hardcastonly

have you ever had a rifle " hang fire"?
if you're not familiar with the term,
it's describing pulling the trigger/dropping the hammer on a cartridge so the firing pin strikes the primer but theres a noticeable delay in the ignition or the rifle firing.
now that delay might only be a small fraction of a second, but you'll damn sure notice the small delay between you pulling the trigger and the rifle firing.
I've had it happen once while at the range, with remington primers I used and once while hunting, both times it was with reloaded ammo,
that worked flawlessly most of the time ,
but I never had it happen before or since using FEDERAL PRIMERS
I normally use 215 FEDERAL PRIMERS, in my magnum rifles, never had any issues... but on this one elk hunt,
Id loaded up some 375 H&H ammo with Remington 9 1/2 mag primers as it was all I could locate at that time.
so Id purchased 300 at the local gunshop. and ordered a couple 1000 federal 215 primers that did not arrive until after I left on a hunt!
I was using a load of 75 grains of WW760 powder under a hornady 270 grain bullet.
in my SAKO that will shoot consistent 1.2" 100 yard 5 shot hundred yard groups,
and I use the rifle for hunting dark timber. where 100 yard shots are rare!
ITS A VERY EFFECTIVE COMBO.
they (different primer brands in loaded cartridges)
are rather easy to tell the difference as the Remington primers were gold in color while federal primers are silver in appearance.
the temperature was well below zero F at the time on the hunt the delay was maybe 1/3rd of a second,
just enough time to have you start to realize the gun did not fire... when it then did!
yes I still hit the intended target as it was an elk running through timber at about 45 yards,
but trust me when I say...having a rifle fire after a slight delay is a very noticeable thing to have happen.

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while this is NOT my 375 H&H sako carbine, in the picture posted above, My SAKO CARBINE is almost an exact clone except, that my stocks about 5 shades darker

rjhans53

only once when a friend gave me some hand loads that where primed with large pistol instead of large rifle

TN Lone Wolf

I've only had two guns that had hang fires, both of which I had borrowed and both of which had clearly not been taken care of as well as they should have been. The first one was a muzzleloader my friend let me borrow in high school. It was so gunky and rusty that I had a two or three hang fires before I gave up on trying to sight it in. He evidently didn't realize you needed to clean a muzzleloader.

The second one was a 243 that belonged to my uncle. While in better shape than the friend's muzzleloader, I did notice a bit of junk in the firing pin hole. Sure enough, on my second round, it began hang firing about a third to half a second after I pulled the trigger. Had to clean the heck out of it and lubricate the internals, but I got it working.

MudderChuck

I've had a few, more common is a good primer strike with no boom. Light primer strikes are fairly common with a dirty firing pin or in really cold weather when the oil gets thick.
I was at the range and next to me was boom, boom, pop. I yelled cease-fire the guy looked at me like I was nuts and cocked his wheel gun again. I yelled stop at the top of my lungs. It took me way too long to convince the guy not to fire again, the classic indignant civilian. We found the bullet barely lodged in the barrel. The powder was there but didn't ignite, the primer fired. My guess is the powder was water or oil contaminated.
If you shoot long enough, often enough, and fire off enough ammo, you'll eventually see any sort of failure you can imagine. My least favorite is when a full-auto rifle has been fired so much and gotten so hot the rounds cook-off, few things less fun than a runaway machine gun.

bronko22000

Never with a centerfire rifle or handgun but a few times with a flintlock muzzleloader and a couple times with a percussion lock. But either of those times were attibuted to either damp powder or partially blocked flash hole.

SportsmanNH

Muzzleloader - TC White mountain Carbine . There was nothing wrong with this gun. I always kept it spotless. The gun is a tack driver and never had any issues firing.
That was until I got the bright idea of changing the original nipple to the supposedly so much better " Uncle Mikes Hot Nipple " . On my 3rd shot I had a hang fire maybe a second long. The thought it was the guns powder chamber. Cleaned the gun spotless at the range including cleaning the inside of the nipple. Hang fired again after the second shot . Mind you I have never had a hang fire with this gun before. So what changed ? I threw the hot nipple out and put the original back in and never had another hang fire even shooting 10-15 rounds without swabbing. Sometimes " New And Improved " turns out to be junk

Winchester 100 308 Semi Auto -- This is my Dads gun that I borrowed. He hadn't used it in 10 years. Sure enough 2 out of 5 shots it hang fired. Probably sat there uncleaned since the last time he used it. Took the firing pin assembly apart and it was full of gunk. So were the slide bars and recoil springs under the forearm.
Good thing I took after my Grandfather keeping guns spotless . Not only would that gun hang fire , it would jam . Worked perfect after I was done with it.

Remington 742 Carbine and a Browning Bar Carbine --- Sighting them in last year I got hang fires on both. I keep my guns spotless. I shot my Remington 742 first Two out of the 1st five shots were hang fires .My original thought was its old and I may have a problem with the firing pin itself. That thought went out the window when I decided to deal with it later and sight in the Browning next. 1st shot , a hang fire. Now I know its not the guns. The common denominator was the cartridges. I was shooting loads a friend of mine reloaded. I normally use Remington 180gr Core Lokt PSP . He made me a box of fifty that he claimed would be hot loads with superb accuracy . I threw them all out right there. Filled the magazines with the Remington Core Lokts cartridges and perfect every shot.

mrbb

I have had this happen several times , when shooting other folks gun, , I have mostly found it to be a very dirty gunk build up about firing pin's in bolt action guns,(but have seen it on other types of rifles actions, even shotguns) , or excessive grease in them and some possible water in things and low temps, that resulted in either a HANG fire, or slow ignition, or even where primers only got a very LIGHT hit, not igniting them all together
over my yrs at my gun shoo, I had many customers come in with this having happened to them as well!
but in most all cases, it was typically one of two things
the dirty firing pin and or grease oil, dirt gunk build up about it, or faulty reloaded ammo!

this is why folks should; do proper cleanings of there guns, and after so many being about guns, shooters/hunters, you'd be surprised how FEW know how to do this, it might sound odd to somewhere , but many gun owners never disassemble a gun to EVER clean it fully!
I cannot tell you how many used guns I took in on trades or bought , and then did a proper cleaning to, that had decades of build up, or were NEVER ever cleaned minus wiping down the outside of the gun and MAYBE bore, and don't laugh, I had countless customers that NEVER EVER cleaned the bore on there rifles or guns, STATING< they never did as it ruins accuracy!, and I am talking guys that owned them for 40+ yrs some closer to 60+ yrs, long time gun owners and hunters!
NOT new folks to things!

some guns I got were in un real condition and surprised there fired at all from excessive build up of grease dirt attracted to oils and RUST build up on parts they couldn;t see from the outside!
and
I have even seen bores with so much LEAD build up, the bore was about 1/2 the Dia of the caliber, AMAZING bullets even exited the guns, and or didn;t bulge barrels when firing

again, not all gun owners KNOW how to care for a gun, nor do all reloaders know how to load ammo!
they might THINK they DO, but when it comes down to facts, and checking, many DON"T!
its also why I will NEVER shoot anyone's reloaded ammo!
learned my lesson on that LONG ago!
I will also add this to FOLKS that relaod ammo for friends
YOU DO KNOW< your opening your self up to a law suit if anything ever goes wrong!
don't under think this, I know of a few folks that sued BEST life long friends over things!
the liability will fall on you, this is why ammo company's, have to have HUGE insurance policy's and proof of specs being followed!
ONLY takes once to get burned beyond recovery!


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