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shotgun Missfire!


Lunger

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My wife and I both run skb shotguns that have never missfired, ever. We each had one light hit with a missfire. I saved her shell, and measured the rim thickness, and diameter, visually looked it over. The diameter across the rim was ten thousandths less than almost all of them. I thought this might allow the shell to go further in the chamber, causing the firing pin not to reach it. Found another shell like it finally, and put it in the left chamber, stepped onto my porch, and Bang! Anyway, I'm using a different press now, and wondered if my primers were being seated all the way down. Long story short, I placed a penny under my push rod, and now feel the primer bottoming out. I'm going to shoot 50 rounds off this morning. Did I FIX the problem? Trying to get us loaded for WR, and i'm very worried to say the least. Have anyone of you shooters ran into this? Thanks, Lunger

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I don't use sg reloads for a major match. Not that I don't trust my reloads, I just want to make sure everything is going to work as designed. Factory shells seem to shuck better, and that is one less thing to worry about. You're only talking about 4-5 boxes of factory loads, a small price to pay for piece of mind.

Better to be safe than sorry considering one shell hang up could cost a couple seconds or even a 10 second penalty. Good luck at WR.

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I am not familiar with SKB shotguns.

Never held one or looked on over.

Does the SKB have a firing pin retaining nut on the face of the receiver?

If so, try tightening it.

If it has worked loose even by a 1/4 turn, the firing pin will no longer travel far enough to get a good primer hit.

================

From what you have done with the press, look a see if you can adjust the primer depth punch.

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Some brands of primers will have the metal part of the primer recessed a small amount into the cup. I had it happen last weekend and recocked the shotgun twice, it still did not fire. The primers were barely dented. My shotgun generally leaves a good dent in primers. Springs have NOT been lightened.

kR

PS: put them in Shirttails SKB. BOOM BOOM

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What press are you using? I have been reloading my BP and smokeless shells for at least 10 years now and never had a FTF, using my MEC 600's.

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About 6 years ago my son had two FTF reloads, Win 209 primers. One fired in the other barrel the other did not. Looking at the primers the entire face the firing pin strikes looked to be recessed lower than normal, a manufacturing defect. I have not seen any like that since then. I visually inspect all primers now, SG , Small & Lg pistol. I did find one Federal SP primer without an anvil.

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Lumpy, that's what I was suspecting, and that's why I slipped a penny under the push rod for priming. Just fired 50 rounds outta my wife's gun, guess I'll fire another 50 through mine. They all had deep dents too. It was cold the day of the missfires, so I froze the wife's sg in the freezer for a full hr, pulled it out, and BANG! Springfield, its a mec 650. The problem could have been a high primer. I need to know if its fixed or not. I'll go fire another 50 rounds through my gun this time I guess......

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Yes, it is a known problem that some lots of at least Winchester 209 and Federal 209A shotshell primers have deep set primers inside the battery cup of the primer assembly. And then (mostly) double barrel shotguns have problems hitting the primer cup hard enough with the firing pins. I've had both Win 209s and Fed 209As fail to get good hits in my TTN hammered double gun (well known for not having a lot of FP protrusion)

 

 

Here's a page that shows most of the parts of shotshell primers, with labels. The dark gray section around the primer is the "battery cup". It's made of steel (magnetic) even though it may be plated with copper or tin or nickel.

http://claybuster100.tripod.com/claybuster100sshotshellreloadingpage/id13.html

 

The manufacturing problem is that the primer cup gets pushed too deep into the battery cup. So the surface of the primer cup is below the rim of the battery cup by a few thousandths. I've had some Federals that have been as low as 0.013" below the rim! Firing pins sometimes don't have that much protrusion, especially on doubles.

 

So, solutions:

1. Check that tips of firing pins are not damaged or peened and that protrusion is good - this condition causes LOTS of failures to happen from a specific gun, so it's NOT likely for your two SKB guns that both very occasionally have a FTF. That speaks more to ammo problems. So, keep reading.

 

2. INSPECT for deeply seated primers in the battery cups. If the dome of the primer cup is not level with the rim of the battery cup of the primer, don't load it. If you have loaded it already, don't use that ammo in doubles!

 

3. Switch to better made primers. I'm now exclusively using Cheddite 209 primers since the primer cup is flat, always (knock wood) made flush with the outer battery cup, and are cheaper as well.

 

4. Alter the gun or firing pins to give a deeper strike to the primer. With SxS doubles, this can cause the primer to swell back around the tip of the firing pin and lock the gun shut!! Or at least drag against the primer causing gun to be hard to open. So, this "solution" is not often the right thing to do, especially with SxS guns.

 

Good luck, GJ

Edited by Garrison Joe, SASS #60708
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Found another shell like it finally, and put it in the left chamber, stepped onto my porch, and Bang!

Weak hammer spring for the right barrel. Might also be crud in the selector on the trigger that governs which barrel is to be fired. Drop the stock and give the inards a good cleaning

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Has anyone ever seen a fired hull with a light primer hit? I don't think so. I can't remember seeing one.

 

It's the mark in the one that didn't go off that says something is wrong. If you have a good dent in one and it didn't go off, then bad primer. But light strike on a primer that didn't go of says something is wrong. Weak spring, clogged up, short firming pin, gun worn and "off face", primer not seated correctly or two deep?

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lunger, I wont use them if the rim of the primer can't be felt along the brass,,,, I've never had a misfire with checking them like that,,, every misfire I've seen the rim is pressed into the primer hole deeper than I like,,, I found this when I had some problems years ago, now I try to make sure I check every loaded shell for this, and have seen plenty of new ones with the same problem

 

I also quite using FEDs 209s because the was about a .003 variance in the depth of the primer cup.....

 

no feely primer rim,, no usey shell!!

Edited by Cheyenne Culpepper 32827
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I'm pretty sure I had a couple primers not fully seated last Saturday. I've placed a shim, or "penny" under the push rod to insure the primer is bottomed out each time, and fired 50 rounds through her gun and 50 through mine with no misfires, and deep dents. Culpepper, could I get you to take a quick look at my primer depth when I see you at the range? I'll bring factory sts also, but my wife hates the recoil of the factory ammo. My reloads feel about like the featherlite ammo did, and she's fine with that. It just has to fire everytime though. Lol!

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sure thing!! I use Cheditte now,,, nary a miss fire or primer seated too deeply now.. I fly in on monday and will be out at cowtown tues and wed some,,, as well at the range

 

440 452 0129

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I've been using the CCI 209 magnum primers for the last few years. Never have had a FTF with those or the Winchester 209's. The only FTF's I've had have been with the Federal 209's. I had 8 FTF's out of 50 with the Federals. And that was after switching barrels to see if it was the firing pin not doing it's job. I load on a MEC 9000.

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