I examined the case and discovered that the primer is flattened and has a deep hole where the firing pin struck it. You can see right into the inside of the case.

I thought I might have too much firing pin protrusion, but I just measured it and it seems to be 0.044 inches, which is actually less than the 0.055 inch minimum. The other rounds seem to have normal looking primers and a nice dent where they were struck. The firing pin tip and the bolt face show no signs of damage or even much of a dark ring on the bolt face.

 

since the ammo was factory stuff, it looks like the pierced primer case had more pressure caused by 'something'. factory ammo has variations, just like anything else. of your pic of three cases together, two of them appear to have fairly flat primers, indicating that that the ammo is creating pressure 'in that rifle'. maybe you should try some handloads, in the 'milder' category.

 

Thanks Frosty.

I so plan to reload with the Hornady round nose bullets, although with the tight headspace and (failed to mention) a replacement barrel with AG marking, maybe I shou!d use Spitzer bullets like a 1909. The rifle has three screw marks on the side where a diopter sight was attached. It probably had been reworked in Argentina for precision shooting. I will make sure that the bullets are not touching the lands in case the chamber is more 1909 size.

Buying ammo, it seemed that the full round was only $0.30 more than a case so I figured to get the ammo and shoot it to form to the rifle then neck size it.

 

Check the tip of your firing pin to make sure the escaping gas from the punctured primer has not gas cut the tip of the firing pin. Could be a small divot or bigger. Only takes one such incident to do it. Frank

 

I think the firing pin is OK., but I will take the bolt apart for a better look. A few years ago I had a pierced primer with my Turkish Mauser and the tip of the firing pin was damaged. I thought that the firing pin chipped and became sharp and pierced the primer, but maybe it was the other way around and the pierced primer damaged the firing pin.

 

To much firing pin protrusion. Get a gage and check it.

 

That's what I thought, but it measured 0.044, which is a bit low. I will re-read my Mauser Shop Manual to make sure I am doing it correctly.

 

You can't shoot Hornady ammo with LMT rifles without blowing primers. 5.56 and 7.62x51 barrels. Not sure if it's the lack of jump to the rifling causing a pressure spike or what, but assuming that's it in my LMT guns.

Would wonder if you don't have that sort of pressure problem going on. Could also be grease, rust, or extreme copper/lead fouling in bore causing pressure spikes. Primers flatten from pressure, not too much protrusion... so not sure why people are pointing at that honestly...

Stuck casings are usually more of a crapped up/pitted/machine marked/etc problem... The 'stuck bolt' would be more of a case stuck hard stopping primary extraction?

Seems you have pressure issues first. Maybe scrub out the bore (maybe even use some copper solvent?) and measure bullet diameter vs what's spec'd for original military ammo?

 

Edit: And you may want to look in and clean the chamber as well.

And check for cracking lugs, burs, and the like while doing all this, just in case...

Edit: Oops, failed edit. Ha, sorry, double post now I guess.

 

The few times I`ve pierced primers in my 1891`s I had light puff of gas in the face and escaping gas actually recocked the firing pin, yours may have stuck forward in primer that may be why it was difficult to open it. I have had this happen a few times in my ruger 44 with heavy loads and it ties up the cylinder. Any sign of pinched necks on top of cases like maybe that one case was a bit long?

 

Hmmm, and had a thought... if brass is too soft, might be extra ready to stick into any small mark in chamber and stick.

Would try different ammo before doing anything more than simply cleaning (and inspecting if you can) the chamber.

If there's extra copper or lead fouling in the bore, can also lead to over pressure issues, so maybe time to decopper and maybe even delead the bore... depending what past owners put through it...


And any updates since you posted last?

 

I have not had time to do much on this. I am leaning towards a bad round of ammo and the tip of the pin getting stuck in the hole, a!though it would seem if the protrusion was enough to stick it would have happened more than once.

The barrel is in pretty good shape and I cleaned the daylights out of it with Hopes and Bore Tech Cu2 copper remover before shooting. Cleaning after shooting had dark blue patches, so maybe some copper did build up while shootIng.

When I get the chance to I inspect more or shoot, I will post an update.

 

I don't think that this is a problem since the PPU ammo I am shooting is about 0.005 shorter than the GO gauge.

That is the way it was designed to operate and then reloaders took over the responsibility of sizing the case.

When I size my cases I used the length of the case from the shoulder to the case head to off set the length of the chamber from the shoulder of the chamber to the bolt face.

F. Guffey