Random misfire, light firing pin strike?

[Bark]

Something a little new to me... I have a Tikka T3 in .243 which I've had for a couple of years with no problems.

Recently was out shooting for the day and had a round not fire. After removing it an examining it there is the tiniest mark where the firing pin has barely touched the primer.

After that did plenty of shots no problem, even put the mis-fired round back through and the second time around it fired no problem. Proper deep firing pin strike mark and all.

I guess the pin got stuck somewhere in it's travel? I've seen damaged pins responsible for semi-regular misfires, but never had a rifle just touch the primer gently once then keep on working fine afterwards?

[Bark]

Firing factory Federal ammo by the way.

Cheers.

[tarnagulla]

Fed primers are pretty soft, too... My guess, particularly as it seems to have been a "one-off" occurrence, is that some piece of gunk interfered with firing pin travel, but dislodged sufficiently to permit normal ignition for subsequent rounds? If so, it might pay to strip the bolt down and thoroughly clean, just in case said piece of gunk is still lurking, waiting to strike again when least expected or wanted!

[RealNick]

Federal has been my brand of ammo for some time with no problem. It's reliable in my experience.

You've looked at the firing pin and there's no damage obviously? Is it a really old rifle? Maybe some wear on the firing pin rather than visible damage?

Sounds like tarnagulla is on the right track... Bit of debris stuck in your bolt assembly?

[Aussier]

Time to get out the manual for disassembling and cleaning your bolt.

[Rocker]

Perfect excuse to buy a new rifle, he he.

[5bins]

I had the exact same thing happen.

1 random misfire with nearly no mark on the primer.

Shot the same round again fine, and never had the problem again.

I reckon a bit of dirt on the firing ping too.

[Don10]

Had that issue before and it was a build up of crap behind the extractor claw. As suggested strip and clean the bolt. Mine was due to the dust left over from tumbling mixing with oil in the extractor groove of the cartridge, this impeded full travel of the firing pin and soft striking the primer.

[Bark]

Had that issue before and it was a build up of crap behind the extractor claw. As suggested strip and clean the bolt. Mine was due to the dust left over from tumbling mixing with oil in the extractor groove of the cartridge, this impeded full travel of the firing pin and soft striking the primer.

I suspect mine was more or less the same issue.

Gave it a proper clean and got a noticeable amount of crap out/off of the nooks and crannies of the bolt.

No problems again so far, will pay more attention to the little build up areas in future.