i was out shooting the other day in -30 weather (yea,i'm desperate) to try and complete my first 100 rounds down the tube and i had a soft strike on ae ammo,just a little ping in the primer,second strike set it off.
months ago i tried some norinco .223 and could not get it to fire at all no matter how many times i pulled the trigger,tried another round and got the same results.loaded mfs ammo and had no issues for 40 rounds.
so my question is why is this happening and is there a way to increase the striking force.
my friends were using tikka t3's and their spent casings looked identical in primer strikes as mine.
Cold weather may harden any lubricant in the bolts internals slowing down the firing pin. Dry fire it in the house and listen for the "lock time" it should be a very quick whack as the firing pin hits home. If you get a FTF in cold weather again dry fire it and see if it repeats or if the sound is a slower duller impact.The norinco ammo may have had harder primers. If that is the problem you could use a lighter lubricant that is formulated for that temperature range to solve the problem.
Ummm....it's physically impossible to listen for the lock time. We're talking about 1.6-1.7 milli-seconds. The sound you hear when dry firing is the firing pin contacting the back of the bolt head and the slackening of all the components in the bolt body as the firing pin energy is let off.
As for the OP's question, the cold weather could partially explain the other days light primer strikes, but you made no mention of what the temp was when you were out shooting the Norinco ammo to know if the weather was a common variable. I would suggest measuring the unfired rounds (base to datum line on the shoulder) as to me it sounds like it could be that the AE and Norinco rounds are slightly shorter thus some of the firing pin energy is being wasted pushing thr cartridge forward in the chamber a few thousands before the shoulder is against the chamber and allowing the pin to ignite the primer.
The other option (if you have the tools and inclination) would be to pull the barrel off and drop the loaded rounds into the barrel and measure how far the case protrudes from it. Should be in the 0.125-0.130" range. If there's more than a few thousandth difference between the different types of ammo you know that's the root of the problem.
"Life' is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." ~ John Wayne
“Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” —Mark Twain
I stand corrected. The proper description you gave in the second sentence is the sound I was attempting to describe. Thanks for the clarification.Ummm....it's physically impossible to listen for the lock time. We're talking about 1.6-1.7 milli-seconds. The sound you hear when dry firing is the firing pin contacting the back of the bolt head and the slackening of all the components in the bolt body as the firing pin energy is let off.
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