Remington 700 picks and choses when to fire

[best defense]

I have a Remington 700 308. Has about 5000 rounds on the action. Just recently about every 50 rounds it will fail to fire. I will eject the round and there will be a firing pin imprint on the primer that seems the same as all of the other fired rounds. I'll put the round back in the gun and it will fire. Could this be a firing pin issue or a spring issue? Or both? Thank I'm advance for your knowledge.

Merry Christmas

It could be an issue with the firing pin spring. I shoot with a group of people some of whom are national competitors. They have told me that they replace their firing pin springs about every 2000 rounds. Some of them keep spares in their kits.

 

[jimmybrost]

Just change the barrel in my rifle from 7 mag to a 7x300. The firing pin seems to hit too hard making a deeper depression in the primer. I don't know the reason for this! Any suggestion?

Tighter headspace is my guess on that one,72. Maybe higher chamber pressures, but I'm leaning towards the headspace thing until you find otherwise.

 

[timo308]

It chooses when to fire…kind of like this?
View attachment 421725

For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would do that.

 

[Harry Knutz]

For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would do that.

Single digit IQ

 

[Brad Norman]

Dang. I wonder where Wallrat got that disturbing video.

I had an issue with occasional misfires recently with a rifle chambered in 9.3 X 62 I was handloading for. Here are some things to consider:

Check your firing pin protrusion. I believe it should be in the ballpark around .035" to .055" but there's lots of data on the Internet which can confirm that. It's easy to check with a dial caliper or take it to a proper gunsmith if you're not comfortable checking it yourself. As folks have mentioned previously, gunk can get inside the firing pin channel and a little brass chip or old solidified grease can cause inadequate protrusion through the bolt face. If the rifle has been firing without a hitch until just recently, it's more likely an ammo problem, not a gun problem. I sure wouldn't change out any springs or get a new firing pin until you've cleaned the bolt, and especially the firing pin channel, thoroughly.

In my case I was over-doing it with the sizing die. The 9.3 X 62 shoulder is not very substantial and it's sloped gently. The .366" diameter bullet is not much smaller than the case body. It took me a while to sort it out but I found I was creating too much headspace by sizing my cases too much. Once I backed the sizer die out a few thousandths (the exact amount I don't recall) I still had no problem closing the bolt and my problem went away. Minimum headspacing is the way to go for a number of good reasons. It seems the firing pin was striking the primer with adequate protrusion and energy, but the impact forced the under-sized case deeper into the chamber instead of detonating the primer. It seems the short gradually-sloped shoulder was not in firm contact with the chamber and the extractor had enough slop and flex in it . . . so the cartridge periodically slid forward enough to rob the primer of the energy it needed to ignite. Sometimes a cartridge would "go off" on a second attempt and sometimes it wouldn't. This was obviously a matter of setting the shoulder back only a few thousandths of an inch too much. This phenomenon is rare and with cases which have a more significant bearing surface on the shoulder I don't believe it's as likely to occur.

The last thing to consider, from my perspective, is the primer itself. Some are definitely harder to ignite than others. If you have a clogged firing pin channel, or a weak spring, or a firing pin on the low side of adequate protrusion, a hard primer can certainly be difficult to detonate. My experience seems to indicate CCI primers are the hardest, with Winchester and Remington primers softer and Federal the easiest to set off. I have no scientific way of measuring this, but those are my observations after loading a LOT of rounds since 1977. Again, there may be some data available on the Internet to support or debunk what I'm saying. Your mileage may vary, right?

Good luck sorting out your problem and happy hunting Sir.

 

[Jimbarnett]

Strikers (firing pins) are generally OK but their springs take a set and get shorter delivering less striker energy and velocity.

https://www.gunsprings.com/

Go here and you will find they generally make 3 springs for most rifles, FACTORY , stronger spring and a much stronger spring.

I generally get the middle one.

Disassemble the bolt and measure the free length (uncompressed) against the one you just bought and you will probably find it to be shorter.

It don't go bang, fires, misfires, hangfires and short order cooks

I originally authored this is 2007. IT DON’T GO BANG-FIRES, HANGFIRES, MISFIRES AND SHORT ORDER COOKS In looking over the various information I can find on the internet about why it doesn’t go bang there is almost virtually no information on this area for the average shooter to obtain the...

www.thehighroad.org

Thank you very much for posting this link

 

[emp1953]

I have a Remington 700 308. Has about 5000 rounds on the action. Just recently about every 50 rounds it will fail to fire. I will eject the round and there will be a firing pin imprint on the primer that seems the same as all of the other fired rounds. I'll put the round back in the gun and it will fire. Could this be a firing pin issue or a spring issue? Or both? Thank I'm advance for your knowledge.

Merry Christmas

I bought a classic Remington 725 in 30-06 off a shooter at the range. He was complaining of the same problem except that it happened randomly and as few as 10 or 20 rounds. Otherwise it shot beautifully. I got it cheap. I soaked the bolt in a coffee can full of kerosene for a full week swishing it around every day. Then soaked it in carb cleaner for a few days. it took 9 cans of carb cleaner to cover the bolt and 5 more as it evaporated quickly. then I blew it dry with an air hose and fired it with a primer only case. worked fine. I lubed it with RemOil. and took it to the range. It has never misfired since. Some lubricants will evaporate their volatiles quickly and thus become gummy. Add that to some of the junk that can accumulate from firing and you get interference with the tight tolerances between the bolt, firing pin and spring assembly. Try my solution before you take it apart. If you are fully comfortable with taking it apart and putting it back together, and have the correct tools to do the job then by all means do that. Another instance I observed misfires on an older Savage with a lot of rounds through it. The firing pin hole in the bolt face had gotten smaller from all the high pressure rounds they guy was firing. This is not a common occurrence but it happens. I took a rat tail file to it and every so slightly enlarged the hole and that rifle has fired reliably ever since.

 

[Chesterrose79]

I bought a classic Remington 725 in 30-06 off a shooter at the range. He was complaining of the same problem except that it happened randomly and as few as 10 or 20 rounds. Otherwise it shot beautifully. I got it cheap. I soaked the bolt in a coffee can full of kerosene for a full week swishing it around every day. Then soaked it in carb cleaner for a few days. it took 9 cans of carb cleaner to cover the bolt and 5 more as it evaporated quickly. then I blew it dry with an air hose and fired it with a primer only case. worked fine. I lubed it with RemOil. and took it to the range. It has never misfired since. Some lubricants will evaporate their volatiles quickly and thus become gummy. Add that to some of the junk that can accumulate from firing and you get interference with the tight tolerances between the bolt, firing pin and spring assembly. Try my solution before you take it apart. If you are fully comfortable with taking it apart and putting it back together, and have the correct tools to do the job then by all means do that. Another instance I observed misfires on an older Savage with a lot of rounds through it. The firing pin hole in the bolt face had gotten smaller from all the high pressure rounds they guy was firing. This is not a common occurrence but it happens. I took a rat tail file to it and every so slightly enlarged the hole and that rifle has fired reliably ever since.

Thank you. I'll try that today. I want to go to the range this week for load dev and a failure to fire will drive me up the wall.

 

[SteveBurton]

I had trouble on a couple of hunts where I had a misfire. I never could figure it out until one day I was in a treestand hunting and a nice buck presented on my right side, and I only had a couple seconds to react. I swung the rifle over and set up-left handed and when I pulled the trigger, I saw the bolt kinda bounce a little. Turned out that my problem all along was that the bolt was lifted very slightly, and reduced the tension and travel distance jof the firing pin just enough to keep it from igniting the primer. The primer did appear to be hit hard enough to ignite as well.

This. My father-in-law's Model 70 started doing the same thing and we discovered that when the bolt was just a bit high, it would dent the primer but not ignite. We put a new spring in while trying to troubleshoot it but that didn't solve the problem. Now he just makes sure that the bolt is down all the way before firing.

 

[Starbuck]

I bought a classic Remington 725 in 30-06 off a shooter at the range. He was complaining of the same problem except that it happened randomly and as few as 10 or 20 rounds. Otherwise it shot beautifully. I got it cheap. I soaked the bolt in a coffee can full of kerosene for a full week swishing it around every day. Then soaked it in carb cleaner for a few days. it took 9 cans of carb cleaner to cover the bolt and 5 more as it evaporated quickly. then I blew it dry with an air hose and fired it with a primer only case. worked fine. I lubed it with RemOil. and took it to the range. It has never misfired since. Some lubricants will evaporate their volatiles quickly and thus become gummy. Add that to some of the junk that can accumulate from firing and you get interference with the tight tolerances between the bolt, firing pin and spring assembly. Try my solution before you take it apart. If you are fully comfortable with taking it apart and putting it back together, and have the correct tools to do the job then by all means do that. Another instance I observed misfires on an older Savage with a lot of rounds through it. The firing pin hole in the bolt face had gotten smaller from all the high pressure rounds they guy was firing. This is not a common occurrence but it happens. I took a rat tail file to it and every so slightly enlarged the hole and that rifle has fired reliably ever since.

That sounds like way more work and time than just taking the bolt apart, and you still don't know how much gunk might have accumulated in the backside of the bolt head. And really, the only thing you have to do is unscrew the firing pin/spring/striker assembly from the bolt body to clean it all. Give a rinse with brake parts or carb cleaner, dab it with a towel to see if its clean, and repeat till all the grease and oil is out. Same thing with the bolt head. I use long q tips to make sure the inside is clean, then back together. If you have to lube it, I use a small drop of clear rem oil with Teflon. Some run them dry, especially in cold weather.

As stated in this thread many times, too much oil/grease attracts dirt and will eventually cause light strikes. It also gets stiff when cold. I bought a Savage 110 on the cheap many years ago. Previous owner stated that it wouldn't go off about every 10th shot. Even showed me some dented primers. I offered to replace the main spring for him, but he was done with it and just wanted to move on. Upon disassembly, I found that there was so much greasy gunk packed between the spring coils that they hardly had space to move.

 

[NW Hunter]

Where did you find that pin? PTG sells all the parts except that one. OOS at Numrich.

Gre-Tan rifles is a source for that pin.

 

[Lee7588]

SPRING/FIRING PIN LUBRICATION
There has been a fair amount of discussion on firing pin/spring lubrication. Also mentioned was the effect of cold weather on failure to fire incidents.
Kenny Jarrett suggests using nothing other than lighter fluid to lubricate trigger assemblies. Has anyone tried lubricating a spring/pin with lighter fluid? Any opinions?

BTW, when you disassemble the bolt, go to local hardware store and buy a hitch pin like this, right diameter to fit into slot so you just snap this onto bolt body and the flat side will lock into place in the slot. I am sure NONE of you had a dime flying around your bench or maybe just I am "lucky" to enjoy that scenario. They come in every size so you can find one.

View attachment 421775

I think I've lost about .40¢ so far

 

[Lee7588]

ha ha - I keep a dime and a quarter on my bench for this.
The dime is for locking the striker back, the quarter I put in my vise, with just a bit sticking out, and use that to pull the cocking piece back, instead of gouging up the edge of my bench.

I use a loop tied in a piece of 550 para on my bench to hook the cocking piece and pull back

 

[arch408]

I would start with ammunition. It should fire if firing pin strike is normal. If reloads, check primers and headspace. Reloading die could be pushing the case shoulder back causing excessive headspace causing grievous "soft" primer strike. If that checks out, then I would take the firing pin out of the bolt give everything a thorough cleaning. Then I would try to fire primed empty cases to see if I could duplicate the problem. If you still have the problem, then I would look at the firing pin and spring.