Nosler ammo

[DGY]

Good day all,
I went to the range today with the new Merkel and tried 3 different ammo, 165gn federal fusion, 165gn Nosler balistic tip and 178gn Hornady ELD-X….
Just shooting the open sights since I’m still waiting for the scope mount!
First 6 shots at 25m, 3 shots each of the federal and the nosler, federal went off every time no problems… the nosler on the other hand needed to be strike twice, thought it was odd, but both hit really close together and where I was aiming so I was happy with that!
Then I moved at 100m same thing, shot 3 rounds each of the fusion and nosler, same thing again, fusion all good nosler same tow strike needed… so I thought I have the eld-x I will try a round and see and it went off the first time like the fusion and like it should!
First time I have that happened to me that one brand of ammo doesn’t go off on the first pull( other than some 22lr).
Anyone ever had that happen with the nosler ammo?
Anyway the rifle at a 100m was just as good( groups opens up) but everything was landing when I aimed elevation and windage wise! Never had to adjust the sights!
At 5 lbs it is a pretty light rifle and the lightest I’ve shot I think and might take a little practice to get those groupes to tighten up, that said 3.75” @100 with open sights and a new rifle and that light I was happy for now !!

 

[TJCote]

I had an experience that might be similar to yours…with a new Anschutz 1771 in .222Rem. I was doing load development using different SR primers and loads. I had a large number of failure to fires. I went back to the reloading bench and found all reloads made with CCI BR-4 and CCI 450 primers had about 25% F2F’s. Some fired on the second hit but many did not. I found that 100% of the ammo loaded with Fed 205’s primers fired on the first hit.

I discovered that some rifle manufacturers like Anschutz use minimum strength firing pin springs to aid in accuracy. The idea being that an excessive force of a firing pin “hit” negatively affects accuracy.

I wonder if this might be the same issue that you are experiencing…that your rifle might have a firing pin spring on the weaker side (intentionally?).

Last point, different ammo manufacturers use different primers. Federal primers are known to be among the softest and presumably the easiest to ignite.

Ultimately I worried about ignition of my ammo in cold weather hunting situations so I ordered a heavier firing pin spring. I’m happy to say that my ignition problem completely disappeared.

 

[DGY]

I had an experience that might be similar to yours…with a new Anschutz 1771 in .222Rem. I was doing load development using different SR primers and loads. I had a large number of failure to fires. I went back to the reloading bench and found all reloads made with CCI BR-4 and CCI 450 primers had about 25% F2F’s. Some fired on the second hit but many did not. I found that 100% of the ammo loaded with Fed 205’s primers fired on the first hit.

I discovered that some rifle manufacturers like Anschutz use minimum strength firing pin springs to aid in accuracy. The idea being that an excessive force of a firing pin “hit” negatively affects accuracy.

I wonder if this might be the same issue that you are experiencing…that your rifle might have a firing pin spring on the weaker side (intentionally?).

Last point, different ammo manufacturers use different primers. Federal primers are known to be among the softest and presumably the easiest to ignite.

Ultimately I worried about ignition of my ammo in cold weather hunting situations so I ordered a heavier firing pin spring. I’m happy to say that my ignition problem completely disappeared.

I had that happen with Remington primers, I switch and never had an issue again.
As for the firing pin spring you might be right.
I will run a few test, try the rounds in an other rifle, and resize one brass and use one of my primers and try in the rifle…. Maybe I will figure out something.