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AR15.COM
2/4/2006 10:45:37 PM EDT
After around 1000 rounds or more of flawless firing in my Custom TLE/RL II, I had several rounds fail to fire today. The primers were dented, but not as much as they should be. Does the mainspring need replacing?
2/5/2006 11:45:12 AM EDT
[#1]
Absolutely not, if it's the factory mainspring.  Unless you or someone else cut the mainspring, and I mean by more than a couple coils, it's not that.  The mainspring is designed to last many tens of thousands of rounds, and is quite a bit more powerful than it needs to be.

Anyway, you might have issues with your firing pin safety.  I would recommend going to a knowledgable smith, or calling Kimber.  

Of course, it could always be ammo related too.  I just had two misfires in a row on a reliable gun where the hammer dropped all the way.  It was a Springfield with no mechanical issues or a firing pin safety.  Neither primer had an indentation, and the gun was in perfect mechanical shape.

I had the same happen with a Glock during a class.  Of about 500 rounds fired, I probably had 70 failure to fires.  It was all bad primers in brand new LE Federal ammo.
2/5/2006 10:35:09 PM EDT
[#2]

Quoted:
Absolutely not, if it's the factory mainspring.  Unless you or someone else cut the mainspring, and I mean by more than a couple coils, it's not that.  The mainspring is designed to last many tens of thousands of rounds, and is quite a bit more powerful than it needs to be.

Anyway, you might have issues with your firing pin safety.  I would recommend going to a knowledgable smith, or calling Kimber.  

Of course, it could always be ammo related too.  I just had two misfires in a row on a reliable gun where the hammer dropped all the way.  It was a Springfield with no mechanical issues or a firing pin safety.  Neither primer had an indentation, and the gun was in perfect mechanical shape.

I had the same happen with a Glock during a class.  Of about 500 rounds fired, I probably had 70 failure to fires.  It was all bad primers in brand new LE Federal ammo.

Thanks for the info. I don't think it was the primers because after dropping the hammer on the same round several times failed to ignite it, I put the same bullet in my girlfriend's Colt and it went off the first time. Is replacing the firing pin (with a non-Kimber  one) a drop in replacement, or does it require fitting? I'd take it to a smith, but don't have any reputable ones locally.
2/6/2006 5:06:14 PM EDT
[#3]
Call Kimber, they will talk you through it and either figure it out or fix it.
2/10/2006 3:33:42 PM EDT
[#4]
Drop in a Wilson series 70 firing pin.  It bypasses the series 2 safety and will most likely solve your problems.
2/12/2006 11:04:00 PM EDT
[#5]

Quoted:
Drop in a Wilson series 70 firing pin.  It bypasses the series 2 safety and will most likely solve your problems.

Installed one yesterday. Thanks everyone.