FINALLY!!!

[Ontario Hunter]

Your animal of opportunity should be kudu. Don't come home without one. They are fun to hunt. In fact, my advice would be to forsake all others ... at least until after you have taken a nice kudu. The geography where I hunt kudu is more "interesting" and they are extremely wary. And of course, kudu are a spectacular trophy.

 

[randallhebert]

They have plenty of kudu. I wore the 120 coyote r made by 511. Comfortable and rugged. Not hot. From limpopo to waterberg mountains, then to kaokoland the Kalahari south of Windhoek. And just above 100.00

 

[Hyde Hunter]

View attachment 601711

A new scope. At the top are some Speers for getting on paper.

In the middle are 258 gr Shock Hammers.

At the bottom are 286 gr A Frames.

Hammers and Swifts starting at 58 gr of 2000MR, 10 shot ladders for each from 58 to 62.5 gr.

IDK why all of the MFGs specify such short COAL. Hammers are set to 3.30", A Frames to 3.32"

Let's see what we get. Range report tomorrow afternoon or Sunday.

Oh, yeah.

Time until departure to Johannesburg, RSA:

Weeks: 16
Days: 0
Hours: 22
Minutes: 27
Seconds: 6
Milliseconds: 527

YOU MIGHT WANT TO CALL lEE

View attachment 601711

A new scope. At the top are some Speers for getting on paper.

In the middle are 258 gr Shock Hammers.

At the bottom are 286 gr A Frames.

Hammers and Swifts starting at 58 gr of 2000MR, 10 shot ladders for each from 58 to 62.5 gr.

IDK why all of the MFGs specify such short COAL. Hammers are set to 3.30", A Frames to 3.32"

Let's see what we get. Range report tomorrow afternoon or Sunday.

Oh, yeah.

Time until departure to Johannesburg, RSA:1/8 to ///1/4

Weeks: 16
Days: 0
Hours: 22
Minutes: 27
Seconds: 6
Milliseconds: 527

you might want to get a Lee crimp die for those Hammers they seem to like a slight crimp 1/8 to 1/4 turn and give an even tighter group call up Lee only 16.00 and made a difference in all my cartridges. call Steve and talk to him about crimping

 

[sgt_zim]

Range report:

It was a bust. This is the first time I've taken it out since I got it back from the smith about a month ago, and now the firing pin isn't quite reaching the primer. It's leaving a dimple, but certainly not enough to cause it to ignite.

I thought it might be a bad primer on the first one, but then 6 more fail-to-fires.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Range report:

It was a bust. This is the first time I've taken it out since I got it back from the smith about a month ago, and now the firing pin isn't quite reaching the primer. It's leaving a dimple, but certainly not enough to cause it to ignite.

I thought it might be a bad primer on the first one, but then 6 more fail-to-fires.

Do you have a case gauge? If they were sized in a die, the shoulder may have been pushed back too far and there may be excessive headspace.
Edit: firing pin may be gunked up impeding the spring and increasing lock time.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I finally read through all nine pages ... late obviously. What make rifle are we talking about? I had a problem with short brass when reloading my 404. Enough that setting my dies to them pushed the shoulder down to where the cartridges would not snap over when dropped in the chamber of my Brno vz.24 action. If the OP's rifle is CRF, he should try to snap over on cartridges. If the extractor pushes them into the chamber without the claw snapping over and then fails to extract, the shoulder has been pushed back. If that happens, thump the butt on the floor with bolt open and the cartridge should drop out of the chamber. But this tells you the problem is probably with how the ammo is being reloaded. Unlikely a genuine headspace problem if the gun formerly would snap over. Actually, beyond unlikely. It must be a reloading issue. Fire the cartridges, reset the dies adjusted to cases that are factory spec length, then reload the fireformed cases. But fireforming cases the firing pin can't reach is of course a problem. Perhaps try refiring until they detonate. Eventually the primer should be dented enough to fire. Cleaning the firing pin chamber definitely will help.

I read that OP has been readjusting bullet seating and crimping. Perhaps something happened there. Is the OP only shooting one rifle in this caliber? If so, he can get away with neck sizing only. Just check every loaded cartridge to make sure they cycle okay before taking into the field, especially for dangerous game.

 

[sgt_zim]

Do you have a case gauge? If they were sized in a die, the shoulder may have been pushed back too far and there may be excessive headspace.
Edit: firing pin may be gunked up impeding the spring and increasing lock time.

Just trimmed the brass Thursday night to 2.431

 

[sgt_zim]

I finally read through all nine pages ... late obviously. What make rifle are we talking about? I had a problem with short brass when reloading my 404. Enough that setting my dies to them pushed the shoulder down to where the cartridges would not snap over when dropped in the chamber of my Brno vz.24 action. If the OP's rifle is CRF, he should try to snap over on cartridges. If the extractor pushes them into the chamber without the claw snapping over and then fails to extract, the shoulder has been pushed back. If that happens, thump the butt on the floor with bolt open and the cartridge should drop out of the chamber. But this tells you the problem is probably with how the ammo is being reloaded. Unlikely a genuine headspace problem if the gun formerly would snap over. Actually, beyond unlikely. It must be a reloading issue. Fire the cartridges, reset the dies adjusted to cases that are factory spec length, then reload the fireformed cases. But fireforming cases the firing pin can't reach is of course a problem. Perhaps try refiring until they detonate. Eventually the primer should be dented enough to fire. Cleaning the firing pin chamber definitely will help.

I read that OP has been readjusting bullet seating and crimping. Perhaps something happened there. Is the OP only shooting one rifle in this caliber? If so, he can get away with neck sizing only. Just check every loaded cartridge to make sure they cycle okay before taking into the field, especially for dangerous game.

It's a Zastava.

Twice-fired Norma brass, neck-sized only.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Working on the stock will not affect

It's a Zastava.

Twice-fired Norma brass, neck-sized only.

Hmmm. Twice fired with this gun? Look at some of your spent cases that haven't been reloaded yet. What's the primer look like? Is the dimple deep? Then I would suspect something happened when you readjusted your dies.

Is Zastava one of those new model Mauser designs that doesn't snap over? At the range are you feeding shells from magazine or dropping them in the chamber?

 

[sgt_zim]

It's a standard CRF, feed from the mag only.

Case on the left is once-fired, case on the right is from today at the range.

 

[Hogpatrol]

It's a Zastava.

Twice-fired Norma brass, neck-sized only.

gunked up firing pin spring. Try a primed only round, one with the FTF and another brand.

 

[sgt_zim]

gunked up firing pin spring. Try a primed only round, one with the FTF and another brand.

Another brand of what? Brass or primer?

I have some unfired PPU brass, also have Winchester and Federal LR primers.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

It's a standard CRF, feed from the mag only.

Case on the left is once-fired, case on the right is from today at the range.

View attachment 601884

Compare the shoulders on those two cases. If they are the same, then it's not an issue with dies. The primers look different in other respects. Note the dark ring around edge of primer in right case. Is it seated deeper? Different brand?

 

[Hyde Hunter]

fire one of each new casings with one of each primer and see what they look like, but first pull the firing pin out and clean it and the bolt body, I once had a gunked up bolt and firing pin do that. cleaned and worked great

 

[sgt_zim]

Compare the shoulders on those two cases. If they are the same, then it's not an issue with dies. The primers look different in other respects. Note the dark ring around edge of primer in right case. Is it seated deeper? Different brand?

the dark ring is an artifact of lighting and/or the camera on my phone.

 

[sgt_zim]

gunked up firing pin spring. Try a primed only round, one with the FTF and another brand.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

the dark ring is an artifact of lighting and/or the camera on my phone.

Compare the two cases standing side by side. Any difference in shoulders?

Didn't you say the gunsmith did some work on the extractor. What was that about?

 

[sgt_zim]

Compare the two cases standing side by side. Any difference in shoulders?

Didn't you say the gunsmith did some work on the extractor. What was that about?

There was a high spot on the extractor arm (not sure what that piece is called) that I had him polish down.

No obvious difference in shoulder. I had recently annealed the twice fired brass, so the discoloration from that makes it a little difficult to tell.

 

[shootist~]

Hellooooo 404J!

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

View attachment 601889

@sgt_zim
A very easy check is when the bolt is assembled take it out of the action and decock the bolt.
Once done check the firing pin protrusion is enough. If it is all is good the problem is elsewhere
If firing pin protrusion isn't correct get it rectified.
Bob