doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Weird problem-bulged primers?

Working on this Spanish .410--the fired primers are cratered, and bulge into the breech, making it difficult to open. Never saw this before, was thinking something is raising pressures, but the chambers are 3". Hammers not hitting hard enough? No problems setting off primers, but the fired primers have the firing pin dent pushed into the breech face just enough to drag upon opening. Help!

Have you experienced the same problem with new shells from various manufacturers?

Interesting question...just have new Remington on hand here, but I do have two or three 4-5 yr old Winnies. Will try one. Also will try polishing the forcing cones--some roughness there.

Off face?...Geo

The sticky may very well just be a dirty chamber. I have had that occur on a couple of shotguns bought used. One was so hard opening I had to bend it over my knee. Scrubbed the bore with a wad of scotchbrite green wrapped on the end of a cleaning rod and powered by a hand drill. The sticking is gone. Same with a semi auto - shells were just not ejecting. Cheap quick fix in both cases.

Polished the chambers already. Noticed that a Wolf berdan primed slug load opened fine, and a normal looking indent, no crater or bulge. Will try the Winchester tomorrow. Can't find 7 1/2 loads around here, and some nitwit loaded up the shelf at Dick's Sports with 2 1/2" #6, no 3"!!

SOMETIMES the firing pin holes are too large and the pin does
not fill the hole allowing the primer flow back and causing the
action to stick.

Kinda like having to bush the face on a Martini Cadet when barreling to 218 Bee or so.

What is the diameter of the holes?
What is the shank diameter of the firing pins?

Mike

Funny thing XS ,I was working on a Spanish sxs 20 gauge the gun wouldent fire on one side and the gun looked basically unused ,with the exception of a broken /repaired wrist ,I've done everything with this little #$%#@ ,changed springs ,new firing pins ,polished all contact surfaces ...then yesterday it dawned on me to look at the rim recess lo and behold the case rim sits below the breech just a fraction ,if the shell is lodged in just so it go's bang and the primer backs out ,if it don't you get just a slight mark on the primer and obviously nothing ...she locks up tighter than a frogs arse,so I'm pretty sure I nailed it ...I guess the previous owner got so sick of the misfire's he wrapped the stock around the nearest tree

You might be right, newf. The rim recesses are kinda deep, but the extractor recesses are almost normal. Last resort, I have 2 .410 barrels from Numrich's bargain bin(I really miss that bargain bin!) that I can cut sleeves from, and reline the chambers. Egad, what have I gotten into. Good thing, I retired from my EE consulting job 2 weeks ago. Thanks for the input.

Another potential problem that I've seen in the past is the firing pin may not be retracting making the gun difficult to open and deforming the primer at the same time as well.
You may want to try cleaning and re-lubing to see if this helps.

BTW: Is the nitwit shelf stocker at Dick's Perhaps named Coumo?
Jim