Rusty bolt and firing pin...

[marshall]

I load for a few friend rifles. One buddy has an old Rem 700 chambered in .308 Winchester that has been around for a long time.

I loaded up 24 rounds, 4 shots each in stepped increments for him to try out in his rifle. About half didn't fire, I was puzzled. I've never had a mis fire in any of my loads to date.

I examined his rifle carefully. I took his bolt apart and found a lot of rust on the firing pin and spring as well as the inside of the bolt. I replaced the pin and spring from Midway parts and soaked the bolt in navel jelly to remove the rust. After a clean up I soaked the bolt in Kroil penetrant oil over night and wiped clean.

All is working properly now. My feeling are that the rust slowed the action of the firing pin force and caused the mis fires. Keep an eye on your parts and lube them up once and a while.

I've never seen this before but I suppose it could happen a damp environment fairly easy.:eek:

[Amigo Will]

Happens alot when guns go from hot to cold

[ADfields]

I load for a few friend rifles. One buddy has an old Rem 700 chambered in .308 Winchester that has been around for a long time.

I loaded up 24 rounds, 4 shots each in stepped increments for him to try out in his rifle. About half didn't fire, I was puzzled. I've never had a mis fire in any of my loads to date.

I examined his rifle carefully. I took his bolt apart and found a lot of rust on the firing pin and spring as well as the inside of the bolt. I replaced the pin and spring from Midway parts and soaked the bolt in navel jelly to remove the rust. After a clean up I soaked the bolt in Kroil penetrant oil over night and wiped clean.

All is working properly now. My feeling are that the rust slowed the action of the firing pin force and caused the mis fires. Keep an eye on your parts and lube them up once and a while.

I've never seen this before but I suppose it could happen a damp environment fairly easy.:eek:

I bet $5 the guy has a swamp cooler at his house down there, if not now at some point! I have had the same thing on 3 guns that spent the summer leaned in a corner at my house in Glendale Arizona, swamp coolers and guns don’t play well together. It pitted the bore on one of the 3 kind of bad but the others were chromed bores and cleaned up with some work.

[marshall]

It's been an AZ rifle it's whole life.

It spent the last several years in a safe with no attention. I was quite shocked to be honest with you. No swamp cooler, he's loaded and only the best A/C for him. The climate is very dry here quite a surprise to see so much rust.

Anyway, all is fine now, just passing along some info for you guys to think about.

[allen-ak]

I have a 700 243 that the ejector rusted closed some how when I was in college in Colorado. The gun travel from AK to back east then on to CO. What puzzled me is how the darn thing got stuck in a compressed mode. I check the ejector regularly on any 700's I shoot with

[Eastwoods]

Happens alot when guns go from hot to cold

Actually, its the other way around. From cold to hot. Or from the freezing outside into a warm house. Like a cold brew builds water droplets on the outside of it when you take it out of the fridge......condensation.

[marshall]

I finished the load tweaking on that 308 today. 27 shots no miss fires, problem solved.

Final load:

Varget 44.4gr
CCI 200
Winchester brass 2.05"
Barnes Tipped TSX 168gr BC .424
COL 2.810
measured velocity 2652fps

This is a nice old rifle that consistently placed the shots inside of 3/4" at 100 yards.