Barrett 98B/338 Lapua issue, Your thoughts needed

[drmarc]

Mounted and zeroed a new Barrett 98B for a friend of mine yesterday and had an interesting ammunition issue. Had two issues come up. The two brands of ammo they provided were Summit Ammunition 250gr BTHP Match and Remington Express 250gr Scenar Match.

Started zeroing with the Summit and found it overall not to be very accurate and could not get better than 2moa at 100 yards. After getting what appeared to be a reasonable zero I used the Remington Express Match. First shot dead nutz on center, second shot "click"... nothing... remove cartridge and there is a primer strike but no boom. WTF? Chamber another "boom", inside an inch of the first functioning shot. Next... "click" nothing... Out of 9 shots taken with the Remington Express ammunition 4 out of the 9 did not fire. Even fired one twice and nothing. Primer strikes look appropriate as far as I can tell so I put the Summit ammo back in it and they all fired fine though I must say they had a harder to lift bolt extraction than the Remington(not sure if it was hotter ammo, another issue).

So, this being the first time messing with a Barrett as well as a 338L Mag I'm a little bit out of my knowledge zone. Anyone had issues like this?

Any help/advice appreciated.

 

[cali_tz]

Re: Barrett 98B/338 Lapua issue, Your thoughts needed

Interesting. I had a similar issue with my 308 Steyr Scout, and it's well known that the Scout default firing pin spring may be too weak to set off some primers. Some ammo worked all the time, and others mostly didn't work, but you could tell because the primer dimple was ever so smaller in the non fired ammo. So in my limited experience, I'd suggest that as a possible cause of the Baretts dilemma.

Maybe the headspace in the chamber is just over spec?

 

[The Mechanic]

Re: Barrett 98B/338 Lapua issue, Your thoughts needed

Can only give you an answer about the Summit ammo. Don't know about the .338 but I have shot some Summit in .50 and it would not group for shit and yes it was hot. Have had some conversations at the time with others who said they had issues with the Summit in other calibers. This was well over 4 years ago so YMMV.

As to light primer strikes you may have some hard primers or maybe a little dis-assembly of the firing pin assembly is in order. Make sure to use a light oil and not grease. You may have a rust inhibitor that may be causing the firing pin to have lighter strikes.

 

[Loopm5]

Re: Barrett 98B/338 Lapua issue, Your thoughts needed

I have been using the Mag tech 624 gr. ammo and it really shoots well. I have had no luck with summit.

 

[desertHK]

Re: Barrett 98B/338 Lapua issue, Your thoughts needed

Ive used Remington 338 LM ammo. Never had that issue. Found that the accuracy is a little better than MOA. May be its me.

 

[drmarc]

Re: Barrett 98B/338 Lapua issue, Your thoughts needed

Thanks fellas. I'm gonna first check the bolt/Fpin etc. Curious that all the Summit fired fine, Rem not though. Harder primer? Primer strikes appear fine on the mis-fire rounds, may call Rem and ask if they had any issues with this lot. Just don't know.

Anyone else please chime in as well.

 

[bigdog2084]

Re: Barrett 98B/338 Lapua issue, Your thoughts needed

have the same gun and have had nothing but success with it out to a mile. reloading my own ammo though. that is the way to go.