Lat night I was shooting my Beowulf and had 4 misfires out of about 30 rounds. These are reloads and I have shot plenty before without a hitch. Unfortunately I didn't bring my factory loaded rounds to compare.

The primers are about 15-20 years old, but I have shot maybe 50 rounds before loaded with these primers. I tried a double and even triple strike on some of the misfires to no avail , this tells me its a primer issue.

But the failures seemed to come mostly at the end of my string kinda pointing to a gun issue (first 20 were fine, 4 misfires in the last 10).

I am thinking of replacing the hammer spring and firing pin just for good measure, and buying some new primers for the next batch of reloads.

I thought the reloads might be a tad short in headspace but the cases mic'd out to spec.

Can anyone think of anything else that could be the cause ?

Any other solutions ?

Thanks.

1) I'd try new primers.


2) Did you crimp the case? A roll crimp (or even too much of a taper crimp) on a round that headspaces on the case mouth will cause an excess headspace condition.

That's about all I can think of. I've had my upper on two lowers, one with a JP and the other with a Jewell and no failures.

Good luck.

Maybe too much of a taper crimp. But these worked like a charm til yesterday. Same with the primers worked fine til yesterday , it SEEMS like it would be a primer issue, just wierd that they would work fine then stop working.


Another question, what would be the best way to pull these to reclaim my brass ? They are too big to fit in the inertial bullet puller.

[pulling idea out of butt]
If these exact same loads with the same batch of primers worked flawlessly and then started having problems, it does kind of seem like a gun problem.  Do the primer strikes on the misfires [i]look[/i] light?  Are they different from the fired brass?  If they are light, could there be gunk in the firing pin channel that's causing binding?  I've never heard of that on an AR, but...
[/pulling idea out of butt]

Yup exactly what I was thinking, gun problem, but I double and triple struck these and they didn't go off. So sounds like primer problem.

Evidence points both ways, thinking about new primers/firing pin/hammer spring and some cleaning and hopefully it will work :)

[beavis]Hit the damn primer with a nail set and a hammer, if it goes off the issue is gun related....if not -- it's primer related[/beavis]
This is NOT a good idea, simply a poor attempt at comedy. [;D]

BTW, I have an extra complete single stage trigger group from a RRA lower parts kit if you want to try it......

They will fit in a Quinetics slam hammer and come apart. Had to move the bullet out on some that I seated to deep.

It must be scary holding that bad boy by the ears until you know it won't go off. ;-}

I figured out a way it would go into my Quenetics and pulled the bullets, these primers were dead, coulnd get them to go off, I popped them out and replaced them with new primers (from the same box) and popped off the primed cases with no problems. I am thinking maybe some case lube got onto the primers and over time the died ?? , not sure, but I will be buying a new box of large pistol magnum primers anyways.