Tikka 223: Pierced Primers and Firing Pin Size

[AZ Gator]

I just measured the firing pin of my 65CM bolt from the non-threaded days, 0.069”

I also just measured the firing pin from my month old 223 stainless with factory threads, 0.069”

 

[The Harbor Master]

Firing pin on my T3x blued Lite Compact (purchased March 2025) at 0.068"

Firing pin on my T3x SuperLite 7RM (purchased January 2022) at 0.068"

Gets some gnarly craters on Hornady Frontier 75gr HPBT... not going to shoot this again. 6 out of 20rds failed to fire / light strike.



I did shoot another 30rds of the BoneFrog 77 TMK. Some primers had a little crater, some didn't. No pierced primers thankfully, and no light strikes.



Not trying to derail the thread, I hope it's ok to ask since we are talking about .223 firing pins and primers... does anyone have insight as to why the Frontier would fail so bad, but BoneFrog is fine? Is Frontier loaded with a harder primer? I also had some FTF with Hornady Black 75gr and 73gr ELDm, albeit more like 1 in 20. Firing pin assembly and inside of bolt body are clean and free of lube/grease. Everything factory.

Maybe in my case BoneFrog using CCI400 works to my advantage?

 

[Tahoe1305]

Blued 20" muzzle threaded

Had same issue with my BF 77TMK and 20” blued.

 

[The Harbor Master]

Had same issue with my BF 77TMK and 20” blued.

Curious if you have the same "small" firing pin.

 

[Tahoe1305]

H

Curious if you have the same "small" firing pin.

Haven’t taken it apart to measure.

Only ammo down the pipe has been that bonefrog though. Piercing 1 in 5 or so. Sadly I haven’t thought much of it until I saw the post.

 

[Formidilosus]

Firing pin on my T3x blued Lite Compact (purchased March 2025) at 0.068"

Firing pin on my T3x SuperLite 7RM (purchased January 2022) at 0.068"

Gets some gnarly craters on Hornady Frontier 75gr HPBT... not going to shoot this again. 6 out of 20rds failed to fire / light strike.

View attachment 1028941

I did shoot another 30rds of the BoneFrog 77 TMK. Some primers had a little crater, some didn't. No pierced primers thankfully, and no light strikes.

View attachment 1028945

Not trying to derail the thread, I hope it's ok to ask since we are talking about .223 firing pins and primers... does anyone have insight as to why the Frontier would fail so bad, but BoneFrog is fine? Is Frontier loaded with a harder primer? I also had some FTF with Hornady Black 75gr and 73gr ELDm, albeit more like 1 in 20. Firing pin assembly and inside of bolt body are clean and free of lube/grease. Everything factory.

Maybe in my case BoneFrog using CCI400 works to my advantage?

Because Hornady frontier generally uses a mil primer. It happens in bolt guns with lots of different “5.56mm nato” ammo.


Why don’t care about slight cratering of a primer?

 

[The Harbor Master]

Because Hornady frontier generally uses a mil primer. It happens in bolt guns with lots of different “5.56mm nato” ammo.


Why don’t care about slight cratering of a primer?

Copy that, thanks. If you're asking why I care about the craters, I suppose I just assumed that deep cratering like that is "closer" to piercing a primer than just a normal dimple, but I may be wrong on that. I have always read it's less "desirable" so to speak, as it can indicate pressure issues, headspace issues, etc. But you know what happens when one assumes...

Doesn't bother me beyond that, though. If it goes bang instead of click with no problems, I'm happy.

 

[Formidilosus]

Copy that, thanks. If you're asking why I care about the craters, I suppose I just assumed that deep cratering like that is "closer" to piercing a primer than just a normal dimple, but I may be wrong on that. I have always read it's less "desirable" so to speak, as it can indicate pressure issues, headspace issues, etc. But you know what happens when one assumes...

Doesn't bother me beyond that, though. If it goes bang instead of click with no problems, I'm happy.

No, it doesn’t really matter. If you aren’t having issues, it’s not an issue.

 

[coast range]

Sorry for the slow response. I ordered my .223 end of January from euro. 20” blue factory thread pin is .685

 

[Pharmseller]

Mystery solved, those are inappropriate primers for 223, even moreso for 5.56, and cause problems all over the place.

I’ve used CCI400 in 7 different Tikka .223s since 2008 or so. No issues.