Buddy's Maverick 88 is light striking on some primers

[TheCoachZed]

Buddy dropped off his lightly-used Maverick 88 last week, saying it wouldn't fire all shells, only some.

The nut on the mag tube was loose, so I figured that was his problem. Stripped the gun down anyway, cleaned, saw nothing amiss. Re-assembled, shot off three shells in my back 40, saw no issues, and gave it back to him.

He says it did the same thing again yesterday when his 16-yr-old had some black ducks lined up. Sooooo I would like to attempt to fix it again. Suggestions, aside from the obvious strip-the-bolt-entirely-down solution?

 

[lucky07]

did you pull the firing pin when you stripped it and how cold is it where he's hunting?

I had issues with an old maverick that had been given to me because it was light striking in the cold. Junk around the firing pin + oil + cold weather was causing the problem. I think humidity getting caught in the mix wasn't helping as well as I think it would freeze and gum things up even more in the cold. A little lock de-icer down the firing pin seemed to solve the problem temporarily (did that on multiple occasions) before I pulled the pin to clean everything properly and ever so slightly lowered/polished the shoulders on the firing pin with emery cloth to give it just that little (basically nothing) extra travel.

Since then I haven't had a problem with it at all.

It was very disappointing to have picked the right spot, coyote comes out far ahead of the dogs so it's not too stressed. I have my shotgun at the ready, he hasn't seen me yet and is heading straight for me. Let him get closer, closer, closer, 15 yards out, bead right on him, pull the trigger and ..... CLICK! Son of a B*^#*%&%&*. Well, now he's seen me and has decided to change course and increase steam big time. Rack the slide, CLICK!. Rack it again, BANG! flop.

Sometimes it was CLICK! aaaand he just bolted back into the bush. Extremely frustrating to say the least.

 

[Bushbasher]

I had mine misfire with slugs only everything else I fed it it ran perfectly for whatever reason it wouldn’t touch off slugs

 

[legi0n]

try replacing the firing pin
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/for...find-parts?p=18334392&viewfull=1#post18334392

 

[alpining]

I had mine misfire with slugs only everything else I fed it it ran perfectly for whatever reason it wouldn’t touch off slugs

Probably just because of different primers (harder material). Boosting the firing pin energy would probably solve it. If everything involved in fire control is clean and properly lubed, then stoning the sliding surfaces might help transfer enough energy from the hammer spring to the hammer to the firing pin.

Cold weather tends to make this problem worse with too much lube, or the wrong kind of lube.