Winchester misfired

[Luke15]

I have a question regarding why my 270 misfired. I just bought a winchester model 70 xtr sporter in 270. The gun is older (1979). I have fired about 40 shells through it without a problem. 10 or so factory and the rest hand loaded. I had two misfire back to back. They were hand loaded. The gun fired another 10 shells after that without an issue. I'm not sure if the primers are faulty or if the gun is to blame. There seems to be nothing wrong with the firing pin. It seems to be making a consistent dent in all the primers. The primers in the hand loads are cci's if the helps. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[hal53]

Originally Posted by Luke15

I have a question regarding why my 270 misfired. I just bought a winchester model 70 xtr sporter in 270. The gun is older (1979). I have fired about 40 shells through it without a problem. 10 or so factory and the rest hand loaded. I had two misfire back to back. They were hand loaded. The gun fired another 10 shells after that without an issue. I'm not sure if the primers are faulty or if the gun is to blame. There seems to be nothing wrong with the firing pin. It seems to be making a consistent dent in all the primers. The primers in the hand loads are cci's if the helps. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

with the info, pretty sure it's a primer problem, where were they stored???

[bdub]

I would suspect the primers are at fault since they are hand loads. Probably we're contaminated with a bit of oil or case lube. That would be my guess.

[gitrdun]

....perhaps tumbling media plugging the flash hole.

[Luke15]

The shells have been stored in a dry box since they were loaded. I had a friend load them for me so I'm not sure if they have been contaminated with oil or tumbling media as I was not there when the were being assembled. I was able to re-cock one of the shells and get it to fire but I was not able to get the second shell to fire. Even after re-cocking several times. I plan on running though a box of factory loads to see if I have the same problem with them.

[bobtag45]

You mention that the rifle is approx. 1979. Has the firing pin been removed from the bolt body for a thorough cleaning? The consistent dent you are getting might be consistently light from a gummed up firing pin and spring. Also firing pin protrusion should be a max of .060 and not much under .050. Again it would cause consistent dents but perhaps not deep enough.
Just a couple of things to check.

[vic1]

You can check haw far is your firing pin sticking out, it should be .065 - .090".
Also check/adjust your sizing die so it doesn't push shoulder of the causes to far back. If shoulder of the cause is pushed to far back, when firing pin strikes primer,it pushes all round slightly forward and primer is not stroked deep enough for proprer ignition.
Vic

[Andrzej]

I have had 33% misfires from Federal 215 primers



All waiting for destruction once nice outside.

Federal did nothing to back up their product.

[Homesteader]

Originally Posted by Andrzej

I have had 33% misfires from Federal 215 primers



All waiting for destruction once nice outside.

Federal did nothing to back up their product.

Holy Chit, that's terrible, I've had good luck with my 215's, but they are definately older ones then you have pictured.

[Andrzej]

I was happy with them except for 1 batch of 1000.
Never had this happened with any primers before and after.

[Luke15]

Wow that isn't to good. I know that rim fires have a reputation of misfiring more than centre fires but that's unbelievable. I suppose a good bolt cleaning wouldn't hurt. I'm not sure on how to do that though.

[bulletman]

I use both kinds of Federal 215's, both the regular and the Match. I think these primers are some of the finest made, never had a problem!

[Andrzej]

Originally Posted by bulletman

I use both kinds of Federal 215's, both the regular and the Match. I think these primers are some of the finest made, never had a problem!

Do you want them ? Free for pick up in Calgary until Easter weekend.

Roughly 900-950 Federal 215 primers of the same lot.
As far as I remember they were couple years old only as i bought them when I could not get GM Match 215 primers.

I have pictures of those that fired and there was some sort of crater of mush
material on spent anvil.
Not the best iphone photos those on left side did fired

[357mag]

Primers might have not been seated fully? If you have any remaining hand loads, put them on a flat piece of glass. If they wobble (even slightly), there's your problem.

[32-40win]

I have a new box (last year) of CCI250's that I had 4 misfires out of the first 25 I loaded out of it. All were bad primers. Never even singed the powder. I unloaded them, changed the primers out to 215's in the same cases, with the same tool, reloaded with the same powder, kaboom. Last time I had that happen was on a 7mag in 1988 or 9. I've used a lot of 250's over the years, and 215's, only other bad primers I have had were RP 6-1/2's, which were 15 yrs old. The reduced load may have been the culprit on those, on most of them, fair number of hangfires also in that batch.
I still can't answer exactly why they happened on the 250's, I doubt it was seating depth, it wasn't the gun as far as I could tell, wasn't a lube contamination issue, just had to attribute it to some bad ones, it can happen.

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by 357mag

Primers might have not been seated fully? If you have any remaining hand loads, put them on a flat piece of glass. If they wobble (even slightly), there's your problem.

This could very well be the problem.
You should be able to fel the primer inset in the base of te case with your finger.
if it's out too far, the firing pin will sometimes hit the primer, but push it forward into eh primer pocket without firing , and the second time it may fire or it may not.
This really is prevalent in colder weather if the bolt is gummy inside from a build up of grease or oil.
Cat

[silver]

I had this problem a while ago, but the primer would fire but not light the powder, this in a 458. The primer would fire enough to push the bullet out of the case and into the rifling. The primers worked in another cartridge useing a different powder. Thinking it was a problem with an older rifle, I took the bolt apart and cleaned it up, same problem. The primers were CCI and had been around a while so I retired them. Since then the new box of primers have been working just fine. I believe the problem was a primer with slightly lower brisance( is that the right word?) combined with a powder needing more than normal heat to light it.

[gitrdun]

Brisance is the correct word silver.

Fed Match GM215M = 6.12
Fed 215 LRM = 5.69
CCI 250 LRM = 5.66
Winchester WLRM = 5.45

Even though CCI's are not quite at the bottom of the list, they do have the largest Std. Deviation which could easily put them at the bottom. Their deviation is. 4832, whereas WLRM are a mere. 2046, the lowest deviation of them all including standard and small rifle.

[Dick284]

I'd wager your issue lies with primer seating and or un cleaned primer pockets.

About bad primers:

Back in the mid 90's I had issue with a specific lot of CCI primers, but that was predictable and most likely either a manufacturing issue, or a issue with storage or shipping conditions. I've had no issues with any other CCI primer outside of those I bought back then (500), actually I've had zero issues outside of those (500) or so regardless of brand or type, I'd say that encompasses some 20,000 or more primers of varied make, and size.

[Luke15]

All this info is very helpful. I think I will try and pull that one bullet that didn't fire and pop the primer and see if that is to be blamed.