Duds!

[NewShooter]

New Savage 11
Bought ammo on line and having over 25% dud rate. Literally 13 duds out of 40 bullets.
Tulammo 150gr .308
When they shoot, they shoot pretty straight on my home 100yr range, when they shoot that is.
Is this normal with cheap ammo? Is this you get what you pay for or can the firing pin be adjusted.
I did a little research and saw people complaining about 1 out of 150 were duds but this is isane.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47989826511_61641f7f47_z.jpg

[Robinhood]

Try different ammo and see what your success rate is.

[TXRoadlizard]

New Savage 11
Bought ammo on line and having over 25% dud rate. Literally 13 duds out of 40 bullets.
Tulammo 150gr .308
When they shoot, they shoot pretty straight on my home 100yr range, when they shoot that is.
Is this normal with cheap ammo? Is this you get what you pay for or can the firing pin be adjusted.
I did a little research and saw people complaining about 1 out of 150 were duds but this is isane.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47989826511_61641f7f47_z.jpg
TulAmmo is the cheapest of the cheap. The quality control just is not there. I've never had more than 2 or 3% (estimating), but that is unacceptable high. What you are describing is beyond unacceptable. I bet you could fire 1000 rounds of any US manufacturer through that Model 11 without a single misfire. Hope you didn't buy 500 rounds of TulAmmo!

[Robinhood]

Plus if that is the new bolt design, it just does not seam to hit with the same energy as the old firing pin assembly.

[Fordoldfart]

Those use military primers and the are hard. As the man said get some USA Ammo and my bet there won’t be a miss fire.

[varget204]

Try other ammo to see if you have same problem,if not it's the cheap ammo.If other [good] ammo does not fire,it may be firing pin protrusion.should be .050-.055

[charlie b]

I would consider that a rifle problem and it is unacceptable. It is cheap ammo with harder primers but it should fire ok in your rifle. Did you try firing the ammo a second or third time? As stated before, try some decent ammo.

It may be that you just have some grit inside the bolt that needs to be cleaned out.

[GaCop]

Definitely light primer styrikers on those hard primers. Let us know what it does shooting U.S commercial ammunition.

[NewShooter]

Shot 10 rounds ( all I had on hand ) of Federal - Fusion 150 gr .308 and not a single misfire
Back to the Tulamma and 2 out of 10 duds, tried to fire them both again and was able to shoot one of the two.
This was after running bore snake and taking out bolt and cleaning it.
Will run to Wallyworld or something after work and pick up couple boxes of ammo and keep everyone posted. Thanks for all the input.

[Texas10]

I would be curious to see a measurement of base to shoulder dimension (head space) of the ammo that is failing to fire. I'll bet it's on the short side of SAAMI spec. and possibly your chamber is on the high side.

That would be a likely cause of FTF, especially with primers known to have a hard cup. Do you have gages to measure the headspace of the cartridge?https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012743827/hornady-lock-n-load-headspace-gauge-5-bushing-set-with-comparator

If you have one (or get one) and make this measurement, compare it to cases that have been fired from your chamber and let us know what the difference is.

At the range last week I spoke to a shooter who complained about a particular batch of brand name primer having a FTF rate of something like 40%. I suggested he check his primer seating process and cartridge headspace. In return I got a quizzical look from him that told me he was perhaps new to hand loading.

When the cartridge is formed with a minimum or short base to shoulder length (head space) or fired in a chamber with a too long head space setting (bolt face to chamber shoulder) the firing pin will hit the primer and slam the cartridge forward against the shoulder while significantly reducing the firing pin hit energy. In extreme cases this might be so far forward that the firing pin is no longer making contact with the primer. In many cases a FTF will occur but sometimes will fire if tried again.

[Nor Cal Mikie]

My guess, by the looks of the primer strikes is that the head space is too long. NOT the chamber head space but the length of the brass compared to the actual chamber measurement. Firing pin hits the primer and being that the brass is short and can move forward in the chamber, round gets pushed forward you end up with a FTF and lite primer strikes.
If you had a way, you could pull the bullets out a little to increase the OAL with the bullets touching the lands and the case head being held against the bolt head. Once fired, the brass would be formed to your chamber and the FTF would be a thing of the past.

[NewShooter]

*gives same quizzical look* I think a set of gages is in the near my future. I can physcially see a difference between the bullets that always fire and the bullets that regularly misfire.

I have a basic understnading of the physics as explained and it makes sense.

[CFJunkie]

Federal 210 primers that Federal uses in the Fusion ammo are some of the softest primers available.
Tula primers are some of the hardest.
The firing pin springs on AK and SKS rifles are incredibly strong for that reason.

There are a lot of other reasons - many already stated in this thread - that could add to light primer strikes, but if you get no FTF with good factory ammo with standard primers, I would not be concerned with the rifle.
If there are intermittent FTFs with ammo that is well known for its reliability, then it's time to check out the firing pin spring, head space, etc.

[Robinhood]

If you do check your firing pin protrusion and find it between .035 and .045, you are golden! after somewhere between .020 and .035 you are only reducing your firing pin travel.

[snowgetter1]

I purchased 1000 Tula small rifle primers because they were cheap several years ago. Loaded them in 223 and probably had at least 50-75 misfires. Never bought another Tula thing again.

[NewShooter]

10 rds of winchester, 10 rounds of different type of Federal ( not fusion ) and not a single misfire.
10 more rounds of Tulacrap and 2 of 10 misfires. Guess you get what you pay for.

[Stumpkiller]

Is this normal with cheap ammo?

Not at all. I have Korean War era (1952-1955) Chinese, Czech and Greek .303 and 7.62 x 59R surplus ammo that is 100% ignition.

But maybe it's a question of cheap vs. inexpensive.

[JeepsAndGuns]

The tula ammo is cheap ammo with hard berdain primers. I am pretty sure it is made with military style semi auto rifles in mind.
So firing it from a bolt action designed for soft primer commercial hunting ammo, yea I can see the potential for issues.
I have a dislike for any steel cased ammo. The only thing I shoot it in is my mosin nagants. And that is rare at that.