savage Rascal - light strike

A

axismatt

Moderator
I used the search engine, but didn't find any information regarding this specific problem.

I bought my son a Savage rascal for his 9th birthday a year ago. What a great offering by Savage... I actually love shooting this thing. However, we seem to be experiencing TOO many FTF, and I honestly think they are simply light strikes. This is not due to a weak spring, but rather, the way the firing pin is designed.

It appears that the firing pin (below the portion that strikes the rim) acts as an anvil, limiting the depth that the firing pin can move forward. I am inclined to carefully file a bit of this anvil away, allowing the entire firing pin to finish deeper and hopefully ignite the cartridges more consistently.

Does anyone have experience with this gun, know what I am talking about, opinion regarding the work I want to try???

Thanks in advance, gang!
 
There is a possibility for it to do this. One found that the nose of the firing pin is left flat at the factory, and to cure it, he gave it a wedge shape, like the older .22 firing pins, leaving a little flat on the end. Below is a link to that discussion.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=550087

Here is a photo from the guy that had the pin modified. The rounds that mis-fired, later fired. You can see the difference in the strikes to the rim.

https://floydpics.wordpress.com/2014/06/10/that-little-rascal/dscn4667/

dscn4667.jpg
 
I'm having the same problem with this rifle's big brother. It's a Savage 26700 MKIIF .22LR that I bought new a couple years ago. The first round out in the mag will look like it's untouched but the rest will fire, then I put that round back in and it fires OK.

I'm planning to take it apart this weekend and I'll report back if I find anything odd...

Tony
 
The wider pin impact helps prevent rim piercing, but it also spreads the impact energy out over a wider area, lessening the peak ignition energy the priming mix experiences at any given point under the indentation.

Note that in the photo the indentations of the sharper nose shape are deeper. This suggests the pin was not reaching its stop, but rather the wide impact area was stopping it. So grinding the stop back may do nothing except increase the likelihood dry firing will peen up a distortion of the chamber. I expect that's what the stop is supposed to prevent.

If it were my gun, I think I'd look at three possibilities:

One applies only if you are using Remington ammunition. Don't judge any ignition problem base on their product. When my dad was still OSU's pistol team coach they had so many misfires with Remington ammunition they refused the offer of free Remington ammo from the factory rep (who was looking to get a sponsorship tag). They just got too many timed and rapid fire alibis with it. Their stuff was fine when I was a kid. I don't know what went wrong. Change of priming formulation, possibly. If you are using Remington ammo, try something else. CCI .22 LR has always worked well for me in everything I've tried it in.

The second thing to explore is simply use of a stiffer mainspring. That, too, would increase the strike energy, but it will likely also stiffen the trigger pull, so you have to weigh the move against that. Also, I don't know if anyone is making an aftermarket spring for that model gun, so you might end up having to resort to making your own from spring stock or a commercial spring that is close to a fit.

The third is to go ahead with the nose reshaping. I would do a little at a time, then take a caliper and measure the depth of the strike on a dud to be sure it's getting deeper. If it isn't, then you may be right about the stop being the issue and want to go there.
 
Thanks U-Nick. We've suffered the same result with all brands of ammo, though I agree that the Remington bulk is the worst of the bunch. Note: If anyone cares, Aguilla is making some darn decent .22lr now. It's worked flawlessly in my friends Ruger SR22... a gun that can be finicky from brand to brand.

I am going to proceed with slight re-shaping and report back.
 
I know this thread is a bit old, but I am looking to do the same reprofiling of the firing pin, but I can't seem to knock the roll pin out that holds the firing pin in place. Did you have this experience? Does it go out in only one direction? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Also, do you have to disassemble the entire bolt or can you just tap out the pin and remove the firing pin? Thanks again.
 
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