fired without issue I doubt that the primer cup is to hard for the firing pin to set them off.

I would start with those two issues and then fire some of the ammo again and see what happens.
 
I had the same problem while shooting at a moose. It turned out to be grime in the end of the bolt stopping the firing pin. Cleaning cured the problem. A .410 shotgun brush works great for cleaning most bolts.
 
More than likely multiple causes, but the most common offenders are:
1. Dirty gun.
2. Primers improperly seated. (Less likely to be an issue in rifles than handguns.)
3. Bad head space.
4. Bad/redneck trigger job that involved lightening spring weights, so the hammer spring is now too light.
(36. Bad primers.)
 
Primer, temperature or rifle

Thanks to all. I cleaned the bolt and primer pockets. I hope to get out again this week for more practice and will report on the results. The trigger is factory and the 45-70 head spaces on the rim.
All the best,
Bill
 
Primer, temperature or rifle

Cleaning the primer pockets and or the bolt really improved the miss fires. Only one of twenty today. Will try Federal primers for my next batch.
Thanks,
All the best,
Bill
 
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