1913 misfire

[Smallbore One]

A junior member at my club recently purchased a used 1913. It is a clean and well maintianed rifle with little signs of use. It ocasionally will miss fire. Say once in 100 shots. We have disassembled the bolt and found it absolutely clean inside. We have attempted to adjust the trigger assembly position forward and aft without changing the misfire rate. Any thoughts on what may be causing this? Thanks.

[pilkguns]

Could be dirty chamber, weak firing pin spring, peened chamber perimeter, short or misshaped firing pin, or the ammo itself. Hard to say without seeing it and the imprint of the pin on the cartridge.

[BGC]

My first thoughts...

Compare the firing pin mark your empty cases to cases from other rifles. Does it look OK: sharp and goes deep enough into the brass?

Also, if you shoot with the same ammo every time (same batch), it might be that the rim is a bit thin on that batch. I have experienced this with a batch of Eley black - and all users of that batch had the same problem.
Other batches were all OK.

[TerryKuz]

As the others have stated. it could be a few things. I had the same problem on a couple of Anshutz's, and it was weak springs. The springs are inexpensive, so it may be cost effective to give them a try.
http://www.gunsprings.com/
So after cleaning, moving the trigger, swapping ammo, it is probably time for springs. Good luck. Please let us know what resolves the issue.

[Martin H]

I had this exact problem on my 1913 when I purchased it. I put new springs in however I still had misfires. I discovered the problem was the positioning of the trigger on the action. There is enough movement on the trigger screws to cause misfires when the trigger is positioned slightly too far forward.

It is very easy to check. With the rifle unloaded, close the bolt. The firing pin indicator on the back of the bolt should protude slightly more (0.3mm or 12 thou) when the bolt is closed compared to when the bolt is open.

If the firing pin indicator protudes less than than 0.3mm, take the action out of the stock, loosen the trigger screws slighly and position the trigger back slightly. Sliding the trigger too much to the rear will cause the bolt to be difficult to close. It many take a few tries to get it right.
Cheers
Martin

[Smallbore One]

Thanks for all the quick repsponses. The misfire has occurred at about the same rate with various brands of ammo. This makes me think there is something in the rifle causing the problem. I will give the firing pin and brass indents and chamber a closer examination. If that all looks good I will try a replacement spring. The trigger mechanism adjustment described by Martin is what we have tried without success. Thanks again for all the info.

SB1

[Telecomtodd]

I experienced this exact problem on a 1913. This happened on a rifle my son was using at the time (and now I'm using it). 25% of all rounds were striking lightly, but not firing, and it didn't matter what ammo we used. I fortunately had a second 1913 at the time and compared the firing pin between the two. The one that was causing the problem was slightly out of spec. If you look at the "tang", or the area of the firing pin towards the rear that turns upward causing it to lock and align into the bolt, that may be the area of concern.

In my case, I looked very closely and found a metal stamp lining about 4-5 mils inside the front of the tang. I believe this particular firing pin was slightly mis-stamped, causing the tang to be *slightly* too large. With the owner of the store where I bought the rifle already offering a replacement pin, I had nothing to lose, so I broke out my Dremel tool kit and polished the front of the tang to the previously-mentioned impact line. This polishing now allowed the faulty pin to match the dimensions of my other rifle's pin.

That was two years ago, and I haven't had a misfire since then.

[Smallbore One]

OK, thanks telecomtodd. That's one more thing to check out. I will get another look at the rifle on Monday night. I will post up any thing discovered.

[Smallbore One]

Update - careful examination of pin and chamber revealed nothing. The young man that owns the rifle used the link provided by TerryKuz above to purchase new firing pin springs. The purchase was reported to be quick, and easy. With the new springs the indentation in the case rim is much deeper and more complete. So far no more misfires. Thanks again for all the input. - SB1