I'm looking for a bit of advice about a new Traditions Yukon I just got, but there's a bit of a story behind it so bear with me.
Last week I got a call from a local Rescue Squad telling me that I'd won a raffle for a muzzleloader. Oddly, I went to the fair at that Rescue Station and entered the raffle about 2 years ago. They had apparently never called me in all this time and were just getting around to it. Not a huge deal, but I was glad I had the same phone number.
Anyway, I picked it up friday, a Traditions Yukon Drop Breech .50 caliber. I fired a primer in it that night and it went off on the second try.
The next day my father-in-law and I spent quite a bit of time struggling with the rifle to get it to fire. We were just testing primers at this point, but it was completely inconsistent. It seemed like the hammer was not striking the breech block pin with any force at all. We oiled everything we could think to oil and eventually after many tries it seemed like it got a bit better. I think near the end I fired 10 primers and it went off each time.
I'm thinking that in the 2 years it sat in the Rescue Squad office it was could have been played with and dry fired and maybe the hammer was pulled back and left for months and months. The box the rifle was in was open, but it definitely was still unfired when I got it.
So here's my question, while it is seemingly firing a bit better now, for the sake of reliability should I just go ahead and replace any parts (springs, breech block)? At the moment I'm only into this gun for a few buck in primers and some gun oil, so I wouldn't mind spending a bit to make sure it's going to be a reliable rifle for quite some time.
Second of all, I have a buddy who experienced the exact same thing. Gun never would fire on the first hit, but would on the second. I tried shortening the firing pin spring, oil, polishing compound, adjusting the hammer spring ect. Nothing worked. In the end he sent it back to Traditions and got his money back. It was kind of sad because the experience just about turned him off of muzzleloading. I talked him into buying a Knight Rolling Block and all was well
I don't have much advice for you other than contact Traditions. I'm not a gunsmith by any means but I played around with it for weeks and couldn't make it work correctly.
Interesting enough though, when it did go off, it was quite an accurate little gun. I could clover leaf them at 50 yards. Of course it probably helped that there was no flinching involved because I never knew if the gun was actually goign to go off or not
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Call Tradition Arms and tell them the problem. They will probably have you send the rifle in, but I would not want the thing to be like that. I would want it fixed and fixed right.
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As both of you suggested, I contacted Traditions and they want to RMA the rifle and take a look at it. They said me not technically being the first purchaser of the rifle shouldn't be an issue when it comes to warranty coverage.
Hopefully I'll be back on the forums here in a few weeks with a good review of their service and repairs!
Well, rifle was in the mail on the 3rd and I just got it back last night on the 11th, so I guess that's a pretty good turnaround Traditions says they replaced the hammer spring and smoothed the action so the breech wouldn't jam. As well, it looks like they completely replaced the stock. The hammer spring is definitely much stiffer now and the breech moves easily. While I haven't gotten a chance to fire it yet, I'm pretty pleased with what I'm seeing.
That is the kind of service you like to hear... no you have to get out there and shoot that thing.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
no you have to get out there and shoot that thing.
Well, I was able to do just that on saturday morning. The rifle fired like a champ. It went off on every primer without fail, so I was fairly pleased with that. A few times however, the firing pin stuck in the primer and didn't retract, making it impossible to drop the breech. A few taps on the breech with the plug wrench and it popped back out. Traditions suggested I try a different primer. I was using CCI and they had used Remington. Anybody run into something similar?
That's a new one on me zer0vector. Never had that happen in any gun with a variety of primers. Perhaps your firing pin has a burr on it. Try a very light polish with very fine Emory paper, and perhaps a drop of oil in the firing pin housing.
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New (to me) Traditions Yukon
Traditions says they replaced the hammer spring and smoothed the action so the breech wouldn't jam. As well, it looks like they completely replaced the stock. The hammer spring is definitely much stiffer now and the breech moves easily. While I haven't gotten a chance to fire it yet, I'm pretty pleased with what I'm seeing.
