Some time back, I purchased a (new) barreled action built using a Mausingfield chambered in 7LRM, and when I received it, I fired a box of Gunwerks ammo through it without a problem. However, I sat on my ass for a few months before ordering dies, which I did a few weeks ago. I received them last week, and loaded up some ammo, which I took to the range the other day. I had only assembled 20 rounds, but after the first five had light strikes, I called it a day (with that rifle). Needless to say, I was somewhat annoyed.
The primers that I used, CCI 250s, have been giving me intermittent problems in another rifle, so I thought that it might be possible that I had a goofy batch of primers, and that, combined with what seemed to be kind of weak-sounding firing pin drop on my Mausingfield had conspired to result in my failures to fire. I went out and bought some Winchester LRM primers to try, in order to see if I could confirm my theory, re: goofy CCI primers.
After reading the thread on here about primer seating, etc..., I decided to do a test; I put together five empty cases with the CCIs and five with the Winchester primers (ensuring that they were all completely seated), and went out in the back yard to see what was what. Much to my dismay, I couldn't get any of them to ignite. Frustrated, I called LRI (the vendor from whom I purchased my barreled action), and went through some troubleshooting steps with them. I had some grease on my trigger sear (which I noticed during the troubleshooting), and that was the only thing that either I or the support guy on the phone thought may have been the problem (I had already cleaned and very lightly oiled the inside of the bolt body before I called). After hanging up and wiping the grease off the sear, I went back out and still didn't have any luck with my testing. Dammit. At this point, I was thinking that I might have to take LRI up on their offer to diagnose the rifle, but I didn't want to deal with shipping it if I didn't have to.
So I called ARC, and ended up speaking to Ted (I think), who asked a few questions and requested that I do a complete tear down of the bolt, to include removing the spring, in order to ensure that there was no oil or grease that might be slowing things down... and if not, I could return the bolt to them and they'd install a new spring for me. Sounded fair enough to me. I did the three-handed thing of getting the spring removed, and everything looked okay... until I went to slide the firing pin out through the rear shroud... I noticed that it was moving v e r y slowly (though smoothly). Once I got through the first probably inch or so, everything moved okay... and I found the culprit. There was some kind of shmoo (that's a technical term) on the firing pin where it passed through the shroud. Cleaned it up with a little Frog Lube and a plastic bristle brush, and cleaned the inside of the shroud with a little Frog Lube and a proper pipe cleaner, wiped it all down, and reassembled... nice and fast, no resistance to speak of. At this point, I was pretty sure that the issue had been resolved. So I reassembled everything and went back out to the back yard, and sure enough... Bob's your uncle... all test cases ignited just like you'd hope.
So, I said all that to say this; if you're getting light strikes, make sure that you check everything that could slow down the firing pin once its released from the sear.
Many thanks to the fine folks at LRI and ARC for helping a knucklehead like me diagnose and rectify my rifle.
The primers that I used, CCI 250s, have been giving me intermittent problems in another rifle, so I thought that it might be possible that I had a goofy batch of primers, and that, combined with what seemed to be kind of weak-sounding firing pin drop on my Mausingfield had conspired to result in my failures to fire. I went out and bought some Winchester LRM primers to try, in order to see if I could confirm my theory, re: goofy CCI primers.
After reading the thread on here about primer seating, etc..., I decided to do a test; I put together five empty cases with the CCIs and five with the Winchester primers (ensuring that they were all completely seated), and went out in the back yard to see what was what. Much to my dismay, I couldn't get any of them to ignite. Frustrated, I called LRI (the vendor from whom I purchased my barreled action), and went through some troubleshooting steps with them. I had some grease on my trigger sear (which I noticed during the troubleshooting), and that was the only thing that either I or the support guy on the phone thought may have been the problem (I had already cleaned and very lightly oiled the inside of the bolt body before I called). After hanging up and wiping the grease off the sear, I went back out and still didn't have any luck with my testing. Dammit. At this point, I was thinking that I might have to take LRI up on their offer to diagnose the rifle, but I didn't want to deal with shipping it if I didn't have to.
So I called ARC, and ended up speaking to Ted (I think), who asked a few questions and requested that I do a complete tear down of the bolt, to include removing the spring, in order to ensure that there was no oil or grease that might be slowing things down... and if not, I could return the bolt to them and they'd install a new spring for me. Sounded fair enough to me. I did the three-handed thing of getting the spring removed, and everything looked okay... until I went to slide the firing pin out through the rear shroud... I noticed that it was moving v e r y slowly (though smoothly). Once I got through the first probably inch or so, everything moved okay... and I found the culprit. There was some kind of shmoo (that's a technical term) on the firing pin where it passed through the shroud. Cleaned it up with a little Frog Lube and a plastic bristle brush, and cleaned the inside of the shroud with a little Frog Lube and a proper pipe cleaner, wiped it all down, and reassembled... nice and fast, no resistance to speak of. At this point, I was pretty sure that the issue had been resolved. So I reassembled everything and went back out to the back yard, and sure enough... Bob's your uncle... all test cases ignited just like you'd hope.
So, I said all that to say this; if you're getting light strikes, make sure that you check everything that could slow down the firing pin once its released from the sear.
Many thanks to the fine folks at LRI and ARC for helping a knucklehead like me diagnose and rectify my rifle.
