Thread: Light Primer Strikes

Hi all,

Im having a problem with my Remington 700 doing light strikes on primers. I have just got my 280 AI up and running and was doing a ladder test when every 1in 5 rounds was not firing as the firing pin was not hitting hard/deep enough for ignition. I am using CCI 250 magnum primers as it was all I could get my hands on at the time with Peterson brass. I have done some testing around headspace and am confident that has nothing to do with the issue. Firing pin assembly looks cleaned with no gunk build up in it so can't see a major issue there. Firing pin assembly is a light weigh one supplied and installed by Gunworks.

With a few peaces of the brass that misfired I reprimed them making sure they were seated as deep as they could go to see if the firing pin was actually seating the primers further into the case. Off the 4 rounds 1 misfired again but I am not confident this is out of the equation.

I do have some federal gold match large rifle primers on the way to test as I have read that CCI primer are supposedly harder than the rest.

This is a new issue as I am not the first owner of this rifle. I had not shot this gun before getting it reamed into 280 AI but would imagine this problem only came about since I have owned this rifle.

Anyone have some suggestions of how to troubleshoot or where to go form here?

when yo usay reprimed them...do you mean recocked action and fired again????
my zastava did this really early on.... after I learnt to decock bolt for storage,issue went away..the 700 bolt is a bit hard to recock before slipping back into rifle,I use a gentle grip with vice grips to do mine.

you confident its not headspace...will be interesting to see if the now fired brass does it again ,would be partial length resizing myself to eliminate possibility of it being slightly short brass in slightly long chamber..... if you decock bolt,does the fireing pin stick out decent amount???

Sorry I meant I pulled the bullet and deprimed the case then reprimed added powder and projectile. Firing pin sticks out about 1.6mm.

I tested the biggest brass headspace variation I could, with the shortest headspace brass firing and the second to longest headspace was the one that didn't fire. From factory the brass is between .002 - 0.005 smaller than the headspace of the rifles chamber.

the classic is to recock and try again....pretty much confirms strike is too light....

Have a rem 700 that produces light strikes too with CCI 450's and less frequently with Federal 205's. Lightweight firing pin and stiffer spring didn't make any difference - maybe even made it worse.

The factory trigger also held the firing pin further back on cocking than a timney trigger did. So "upgrading" the trigger actually made the problem worse. Contacted timney and they sent out a replacement sear which got it so that it was only misfiring at the same rate as before.

Gunsmith now wants to take a look to check headspace and also that the firing pin isn't getting bound up by poor tolerances inside the bolt body somewhere.

What happens if you install the factory firing pin ?

Originally Posted by dannyb

What happens if you install the factory firing pin ?

Unfortunately I don't have a factory one and I just sold my only other remington in the safe.

Because it has been reamed AI, I would be doubtful that the dies and chamber are matched. The chamber may well be slightly longer than the full length sized case. I have a 2506 AI and it has this very situation.
All I do is neck size and slightly brush the shoulder of the fired cases if they need it, then run them all through the rifle to make sure they chamber - Ackleys dont stretch.
Please check a fired case by priming it without sizing and testing if the primer fires

Its not a dud batch of primers?

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Because it has been reamed AI, I would be doubtful that the dies and chamber are matched. The chamber may well be slightly longer than the full length sized case. I have a 2506 AI and it has this very situation.
All I do is neck size and slightly brush the shoulder of the fired cases if they need it, then run them all through the rifle to make sure they chamber - Ackleys dont stretch.
Please check a fired case by priming it without sizing and testing if the primer fires

Okay Ill run a few rounds with fire cases and see where that gets me. Did this eliminate the issue or do you still have a few cases misfire? Also how often are you pushing back your shoulder?

Moa Hunter saying same thing I did...partial length resize so shoulder is pushing bum of case back...it may not fix problem but it eliminates possibility of it being short case/long chamber ...If my memory serves me correctly you SHOULD be able to fireform std .280 case in your chamber??? in theory this will be even worse as case will definately be slightly too short and not supported so much.....

Just tested fired brass with primers, Did 12 cases 4 of which failed to fire. Reprimed those 4 cases, 3 of which fired and one did not. Measured the headspace on all the brass and could not see and relationship between headspace and primers that went off.

bugger bugger bugger...there goes that easy fix out the window....
any chance you have another rifle can test primers in???

Yeah I should be able to find another rifle. Wouldn't imagine it would be primers as it is pretty clear that the primers have not been hit properly once they misfire



Middle 3 where misfires, two on the outsides fired

Originally Posted by Jim356

Just tested fired brass with primers, Did 12 cases 4 of which failed to fire. Reprimed those 4 cases, 3 of which fired and one did not. Measured the headspace on all the brass and could not see and relationship between headspace and primers that went off.

If the cases have been fired only and not resized they are a perfect tight fit to the chamber, so the test you have done has narrowed the cause down to the firing pin and mainspring. Is it possible that the new firing pin sear engagement is different to the factory one so that the fall is shorter and has less impact ?