Sounds like a head space issue to me. Measure the head space on the ones that worked and the ones that wouldn’t.
Q Mini fix (or fix) light primer strikes
- Thread starter pinkhair
- Start date
I came here to post about my Fix in .308 having light strike issues as well. I sent it in to Q stating what ammo I was using and that it would light strike about 20% of the time. They asked me to send it in for work. I think it took a month? I tested it again with the same ammo and got the same results. Eventually Kevin told me they didn't design the rifle to shoot "NATO or machine gun primers". I thought it was funny seeing as how my Remington 700 has no problem with the same ammo. I'm working on fixing the Fix myself, I found a company who is willing and can make a stronger spring. It's frustrating that a modern firearm that costs $3k isn't 100% reliable. Q, and their buddy companies, blocked me for calling out the issues with the Fix. I'm glad I'm not the only one experiencing issues with the company. I had to use a different email just to get work done on another one of their products because they blocked the email I used for the Fix RMA.
It will have been there for light strikes for 19 weeks as of Monday. It was delivered November 15th and the ATF cashed the check on the Jumbo Shrimp I bought on November 17th. Which will come back sooner?
Definitely having huge remorse over this rifle and moreso buying one of their cans with seeing how poor their support is.
I think they might be swamped with RMAs. According to Q their RMA guy is also their production lead. I sent mine out early December and got mine back mid February. I bought two of their guns and a suppressor around the same time after reading all the great reviews on them. After dealing with Kevin's sensitive feelings and my experiences with the guns I don't think I'd do it again if I had the chance. Maybe if someone with a massive social media following highlighted their issues it would get them to fix their shit.
So KB is a cuck who gets upset at a comedian meanwhile his wife fucks his sons friend in his own bedroom?
I know this is a Q/fix thread but , I have a ruger ranch in 300blk, I get quite a few light strikes depending on box ammo I use. Never had a light strike with hornady subsonic though. I've got several thousand rounds of gorilla ammo that work great on AR/hammer platform that don't work in my bolt/striker platform, But it's also a 450$ gun lol
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I think it’s in part due to the way the 300blk shoulder is and excessive headspace + harder cup primers is just on the verge for reliability for some bolt gun. Could be because bolt lift is a marketing thing and most action maker wants a light bolt lift and light trigger so they ship their actions with a lighter striker spring (kinda how ARC did with the original Nuke 15#) and it works with most situations except with 300blk ammo with harder mil primers
My Defiance has a pretty tight chamber and I found out I was resizing a wee bit too much and when using CCI BR4 or REM 7 1/2 I’d sometimes have FTF. Now that I adjusted my sizing properly, I have no issues with Rem 7 1/2.
My previous R700 SPS 300blk had the same issue, even with a stronger striker spring.
Received an email Wednesday 3/30/22 that my 6.5 Fix had been repaired with them stating they replaced the cam and test fired it. Total time at Q: 19 weeks 3 days. Received the rifle back today (4/6/2022) total time door to door was 21 weeks 3 days. This is the beginning of my work week so I won’t be able to get out until Sunday to see if the rifle actually works or not.
At least they tossed in a sweet cable lock and youth handgun safety act pamphlet to ease the sting of spending $3200 on a rifle that doesn’t work out of the box.
At least they tossed in a sweet cable lock and youth handgun safety act pamphlet to ease the sting of spending $3200 on a rifle that doesn’t work out of the box.
Also, I never got a tracking number for it coming back. I work nights and today is the start of my week. I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep this morning. About half an hour later FedEx delivered the rifle. It’s like my body could sense the disappointment and resentment getting close.
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Let me know if that fixes the issue. I've got a full sized fix that fired fine with the factory 308 barrel. then swapped to a proof 6 creed barrel and got FTF. Sometimes it fires if the firing pin hits twice. sometimes not. Buddies identical rifle fired fine with the factory 6.5 barrel. Switched to proof 6 creed and FTF with berger loaded ammo and hand loads. Ive tried 400s, 450s, 205M,200s, 215Ms, and 210Ms. Alpha, Lapua, and Hornady brass. All new. New brass is growing 7-7.5 thou. Seems like a lot to me. On hand loads I get FTF about 60% of the time. Berger factory is about 10% FTF. once the fire formed brass is bumped back 1.5 thou it seems to fire fine. Problem is I have half my new brass I cant get to fire to form!
I get 7 thou over a go gauge and almost full close on a no go gauge. So its definitely looser than most chambers but still "within spec"
Striker protrusion measures 32 thou from bottom of bolt face.
I just shimmed the firing pin spring with a washer that still keeps the spring in the retainer on the back side of the bolt assembly. It definitely sounds like its hitting a little harder and bolt lift feels slightly heavier. Could just be a placebo. No real way to measure it... I'll head to the range soon and see if that fixes anything.
I get 7 thou over a go gauge and almost full close on a no go gauge. So its definitely looser than most chambers but still "within spec"
Striker protrusion measures 32 thou from bottom of bolt face.
I just shimmed the firing pin spring with a washer that still keeps the spring in the retainer on the back side of the bolt assembly. It definitely sounds like its hitting a little harder and bolt lift feels slightly heavier. Could just be a placebo. No real way to measure it... I'll head to the range soon and see if that fixes anything.
Interesting. Is proof still using a jam nut for headspace or are they shouldering their barrels? If it has a jam nut you could crank the headspace down a few thousandths.
How does that 6cm feed?
They are shouldering their barrels now. I wish I had one with the jam nut. 6 creed feeds good.
Have you contacted proof to see if they’ll tighten it up for you considering you’ve found a correlation between headspace and ftf?
I want to know if the shim worked. I had that hypothesis but never tested it. I'm working with a company to fix the fix myself since Q's "superior engineering" couldn't do it. Turn around time should be 4-6 weeks for the part. A gunsmith suggested it sounded more like a head spacing issue rather than a spring issue. Which lines up with another user's post.
Went out and shot 50 rounds 25 with another bolt from a fix and 25 my shimmed one. Each of them had 3 light primer strikes. So inconclusive... this was on new brass. Now that I have them fired in this chamber I bumped them back 1 thou and gonna try again. I talked to a spring manufacture and they are sending me 4 different sizes and weights of springs to try out. All of the ones that LPS'ed fired in my impact.
Whats the fix that youre working with the company on?
Springs as well. I sent the spring to be measured and copied but with a larger gauge wire. I didn't want to get a bigger spring and it not sit inside the bolt. From what I've gathered, the only way to reliably increase force is to use a heavier gauge wire or elongate the relaxed state of the spring. I was told adding coils would do the opposite of increasing force. The company is Diamond Wire in Texas. Specifically Karl who works on firearm springs.
Were you able to figure out what the spring weight max or per inch rating of the factory spring was? Do you have the model spring thats 7" and bunched up or the older spring that isnt bunched when under load?
I don't think it's headspace. The cartridge is held by the extractor when struck by the firing pin. I have guns that new brass grows close to .020" in them and have never had ignition failures. Undersized brass is nothing new and a really poor excuse.
For sure. I'll post up some information with the other springs when they show up. Trying to figure out the best way to measure bolt lift between them. I talked to some people and they think the current spring is about 15Lbs per inch of travel how they have it. Max load of it is somewhere around 35. The springs I have coming are anywhere between 40-55 max pounds. Theres a range of 17-27Lbs per Inch of travel which could be the ticket. (close to rem700 spec for firing pin spring weight and heavy spring weight) Stock wire thickness is .060" I ordered some .071, .088 and .091
Why would you bump new brass back 1 thou? Especially if you have a headspace issue. I’d take the brass that fired and only neck size it
See how many of those fail to fire. It can take up to three fires to size brass to your chamber
See how many of those fail to fire. It can take up to three fires to size brass to your chamber
Not new brass. Fired brass from the fix. From my experience unless you are firing very very mild loads or fire forming it usually grows to chamber in one firing. Ive noticed this across many different barrels and chambering that I shoot. Now if the barrel on the fix has a loose headspaced barrel I could see the brass taking multiple firings for it to grow 9-10 thou. But I haven't noticed anything growing that much.
False shoulders for the win here boys.
Neck up and partial neck size back down while chambering sized brass and feeling for captured headspace.
If light strikes are still occurring after this, it's a spring issue and KB can't blame it on anyone else.
But I'm 100% certain he'll try anyway.
Neck up and partial neck size back down while chambering sized brass and feeling for captured headspace.
If light strikes are still occurring after this, it's a spring issue and KB can't blame it on anyone else.
But I'm 100% certain he'll try anyway.
Weather is finally not complete dogshit today, so taking my fix out to see if it actually works since it came back from repair.
@Dai Bando I had the issues with Hornady and Barnes factory ammo too, and they say that they replaced the cam on the bolt as well when it went back.
I only have 20 rounds of Barnes factory ammo and my reloads to shoot through it, so we will see how it goes today.
@Dai Bando I had the issues with Hornady and Barnes factory ammo too, and they say that they replaced the cam on the bolt as well when it went back.
I only have 20 rounds of Barnes factory ammo and my reloads to shoot through it, so we will see how it goes today.
Late update.
Got out yesterday and had time to re zero the rifle and shoot a total of 20 rounds of 143 ELD-X in Lapua Brass with CCI 450’s. All fired just fine, no issues.
I have quite a bit of load development sitting on my bench to get through so we will see how that goes. I have some Hornady factory I just picked up so that will be my control ammo if problems start happening again.
My friend had the light strike round from when he went to shoot his deer, here is how it looked.
Got out yesterday and had time to re zero the rifle and shoot a total of 20 rounds of 143 ELD-X in Lapua Brass with CCI 450’s. All fired just fine, no issues.
I have quite a bit of load development sitting on my bench to get through so we will see how that goes. I have some Hornady factory I just picked up so that will be my control ammo if problems start happening again.
My friend had the light strike round from when he went to shoot his deer, here is how it looked.
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I switched to CCI 400 and only bumping the shoulder 1 thou. Have shot 100 rounds so far and haven’t had a LPS.
Top paper is powder ocw test. Bottom is 2 shot seating depth test. The rifle looks to have potential to be stupid accurate with 153.5s going 2610 out of my 24”
Top paper is powder ocw test. Bottom is 2 shot seating depth test. The rifle looks to have potential to be stupid accurate with 153.5s going 2610 out of my 24”
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I just received a box of springs. I took a small sample out to the range to function test. No light strikes, so it's looking promising. There is a little bit more stiffness in the bolt lift but nothing unreasonable. The trade off for having 100% reliability over a light bolt lift is worth it in my opinion. Installation of the new spring was definitely harder than the OEM spring but I found a technique that worked really well. I have 23 additional springs that I'll sell for about $15 each not including shipping. This will allow me to recoup the cost. I'll continue to test the spring and provide updates.
Didn't read all the way back: was this for the Mini or big boy? I've only used hornady on the full-size (with zero issues), but have had numerous issues with a mini and a couple different loads.
Told ya so. It's not headspace.
This is why Sig used a three lug bolt. Bolt lift gets heavy so customers complain. KB thought he was clever beating Sig to market when they walked out the door with the design. Turns out you need more than a couple of months for beta testing.
I had problems with light primer strikes on my Q Mini Fix purchased 12/2021. Federal GMM primers fired fine but no go on any CCI450s. I sent an email, had a prompt reply, sent it out with a return label provided by Q. It took a little longer than I would have liked, received my Mini Fix after a couple months.
Upon receipt, all FGMM and most CCI450s would now fire. With the help of a friend, I traced the remaining CCI450s that would not fire to a recent batch of brass I had sized improperly after installing a new quick change plate on my Co-Ax press. I had inadvertently bumped the shoulder back around 14 thousandths (due to the quick change plate being thicker and not adjusting my dies to compensate) on the CCI450 primed cases that did not fire. The quick change plate was a recent change to my press ( a couple months after sending my rifle back to Q) and the initial brass when I received the rifle was sized appropriately. After sizing a more reasonable 3 thousandths, all of the CCI primed cases fired. I have now fired around 300 rounds with zero issues.
I was quite frustrated initially with my purchase. However, now that it is sorted I absolutely love the Mini Fix. It is a great social firearm. People are drawn to it's looks and blown away by how quiet it is shooting subsonic loads. I am pretty into air rifles. My father mistakenly assumed it was another one of my air rifles when I was shooting it on the back porch. My nephew and brother's girlfriend were genuinely interested in shooting it as it was so quiet and had such little recoil. I have shot countless firearms around them before and this is the only one they have really shown any interest in shooting. We were able to sit under a covered porch, with no ear pro, and shoot steel in the backyard without a hint of ear discomfort. It did not disrupt other family inside the house. It made for a great day of laidback shooting fun.
So what exactly did they do at Q to take care of me? I am not sure. However, whatever they did, I am happy to say it fixed the problem.
Upon receipt, all FGMM and most CCI450s would now fire. With the help of a friend, I traced the remaining CCI450s that would not fire to a recent batch of brass I had sized improperly after installing a new quick change plate on my Co-Ax press. I had inadvertently bumped the shoulder back around 14 thousandths (due to the quick change plate being thicker and not adjusting my dies to compensate) on the CCI450 primed cases that did not fire. The quick change plate was a recent change to my press ( a couple months after sending my rifle back to Q) and the initial brass when I received the rifle was sized appropriately. After sizing a more reasonable 3 thousandths, all of the CCI primed cases fired. I have now fired around 300 rounds with zero issues.
I was quite frustrated initially with my purchase. However, now that it is sorted I absolutely love the Mini Fix. It is a great social firearm. People are drawn to it's looks and blown away by how quiet it is shooting subsonic loads. I am pretty into air rifles. My father mistakenly assumed it was another one of my air rifles when I was shooting it on the back porch. My nephew and brother's girlfriend were genuinely interested in shooting it as it was so quiet and had such little recoil. I have shot countless firearms around them before and this is the only one they have really shown any interest in shooting. We were able to sit under a covered porch, with no ear pro, and shoot steel in the backyard without a hint of ear discomfort. It did not disrupt other family inside the house. It made for a great day of laidback shooting fun.
So what exactly did they do at Q to take care of me? I am not sure. However, whatever they did, I am happy to say it fixed the problem.
I now have 129 rounds through my Fix (6.5) after waiting 21 weeks door to door for light primer strikes. They changed the cam pin and so far it has worked with factory Hornady, handloads using Lapua SR brass with CCI 450's and BR4's. Will be increasing how much I am shooting through it since I drew deer tags along with my wife.
However, bought my wife a Seekins Havak Element in 6.5 Jesus for her first deer rifle, and that thing shoots circles around the fix. Rounds 8-10 through it with an ancient Redfield scope my dad had laying around (found it on a stop along the way going back home) and it was a .262 group. Then I shot the Fix and could not do better than .7. I would have 3 shots touching but 2 would be flyers using the same ammo. Talk about a bit of remorse....
Remember that time Kevin shit talked Sig for their bolt recall?
After mine spending 19 weeks at Q for repair, I will not purchase anything else they make. The more I shoot my wife's Seekins Havak Element, the more buyers remorse that I have.
I can relate. I checked their "fix my fix", mine wasn't affected apparently. They intentionally designed the gun to have a light spring for a light bolt lift and trigger pull. I think they rushed this gun out the door. $3k and it doesn't shoot anything and everything is inexcusable.
There is no way to get around heavy bolt lift if a manufacturer wants to use 4, 5, 6, etc bolt lugs and still have reliable ignition. If your fix (or mini fix) has low bolt lift weight it is because it has weak springs. The striker still has to retract the same distance as any other bolt action with the same mass firing pin. The shorter the bolt rotation/throw, the steeper the cam ramp to retract/cock the firing pin. To make matter worse, Q insists on a very short low profile bolt lever.
If you go back to the first SHOT show video of KB demo'ing the fix at range day you can watch him struggle to cock the gun. Massaging cam angle and cocking pieces only gets you so far to reduce the lift effort without entirely redesigning the action. SIG went with a three lug and longer lever, Q went with lighter springs...which one has ignition complaints?
If you go back to the first SHOT show video of KB demo'ing the fix at range day you can watch him struggle to cock the gun. Massaging cam angle and cocking pieces only gets you so far to reduce the lift effort without entirely redesigning the action. SIG went with a three lug and longer lever, Q went with lighter springs...which one has ignition complaints?
The solution is a heavier firing pin spring. You should be able to get the gun running right for $10.
