Axis light primer strike issue

With a google search I found very little other than send it to the factory. They will not accept the rifle as i made a few mods to it. What i do know is it started life at Wal mart where i bought it for $214.00. It had the same problem I have now. Light primer strikes. The first box of factory ammo was fine. however the gun had a hard bolt lift. I loaded up Lapua large and small primer loads. Same deal. I cleaned the bolt assembly and somewhat better results.

My thought was bad chambering, bad bolt internals or ? I looked though all 4 pages of the axis threads with no fixes. I can do some machine work or will pay for the proper fix.

Here is a pic of the chassis I built. The bottom piece is an AICS mag extension. Chambered in 6gt with a go gage and scotch tape with slight drag. Criterion barrel. And no I didn't check the case to barrel dimension as I just read it tonight.

Sorry can't post an attachment yet.

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Might consider the brass a problem?? "Factory loaded ammo" isn't one size fits all. Easiest way to check is make the OAL of the ammo longer so the bullet is jammed into the lands and in turn holds the case head against the bolt head.
Once fire formed, the case fits the chamber, holds the case head back against the bolt head and gets a solid strike.
Had that FTF problem way back when, (not with an Axis) figured it out and never had that problem again.
Rifles are test fired at the factory before they get shipped out so my guess is it's after market ammo related. Might try a different brand of ammo.
Know anybody that reloads? Find someone with a Kinetic ammo hammer to get a longer AOL.

The brass is new alpha 6gt. All cases had a mandrel ran through them and base to neck measured. -.003 off the go gauge setting.

Try loading LONG (into the lands) and see if you still get FTF.

Let me give all the details I can from day one with the gun. This will get long so bear with me. Axis II from wal mart 6.5 creed. The first ammo was hornady ? I reloaded this ammo and to the best of my knowledge it shot fine. i don't remember what primer. Only LRP non magnum. I bought lapua srp brass because thats all I could find. From there my problems started. I sold all the 6.5 stuff and built an aluminum chassis with a criterion barrel. This is a 6gt with alpha brass.

The barrel was installed with a go gauge and scotch tape with light drag. Bolt had all internals removed. I also checked with a no go gauge. And back to the go gauge with no tape. All checked out fine. The brass was checked for primer depths and a mandral in the throat. I have .003 clearance on the brass. I have used two primers cci 400 and federal srp match.

As of today I have set primers with no crush .003 and .005. I also took the bolt out of my .223 and switched heads with the same results. Some primers have light strikes, no strikes and holes in the primers. I have extractor marks on all the brass. This happens if I chamber a round and don't shoot it. Not sure if this happened before. The firing pin extrude .055 on both bolts. The powder charge is no 33 grains of varget weighed to the .01. Light strike primers that went off had no pressure signs. Even the ones with holes in them are not flat. The powder was checked on two scales.

The bolt/trigger never seem to repeat from shell to shell. Now the .223 shoots fine. I would post pics but I'm not allowed yet. Could the trigger have something to do with this? Thoughts

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Your case seems odd. It doesn’t make sense that some cases have light primer strike or no strike & some have holes in the primer(I’m assuming those with holes fired as normal?) And this was all from the same batch of reloads?

Ok, well.. the FP protrusion should be around .035”, but I think you know that. Obviously it can’t be readily adjusted. Must be either modified or use a small custom washer between the striker & cross pin. Yours has the 3-piece striker spring, correct? Have you tried preloading the spring? You need to either find or make some washers. .020” or less should be good. One at a time to test. The washers need to have ID to fit the cocking indicator & same OD of the spring so it fits in the BAS counterbore. If you can’t make or find any, give me the dimensions & I can make up several to stick in an envelope & send to you.

Thanks Dave. I will make some if i can find the stock. I did order new springs last night. Yes the 3 piece style. Yesterday outing went like this light primer strikes that fired to holes in the primes that fired to no primer strikes at all. I measured the pin again and will set at .035. for the next outing.

Do you have the Accutrigger?

Ejector marks and holes in the primers usually indicate (to me anyway) that the case is moving in the chamber when fired?
Primer tries to back out when fired and gets punched then pushed back into the pocket.
That's why I mention making the OAL of the ammo longer so the case can't move and is held against the bolt head when fired. That's the easy way to sort out THAT problem.
And if you're rolling your own ammo, you're not concerned about factory loaded ammo fitting the chamber. (one size DOESN'T fit all !!)
Snug fit means less brass movement when it comes to resizing time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dave Hoback

Do you have the Accutrigger?

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Thats what I was thinking too with NO pin strike.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tomme boy

Thats what I was thinking too with NO pin strike.

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Yeah, but I remember bud last thread he said “My current setup is an Axis 2 trigger with all the set trigger removed. Basically an Axis trigger.” So he’s indicating he removed the Accutrigger safety blade & spring. Certainly not a direction I would go because I set up Accutriggers beautifully! But that’s neither here nor there. I just wanted to verify that’s what he meant. If he removed the Safety Blade & it continues to have NO primer strike, the Accutrigger is obviously not part of it.

I did remove the accu trigger to see if it may have been the problem. I remove the safety blade. I also used the trigger out of my 223 axis. I just made a shim .020 for firing pin. Will this lessen the power stroke on the firing pin? Or should I chuck up the firing pin and take .020 off? Again Thanks for the help.

By the way when the gun does fire it shoots under .75 moa at 100yd. No tuning just varget and berger 108's

If you had the NO primer strikes with the Accutrigger as is, with the safety blade removed AND with a standard Axis trigger, than it was not the issue. No, the trigger can’t lesson pin fall power. I’m kinda on the side with Nor Cal Mikie at this point; the case moving in the chamber. Read his post #11. It’s the only thing really that can be so sporadic! You’re getting Light Primer Strikes, NO primer Strikes, normal fires AND pierced Primers. All of which with no rime or reason to the next. Weak FP travel doesn’t do that. Neither does having the firing pin protrusion too long. You can shorten the protrusion a bit if you’d like. But it’s not the problem entirely. It might reduce or eliminate the pierced primers but only as causation of being shorter. And maybe not at all. Using the striker washer like I said will lesson pin fall the amount of it’s thickness. (.020”) But again, it’s not the issue at the moment.

I wish I had more for ya. Wish I could see it in person. Genuinely you have one weird case there. Something must be loose though. To have these different conditions going on, ya know?

Si I set the head space with a go gauge and .002 clearance. My brass has .003 clearance . I just sized the 44 cases that fired to .0015. My thought is the firing pin spring is week and the pin is too long. So when it does fire right were ok. But when it pokes a primer too deep I get blow back and we get a drag on the pin.

Seeing how this is a homemade chassis and there is a spring under the trigger for spring back. Is there a possibility that trigger angle is wrong. If so it was wrong in the plastic stock

One other thing. Again, probably not the reason for the no primer strikes, but what does the tip of your Firing Pin look like? I ask because of the pierced primers. The pin should not be sharp. Want a even round tip.

This pin below is a perfect example of how the tip should look. And making sure the ogive is not below the surface, into the hole. Probably yours is fine, but wanted it out there, in case you’re dealing with a multi causal issue.
https://i.ibb.co/sQfG4Md/4-F7-EFC53-...-F486-C0-B.png

I'm waiting on springs for the gun shack. When I get all the parts in hand and set up to my satisfaction. I will post results.

As of last night I have 43 cases. One I messed up in the press. One junk case and 6 that have not fired. I plan to pull the unfired cases apart and install new primers and 33 grains of varget. I will also load the 109 berger .010 into the lands. I use the Alex Wheeler method to find jam CBTO. Check this out on his web page.

Videos | wheeleraccuracy

Dave, Thanks for the help. I know loading into the lands may help which I plan to do to help get the last 6 to fire. I would like to think this is not the only way to achieve consistence firing. If I missed on my first measurements I would believe the miss fires. The next time out I just want the last six to fire. Then when I get home I will resize the last six cases to .0015 CBTS Measure all the primer pocket one more time. Prime cases to .001 crush. I will test 10 primed cases in the rifle. After that I may load 10 .005 in the lands and 10 .020 off the lands.

There should be no reason cbts of .0015 should not fire every time.

Oh I agree with you. No reason that is readily showing itself. All your parts appeared fine.(in picture) Nothing we’ve discussed can cause the diversity of firing you’ve experienced . Except, of course for the case moving in the chamber, as we’ve discussed. But from everything you said, it seems you are savvy on resizing/reloading. So… it’s a mystery.

But your next move, continuing as you outlined, sounds logical. Keep us informed.

I have seen this same thing happen to one of my friends. He went way too far on cleaning up the primer recess. Some were too deep and some were not touched. His primer hole uniformer was a little too long. This made pin strikes difficult on some.

My springs and new firing pin arrived today from The gun shack. The new spring is about 5/16 inch longer and heavier. The stock spring was the same size as the one in the axis 223. I put the gun back to the original barreled action. Along with a new firing pin and springs. The accu trigger would only set with the rear spring out about as far it would go. This made for a hard trigger pull and not consistent. One time it would fire. Another would cause the primary trigger to set and not fire. The rear spring would bind if I took it further. What I did find was the bolts stop/ firing pin release rubs on the trigger. This is where the shelf for the trigger lets the firing pin stud go.

I took the axis trigger out of the 223 and problem solved. This trigger is hard to pull with the new spring in the bolt. Went to the range with the last 6 rounds will no problems. I did pull them apart and put new primers in. I did ruin on more with too little case lube. I would post pics but won't host them on another site.

Finished for now

Dumb old guy can't follow directions.

Beautiful! You made/machined that Chassis yourself? Very cool! What material is it made from? Can’t tell for certain.

So it sounds like your striker spring was weak? And with the new striker & spring there were no light primer strikes, or NO primer strikes, correct? Only, I’m having trouble understanding your meaning about the trigger hitting the spring & such. And then, do you mean you took the non-Accutrigger out of the 223 to use in 6mmGT rig? Just can’t visualize what parts are contacting one another & causing a problem. But if you got it to function correctly, there the important part. Again… Great looking rig.

Thanks Dave, The chassis is aluminum. The coating is gun kote. It's the friction coating for pistons. I built this on a Bolton lathe and precision mathews mill. My next build will be a 6.5 prc 18'' barrel with a folding stock.

Very skillful work! Whole Chassis is above my pay grade, LOL! And I fell in love with the Mirage URL Chassis. I only make small parts. And mostly just Titanium… bolt knob, some of the pins, etc. (Although the Firing Pin in my Savage I made from S7 Tool steel.)

Yes, I’m familiar with Gunkote. I actually do Cerakote on my firearms. Getting ready to sandblast & Cerakote another barrel soon in fact.

Great stuff, keep it coming! I’m very impressed with your work.