hi, new to this forum. Great info on model 94's! I have a model 94 rebounding hammer model. I reload cast loads and have had some problems of misfires. The firing pin hits the primer but even after recocking and pulling the trigger, still will not fire. The shells have been reloaded several times. Does this happen much to anyone? Is there not enough force from the mainspring, or does the rebounding mechanism effect this? Any ideas are welcome. thanks

baileys buddy

How many times you reload them ?
After 3 times the case is changing shape , probably is to short now.
whit a new one it happends ?

these cases been reloaded 10-12 times more or less. They have been trimmed, primer pockets cleaned.. Light loads in them shooting cast bullets at 1500 fps. I use cci primers as recommended by lee in their hand held priming tool. Has only been on the last couple of batches, misfiring in one in 6 or 7 rounds. Have stripped and cleaned my rifle, seems to be okay. I know if the primer is not seated all the way in, the force of the hammer blow will seat, and will fire on the next hammer fall. But these, will not fire at all. Looking at the fired primer, I would not say it is a deep firing pin strike, but same as always, and certainly enough to detonate the primer. How does the case change shape other than overall case stretch after three firings? thanks!

baileysbuddy

baileysbuddy,

You didn't say what caliber you are shooting, so the rest of this post is just general check and double check.

The number of reloads is irrelevent. As long as the primer pocket is tight and the case isn't split their OK. For lever guns full length resizing of the cases is best.

The biggest possibility, since you stated the problem of light strikes occured with reloaded ammo, is insufficiently seated primers.
You need to seat the primers below flush of the case head. .004" is a good measurement to follow.
Seating the primers below flush will put the anvil in physical contact with the bottom of the primer pocket and then when the firing pin strikes the primer it will crush and ignite the priming mix. Otherwise it has to finish seating the primer. Sometimes this will cause the priming mix to crumble and never fire.

Next I'll suggest cleaning the priming pockes if you don't already. This can also cause problems is the residue is allowed to build up.

Another cause of light primer strikes is a lightened main spring. All to common these days. The rebounding hammer action releys on that strong spring to provide speed and impact to propel the skeletonized firing pin forward.

Since you have checked all the above, I'd suggest the primers might be a bit undersensitive, or just plain defective.
To double check the gun purchase a box of Winchester or Remington primers and see if they fire. It won't hurt to use another brand of primer in the Lee tool. Lee just likes CCI.
One comment from experiance, occasionally wash the flip tray to remove the residue left behind by the primers.

Oh, and one more thing. Don't touch primers with your bare fingers. Body oils can kill primers. I had that happen to me when I was first reloading and it drove me nuts till I figured it out.

Joe

thanks for the reply and info Joe. It's a 30-30win. I use a lee tool to clean primer pockets, and am careful about not touching the primers with my fingers. The primers are seated well and still have a tight fit. I will try other brand primers and this has never happened with factory ammo, but have not fired factory loads for some time. How do you measure the seating depth below flush? I have a micrometer, but not sure how to proceed. I have considered the mainspring, and really don't care for the rebounding hammer mechanism, but have been generally happy with the rifle since I bought it new in 1990. Must be something I am doing wrong. thanks

baileysbuddy

To measure the primer seating depth I use the flat rod that extends out of the handle end of my stainless dial caliper.

Roll it out about .015", put the rod in the center of the primer and slowly push the caliper down onto the casehead. I usually tilt the caliper body when it gets close then slowly rock it up to verticle.

It works best if the dial caliper is capable of .0005" measurements. But one that reads to .001" is necessary.


The only 94 with the rebounding hammer action I've ever had is my AE Trapper in .45 Colt. With the original action, or the old half cock action I retro fitted to it, it has no trouble popping primers.
However the .45 Colt uses the softer LP primers.

Since you say your rifle doesn't mis fire with factory ammo, it's either something your doing, or a bad batch of primers.
From what you have said, I'd vote primers.

Joe

[joe,

thanks for the info. I will try different primers.

baileysbuddy

[Jmiller

I checked for primer seating and found that several had not been seated below flush. I found this by using a small steel straight edge across the head. I found 11 out of 50 that were not seated all the way. I've been loading awhile now, my quality control is slipping! Mystery solved, thanks much!

baileysbuddy

You are very welcome. I sometimes find my hand gets tired when I use my Lee priming tool. And when that happens I tend to have high primers.

Another type of priming tool I've been using is the Ram Prime. RCBS, Lyman, Lee and others make them. The neat part is they are adjustable so you can set the primer depth to what you want and it doesn't matter about tollerences after that. The ram will stop when the primer is at the pre-set depth.

Lee makes one with a feed tray that I'm going to try in the future. But I find myself using my Lyman one a lot. Helps keep things consistant. And my hands don't get tired either.

Joe