light firing pin strikes in AR??

marlin1895gs

marlin1895gs

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hey guys, i was out testing some reloads in my armalite and about 20 percent of the rounds weren't hit hard enough to ignite.. i got tired of chucking them and tried a couple over and they went.. is there anything common with this or did i maybe get a bad batch of primers, i had some fed. 205 and some of them rem. 6 1/2's but mostly fed's.
 
Light Strikes

That's usually a sign they weren't seated deeply enough. Especially if they go bang the second time. I would double check with a straight edge and a strong light that they are in all the way.
Did you do any work on the trigger? Sometimes if the spring on your hammer isn't put back in properly you will get light strikes. That is probably a long shot but worth checking if you did have your hammer/spring apart recently.
 
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no i havent' touched it in a long time, just sprayed it out with cleaner, some of the brass had to be swaged or whatever.. military stuff or something and its on my lnl ap, maybe i'll try hand priming some and go from there. is it possible there could be built up #### in the firing pin area?
 
marlin1895gs said:
no i havent' touched it in a long time, just sprayed it out with cleaner, some of the brass had to be swaged or whatever.. military stuff or something and its on my lnl ap, maybe i'll try hand priming some and go from there. is it possible there could be built up s**t in the firing pin area?
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Do you mean you have some military brass that had the primer pockets swaged to remove the military crimp? That could be your problem right there. If they aren't done properly, you will have difficulty priming them all the way in. I found them to be such a pain I just use commercial brass instead as there is lots of that around.

As far as crud goes around your firing pin area, there's only one way to find out. Take your bolt apart and clean it.
 
yeah i might abandon that stuff all together, when i went out, it was clean in and out, shouldn't be a prob. just figured i'd mention it. some of the primers dont even stay in the holes, others are tight as could be.. i betcha its just the brass
 
scrub the firing pin hole from the big end <-- I don't know if that sounds right or not

I'm always amazed at how just a little dirt/gunk/carbon will stop something from working properly
 
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