I am having an issue with not one, but two .50 Beowulf barrel and bolt combos purchased from Midway USA (These are both marked ".50 Beowulf" and were sold as such, not the metric designation they use now). The barrels are the 16" stainless 1-20" twist.

I am experiencing pierced primers with AA factory ammunition. This is occurring with two different boxes and types. The first type is with 335 grain Rainier's and the second box is with 325 grain Speer HP's. In the pictures below you can see what I am getting. On the primers that don't pierce, the primer strike appears to be very deep.




Now, my troubleshooting has gone as follows:

-First barrel, experience pierced primers on first couple rounds.
-Replace firing pin to see if firing pin is the issue. Still get pierced primers.
-Order replacement bolt from Umlaut (AA was out at the time). Put new bolt in with second firing pin. Experience pierced primers.
-Try original firing pin with new bolt. NO pierced primers and normal looking primer strikes.

All the above was with a box of 335 grain Rainer FP ammunition. I was unable to get a new box of ammo for a couple weeks. I then located a box of 325 grain Speers and headed to the range. I experienced the exact same events as above with the new box of ammo.

Enter the new barrel and bolt I purchased new, unfired on the EE. I figured I must have gotten a bad barrel/bolt combo and would send the original back to Midway. The very first round I fired pierced the primer. This was with the bolt that was headspaced to the barrel and the second firing pin from above. I swap firing pins and still get pierced primers and very deep strikes.

That leaves me where I am now. I have not tried the replacement bolt in this new barrel yet. I am going to run out of ammo and firing pins pretty soon if this keeps up. I would also like to note that when firing, the rounds that didn't pierce were grouping together, but the rounds that did pierce would impact 5 to 6" higher and seemed to have noticeably more recoil.

So I am asking for anyone's help on this. Has anyone seen this before with either the Midway barrels or any other barrels? What could be causing this to happen on not one, but two barrel/bolt combos? I thought the odds of having two out of spec barrels/bolts was pretty low, but maybe I'm wrong. At this point I'm screaming uncle and asking for help or suggestions. I figured this forum was probably the best place to get first hand knowledge.

Although your barrels were marked as 50 Beowulf, we did not supply these items to Midway, nor do we have any information concerning the specifications these were made to. Equally we cannot verify the suitability or not of parts used from other vendors either alone or in combination with these barrels.

The Beowulf ammunition from our factory is designed to function correctly within Beowulf rifles. We routinely test both ammunition and rifles as every weapon is test fired prior to dispatch. The problem you are experiencing may result from the firing pin protrusion or the firing pin hole may be in error. It may also see an origin in the chamber pressure which could be incorrect if the chamber is not correctly dimensioned.