Winchester #41 issues

[warnera1102]

So has anyone had issues with Winchester #41 primers?
I have had some failure to fire in my 300bo subs ( Ar-15) and now today I had 2 out of 3 on my 450 bushmaster. Lucky enough the doe I shot must have been deaf at 30 yards as I cycled out the 2 no firing rounds.
The one at the left is the one that fired, all are primed on a CPS.

 

[TheOfficeT-Rex]

What did you see when you pulled them apart?

 

[918v]

Check your shoulder clearance. If the bolt isn’t rotating all the way into battery the FP won’t hit the primer with full force.

 

[warnera1102]

What did you see when you pulled them apart?

I haven't pulled them apart yet but I plan to tonight.

 

[warnera1102]

Check your shoulder clearance. If the bolt isn’t rotating all the way into battery the FP won’t hit the primer with full force.

I know I have not had this issue with factory ammo and I thought it was odd I saw the same issue in my 300bo.
I definitely will check everything again
Thank you.

 

[warnera1102]

So I pulled the primer and smacked them with a hammer and they went off
So I checked the protrusion of the firing pin and I came up with 0.024"
Bolt face depth is 0.125
Pin to bolt face was 0.101
Could this be to shallow and not enough protrusion?

 

[John Glidewell]

Could be. I set all my protrusion to at least. 035, most are right around .040-.045 and most all my manuals recommend .050. Could also be not seating primers all the way in primer pocket. Did you measure pockets and primers to ensure you are getting them all they way in? I always set mine to a .002 crush.

 

[TheOfficeT-Rex]

IIRC protrusion should be somewhere around 50k, action dependent.

Double check it's in a clean channel and you measured correctly. I'd also double check shoulder bump and primers being bottomed out while you're crossing all the i's and dotting t's. ETA not seeing this in factory ammo implies you should double check your reloading setup hasn't moved since you last measured.

 

[Doom]

Sounds like the anvils weren't set. The primers weren't seated properly.

 

[cas6969]

Headspace.

 

[CK1.0]

I recently had some light strike issues with these and found that they are harder to set off (versus CCI450s) in a bolt gun. I had 100% reliability when using CCI450s until transitioning to the Win #41s.

I triple-checked headspace and primer seating depth, and it wasn't either of those things.

I went back and forth to the range 2-3 times and had about a 6% (6 per 100rds) FTF/light-strike rate (that was pissing me off).

I finally swapped to a spare/fresh firing pin assembly (with fresh firing pin spring), and voila... 100% reliable again (and was able to set off a few that hadn't gone bang when using the older/worn firing pin spring). FWIW/FYI, my old spring had at least 2500rds plus maybe half that many dry-fires on it...

Moral of the story... the Win #41s are harder to set off... but otherwise have shown the same performance as CCI450s for me.

 

[RegionRat]

I finally swapped to a spare/fresh firing pin assembly (with fresh firing pin spring), and voila... 100% reliable again

+1
Bolt and ignition maintenance is one of the least talked about issues till it happens to somebody, then everybody says it out loud.

 

[bax]

One far-out possibility. In rare cases, the firing pin punches through the primer cutting a tiny round cup from the primer metal and leaving it on the point of the firing pin. In ever less common cases, that little cup of primer metal ends up inside the bolt and stops the firing pin short of its intended stopping point.

Strip the bolt and run a bore brush into the firing pin channel. Once in a great while you will get one of those little cups and the problem goes away.

I saw the problem in Stolle actions, 6PPC, Federal 205M primers, a long time ago. I would think that #41 primers would be hard and this wouldn't happen but, if I read your number correctly, your firing pin protrusion isn't quite where it is supposed to be. This procedure doesn't take long and it might fix the problem.

FWIW, I was thinking headspace but you said HS was good so my favorite solution went out the window