Was a bit of primer stuck in my firing pin hole?

[threeoh]

Hopefully one of the pros can clear this up.

The story is...

Shooting away, all was well... Shooting a box of factory ammo, not hand loads, nothing fancy.

No problems in the shooting itself, except that over the course of 2-3 shots the bolt suddenly got quite difficult to open.

I couldn't see any problem so pushed on, same for a few shots then it seemed to just fix itself for no reason.

I didn't think to keep the brass until after. By then it was someone on the hill of spent brass in front of the firing line.

Could a primer have ruptured and I had a bit stuck in the pin hole for a while that worked its way out?

Or what do you think happened?

Had no problems for the rest of the day so I'm lost...

[Farmjer]

I'd be surprised if you had a bit of factory primer slip in and out of the firing pin hole so quickly.

When something hard like that gets stuck in there, it's usually *stuck* in there.

I'd say it's more likely you just got a bit of dirt or other softer debris blow in to the action or something.

[Triang]

You didn't just look at the primer of the spent cartridge to see if anything was broken?

[Triang]

Ah nevermind... Glossed over the bit about not keeping the brass.

[SendIt]

I'd say it's more likely you just got a bit of dirt or other softer debris blow in to the action or something.

Ditto.

If I doubt strip and clean your bolt to ensure nothing is floating around in there which may cause a problem again.

[RDobber]

This is probably taking the lazy option, but...

If it feels 100% again I wouldn't bother with stripping the bolt for the moment... Like above, you could have just had a bit of grit come and go and be wasting your time cleaning it.

Personally, I'd do a few more trips and see how it goes before I bothered with that...

[Lorgar]

No problems in the shooting itself, except that over the course of 2-3 shots the bolt suddenly got quite difficult to open.

I'm saying no to the primer probably.

I've had the exact same thing suddenly happen on my old Ruger, definitely not the primer...

Broke it down, cleaned it, problem solved.

Never could see what the actually problem was though. No debris that I could see in cleaning it... Just enough to irritate the bolt.

[RDobber]

Now you've seen the light and bought a Tikka instead

[threeoh]

Never could see what the actually problem was though. No debris that I could see in cleaning it... Just enough to irritate the bolt.

I couldn't see anything wrong after either.

I opened the bolt, couldn't see anything and just put it back together. Like I said about though, smooth to operate after a few shots again anyway so I dunno...

[threeoh]

Personally, I'd do a few more trips and see how it goes before I bothered with that...

Yeah that's the plan.

If it sticks again I'll give it a proper once over.

[Bills Shed]

The stiff bolt sounded familiar.

I had a Ruger M77 Mk2 in 223 rem, and was working my way through a case of Norinco ammo. This was some serious hot ammo (or just hard primers)and about every 50 shots or so a primer would pop and a small piece would blow back into the bolt via the firing pin hole.

The first time it did it the bolt was stiff to open but freed up quickly. I did not know the cause. When it happened again I ignored it and kept going. By the third time, the rifle did not fire again.

I stripped the bolt in the field and found the 3 pieces of primer caught in the firing pin spring. This was jamming the firing pin. Once clean no dramas. Over the life of that case of ammo I learnt to pull the bolt apart in seconds with the help of a piece of barbed wire.

In short I would strip the bolt and have a look. The pieces are very small.

Bill

[threeoh]

In short I would strip the bolt and have a look. The pieces are very small.

I couldn't see anything at the time, but perhaps I wasn't looking close enough.

TBH I basically opened the bolt and wiped it all out, had a quick quick look then lubed it up again and rebuilt it.

Could have been a bit I missed for sure.

Next time at the range I'll be paying closer attention.