Light primer strikes!?

Range Officer giving me fits. Good solid primer hits and gun goes bang of course but a lot of light strikes with no boom. Gun hasn't been shot enough for it to be fowling. Wolff 24 pound ILS mainspring in it. Gonna try 26 pounds next. Give me 30 minutes. I shoot at home.

This makes no sense.... I upped the poundage on mainspring and it didn't help. I switched to 4.0gr instead of 3.5gr in powder just because I needed another box of cartridges and that's what was in my kit. Works. Works fine. I grabbed some more 3.5 to see and it went back to having fits. What's going on!?

Will the rounds with the light hit fire when tried a second time ?

Clarence

C.Perkins wrote:Will the rounds with the light hit fire when tried a second time ?

Clarence

Some yes some no

4.0 = bang bang bang. 3.5 = click. So maybe I got some bad primers?

Actually most of the ones that didn't go bang won't go after a second hit.

Some "yes" tells me the primers are not seated all the way, I like to seat my primers about .007" below flush, doing so with a Lee hand primer so I can have a good feel that they are properly in place.

Some "no", try them a 3rd time, maybe...

You could have some bad primers but never encountered that myself, it was usually not seated all the way and primer moved forward on 1st hit and seated, then second hit fired.

I don't see powder load amount causing any issues, but I am no expert.
The primer should go off even if there is no powder in the case.

I take it that the lesser load functioned fine and cycled the slide when they did fire ?

Clarence

What are the components of your load(powder, bullets, primers) ?
Any pic's of the primers that did not fire ?
Also pic's of your overall loaded ammo ?

Clarence

I began to think primer seat depth too... But I took five bad ones and ran them mag after mag with no second hit bang or even a third. I went five times and gave up.

I had similar issues. People more knowledgeable than I said the primers weren't seated fully but, on my Hornady LNL there's no adjustment. They may be right and now I'm very conscious of putting good pressure on the press when seating the primers but I put in a Matt Mclearn long firing pin from shooterconnectionstore.com and never had another light hit. I know it's treating the symptom and not the cause but...no more alibis.

Pic's of those would be welcome, next to the pic's of the ones that fired fine as a comparison.

Clarence

28 pound mainspring is working. But strikes aren't uniform. I'll take pics and upload soon. Sun is setting so I'm running out of time anyway.

No need for a 28# main spring.
Sit back and take a deep breath, we will work it out.
Post as many detailed pic's as you can.
Since no one is there to see your issue, pic's is all we can ask for.

Clarence

Ok the two pics I posted - top pic is of five shots each with 28 pounds (top) 26 pounds (middle) and 24 pounds (bottom). ILS Mainspring and these are Wolff springs. These all but the one I'm holding in the pic went bang first go. I had a Wolff firing pin spring in there that I had cut down because I felt it might have been the cause. I have three. Cutting one down would have been a quick way to test a theory.

The second pic is of 5 shots that didn't go bang. I was using a 26 pound Wolff ILS mainspring and a Wolff firing pin spring that I had not cut down. 

Strange thing... Last week I used a Wolff firing pin spring with NO issues. But I was using CCI primers. These all today were Winchester.

Could it be that Winchester primers are harder to pop?

I might add that the Wolff firing pin springs were their extra power. Maybe I need to try a factory spring. I lost the Springfield factory one. Oops!

Did by chance did you replace your SA ILS main spring housing for a standard one ?

Clarence

Nope. Original ILS housing. That's why I bought the Wolff ILS springs.

The reason I asked is that the ILS components installed in a standard main spring housing does not allow the spring and cup to push the hammer strut through it's full travel.
Do not ask me how I know this

Pic's of your whole load from the failed firings would be cool.


i will sleep on it.
Early morning for work.

We will keep at it.
Usually it is something very simple that everyone over looks.

Clarence

Can't tell from the pictures, but make sure the primers are seated correctly.

Firing pin spring installed correctly?  Some people might say otherwise, but small end of spring goes first onto the firing pin for me.  I've seen some springs so crimped on the last coil that putting on the other way would slow the pin (even with 9mm sized pin).    

Firing pin channel clean?

Be sure gun is locking up completely, not just almost completely?  Sometimes a little burr on hood or piece of lead in the upper lugs can cause all sorts of problems.

Tim:H11 wrote:--snip--

Could it be that Winchester primers are harder to pop?

On my Range Officer I was having light strikes on Winchester primers with a regular 19 pound mainspring and mainspring housing. Switching from the OEM titanium firing pin to a steel firing pin corrected the problem for me.

edited: My Winchester primer cartridges would always fire on the second try with the titanium firing pin.

U checked firing pin spring for breakage? Firing pin tip?
Headspace?

Firing pin doesn't seem to be broken at all. Relatively clean pin and channel. I don't know how to check headspace. 

Ammunition I had issues with - 

200 gr LSWC, 4.0 gr of Bullseye, Winchester Large Pistol Primers
200 gr LSWC, 3.5 gr of Bullseye, Winchester Large Pistol Primers

And I did actually have issues with failure to fire on the ammunition last week but not a lot. It was the same loads above but CCI large pistol primers. 

Pull your barrel and drop those cartridges into the chamber and if possible measure how deeper than the barrel hood they are.

Any issues running factory ammo ?
This titanium firing pin bothers me.
Why do manufacturers mess with JMB'S initial design? 

Continued tomarrow.
Clarence