Tikka T3X Failure to Fire

[Rugger7622]

Just got back shooting 28 rounds. Had 7 FTF's. On each of them I had solid strikes, 2 of them fired on the second time, the other 5 did not. These are all my reloads with CCI 450's.

Can someone confirm, I can swap my firing pin/spring assembly from another tikka (22 Creedmoor) to isolate the spring/pin issue? I find various opinions when searching.

 

[Lawnboi]

Just got back shooting 28 rounds. Had 7 FTF's. On each of them I had solid strikes, 2 of them fired on the second time, the other 5 did not. These are all my reloads with CCI 450's.

Can someone confirm, I can swap my firing pin/spring assembly from another tikka (22 Creedmoor) to isolate the spring/pin issue? I find various opinions when searching.

All the firing pins are the same. You could even order one and swap it out if needed.

 

[Dan Carey]

Looks like you are having more trouble with your reloads than factory. You can try this, when resizing your brass. Back the die off a full turn from touching the shell holder, size a few and try them in the rifle to make sure the bolt will close on them. Then prime them and shoot them without powder just to see if you have FTF.

 

[Antares]

I haven’t changed anything since I bought the gun from the previous owner, except mount the scope in the rail. I’ll post an update on factory ammo fit in an hour or so.

Did you just mount the scope or did you mount the rail also?

Make sure the forward rail mounting screws aren't protruding into the action and binding the bolt. That will produce a FTF.

 

[Dan Carey]

I would concentrate on the firing mechanism as the problem
Marks on the firing pin from dragging inside the bolt
Is the length of the firing pin spring the same as your others.
Trigger dragging on the cocking piece.

 

[Rugger7622]

The gun came with the rail mounted. There are no marks on the bolt from any apparent dragging. I'll measure my other firing pins tonight and springs. How would I check if the trigger is dragging on the cocking piece?

All failure to fire primer strikes look solid - that's what's strange to me. No evidence of light primer strikes at all, in 20% of the cases the round fires on a bolt-lift re-cock.

 

[Lawnboi]

The gun came with the rail mounted. There are no marks on the bolt from any apparent dragging. I'll measure my other firing pins tonight and springs. How would I check if the trigger is dragging on the cocking piece?

All failure to fire primer strikes look solid - that's what's strange to me. No evidence of light primer strikes at all, in 20% of the cases the round fires on a bolt-lift re-cock.

I know you said it’s happening on factory but how are you sizing your brass?

 

[Dan Carey]

Use a sharpie of magic marker on the cocking piece and the sear on the trigger assembly. Insert the bolt and pull the trigger and hold it back while removing the bolt, see if you have drag marks on the pieces.

You can have good looking marks on the primers that didn't fire simply because the firing pin went forward. Maybe just not fast enough.

The primers have lead styphnate sandwiched between the cup and anvil which provides the fire to ignite the powder. Think about it this way. The old cap guns of yesteryear has a similar mixture and were susceptible to light hammer strikes. If the hammer had a bad spring it didn't hit the cap with the SPEED needed to fire the mixture. You can crush a primer slowly and it won't go off.

 

[Eleven]

If these failure-to-fires were all on reloads I‘a say you weren’t priming the brass correctly. A primer needs to be seated fully down so that the anvil compresses. If it doesn’t compress it will not fire, even with a solid strike.

OP, what are you using for a priming tool?

 

[Rugger7622]

If these failure-to-fires were all on reloads I‘a say you weren’t priming the brass correctly. A primer needs to be seated fully down so that the anvil compresses. If it doesn’t compress it will not fire, even with a solid strike.

OP, what are you using for a priming tool?

I've now used two different priming tools, the Derreco primer, and this time a lee auto primer, to try to rule that out as well.

 

[Rugger7622]

I know you said it’s happening on factory but how are you sizing your brass?

With a Forster bench rest die, bumping the shoulder back .002" from fired brass

 

[Lawnboi]

With a Forster bench rest die, bumping the shoulder back .002" from fired brass

You about have it all covered.

How about rest action screw protrusion?

 

[Rugger7622]

I can check them. I currently have them tightened to 45 in a stocky vg stock.

 

[Rugger7622]

I just measured the brass from today firings against my resized brass and my brass is only growing by about .001" fired with a pretty stout load of x8208 and TAC. I don't have any experience with 223 brass, does this seem normal? It's LC brass, BTW.