1903 Springfield misfire question

[Baltimoreed]

Something new, I shot my 1930s vintage bubba rebuild ‘03 at a 2 gun yesterday and had 3 rds fail to go bang. Normally it’s 100%. Shot about 70 rifle rds. I’m just curious if I didn’t have the bolt all the way down and if having the bolt not all the way down could have caused the misfires. They were all handloads that chambered ok but a few felt tighter than the others. All were run through a case trimmer prior to loading. The primer hits looked about the same as the others. I had checked them all in a 30-06 check gauge and cycled them through the gun [safety engaged] after they were reloaded last week. Only missed 2 with the rifle. Brain faded with my 625 and skipped over 2 targets and reengaged 2 others after a reload. Duh. No surprise I came in last, fyi boltguns and 6 shot 45acp revolvers cant keep up with hi cap pistols and ARs. Shot with a good squad of guys that worked with an old man. Had a fine time. Thinking next month I’ll try out my Thompson as I’ve never shot it in a match.

[Gewehr-Guy]

Were they all full length sized, and sat too deep in the chamber to get a deep enough firing pin strike ? Perhaps they all recieved light strikes, but only two failed to fire. If you have any cartridges left from that batch, put some layers of tape on the case head, and see how much head space you have with those rounds.

When the trigger is pulled on a partially closed bolt, the striker cam will try to close the bolt fully, but may have slowed the pin enough to not fire the primer. You might experiment with some primed empties, and different stages of bolt closure, and see if you have some failures to fire. The difference in weight of loaded cartridges or primed empties may skew the experiment though.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Also, perhaps a new firing pin spring is in order.

DG

[Baltimoreed]

Thanks Guy. Thats what I kinda thought. I’ll try some experimenting with it tomorrow. Might replace my fp spring too but it’s been doing ok. This was the most rounds that I’ve ever fired through it at one time. I’ve used it in several BAMMs that our cas club has done but they are only 50-60 rounds. The misfires were on the 2nd and 3rd stages of the match I think.

[Winger Ed.]

If you haven't done it yet, I'd take the bolt completely apart and clean it real well.
If there is old/hard grease in there, it can slow down the firing pin.
Also, as said, it'd be a good idea to put in a new spring. Brownell's should have new ones fairly cheap.

[samari46]

Probably should have to replace the firing pin as they can wear where they fit onto the striker rod with the cocking piece. Frank

[Rich/WIS]

Could be a bad batch of primers, the 03 series stirkers give a really hard impact unless someone put in a reduced power spring to ease force needed to cock the rifle or lightened the firing pin assembly to reduce lock time. Also be sure your primers are seated all the way to the bottom of the pocket.

[garrisonjoe]

I'll second the need to strip and clean bolt. I shot my Springfield 1922 (.22 LR, a little nephew of the Springfield 1903) this spring after not shooting it for four years or so. Got about 50% FTF. Stinking partial primed cases? Nope. Firing pin channel was gummed up with dried grease. Not that I ever had is apart in the 5 years I've had it. The stuff was the right color to be WW II cosmoline. After cleaning, returned to 100% reliability.

Do the simple, cheapest, most obvious thing first!

good luck, garrisonjoe

[msinc]

Dayton Traister made {makes???} a trigger that came with "speedlock" instructions to shorten the striker travel. It actually was a good mod and I did it to all of mine. Cut the travel in half, but if I remember right they suggested a heavier striker spring. I used Wolf springs and it all worked fine. I also lightened up the striker and again, all this worked great and groups improved. All the ones I had were USMC sniper clones with Unertl scopes and all shot under a minute at 100 yards with match type ammo. Usually a case sized under headspace will still fire because the extractor holds it back against the bolt face. Been there, done that unknowingly...someone gave me a batch of 30-06 match brass that was .009" under minimum. I didn't realize it until I fired 20 or 30, but they shot fine. I would definitely go with a bolt assembly breakdown and clean and then look at the ammo.

[26Charlie]

Another thing to watch out for (if you are handling the primers) is that the tiny bit of grease or oil on hands has a way of getting into the primer, which will kill it. A fellow once came to the range with his latest reloads, which failed to fire, and I had a hard time convincing him this was the problem.

[Alferd Packer]

Failure to seat primers to bottom of pocket.
This will let the anvil float.
Did the misfires go off with a second strike?
The first strike will seat the anvil and the second strike may fire.
Sometimes ,a tight primer pocket (in relation to this particular primer OD), still may not be. Enough to fire it on second strike.
The primers are supposed to be seated just below flush.
I have seen a lot of reloaders seat the primer only flush instead of slightly recessed.
They get away with this because the firing pin strike is robust enough to drive the primer below flush to seat the anvil and fire the primer all at once.
The above statements were used to show a plausible reason for misfire.
Absent these conditions, there are other things like headspace that can cause a misfire as well.
Cartridge shoulder setback on a few cases can also cause misfires.
A cartridge length case from WILSON or SINCLAIR can help to check this out.

[wilecoyote]

problems about the gun aside, only aged Federal gave me misfires_
a primer pocket uniformer followed by the adjustable Sinclair bench-rest priming tool will be a good insurance against failure to ignite_
all my rifles, where feasible, have some kind of heavy-duty faster striker spring (by Tubbs or heavier-than-factory by Wolff)

[Patrick L]

I'm with Rich, since the primer whack is solid, I'd be inclined to think a few bad primers. Either defective from manufacturer or perhaps you did something like improper storage, oil on fingers, etc. If the other 67 went off fine I suspect it's not the rifle.

[WILCO]

Some really good answers here.

Don't worry about last place Baltimoreed.
Showing up says a lot.

[Scrounge]

If you haven't done it yet, I'd take the bolt completely apart and clean it real well.
If there is old/hard grease in there, it can slow down the firing pin.
Also, as said, it'd be a good idea to put in a new spring. Brownell's should have new ones fairly cheap.

This!!!!