Axis light firing pin strikes
Just checking in as a new Axis shooter. My .308 made its first trip to the range and caused some disappointment as it failed to fire about 50% using Federal match ammo. It did somewhat better with some reloads using CCI primers. After reading up on this forum it seems this not an uncommon problem. From what I can tell the problem is in the rather funky firing pin spring. The two piece spring is rather short. The cocking mechanism doesn't allow the pin to stay 100% cocked when the bolt is closed so we loose some of the spring motion. Also the rather light weight of the firing pin provides for less inertia when in motion...Added to all this is the fact that if the gun is stored with the bolt removed or in the open position then the firing pin spring is fully compressed and may loose some of its energy. All these factors contribute to a light firing primer strike. To solve this problem I added a 0.045 thick steel bushing (washer) between the two firing pin springs. Thus produced a healthy primer strike. In the future, to prevent spring fatigue, I also intend to always store the bolt in the decocked position. Hopefully Wolfe Springs will provide a better aftermarket spring kit to make all the unhappy Axis shooters...happy!
Happy New Year!
