Group size with horrible ignition?

[TaperPin]

This may sound like an idiotic question, but humor me, there’s a practical use for the information.

My 7 mag has a decent barrel and snug no turn chamber and rarely shoots over 1/2moa. One year after backpacking in the snow and sleet for a few days I shot an elk, a couple hours later a decent buck stepped out into the edge of a big bowl - getting to a bit over 400 yards, some moisture in the bolt or trigger was frozen enough that ignition was too sluggish to fire until the 3rd attempt - in perfectly calm conditions with a very steady field rest (I watched a near perfect dry fire twice before the rifle went off), the shot was almost 2moa off. I got him, but had I know the gun was shooting way off it wouldn’t have been worth it. Had it been 500 yards, what should be a doable shot would have missed.

Has anyone purposely installed a super weak firing pin spring, or had a spring break, and tested just how bad their groups open up? I’ve wondered this for a number of years, but haven’t had a weak or spare spring fall in my lap yet to shoot some groups with. Crappy ignition in wet freezing conditions has happened once before this with a different rifle, and will probably happen again unless I turn into a fair weather hunter.

 

[Rick300]

Not an answer to your question, but I have found MANY of the gun oils out there will freeze. CorrosionX is the best I have found. It's fixed a few frozen bolts over the years in hunt camp.

 

[Walt Schmidlin]

Many HP shooters change the firing pin spring when they rebarrel (1300-3000 +/- rounds dependent upon the cartridge). It’s inexpensive compared to the rebarrel, easy to do on most rifles & eliminates a variable in load development.

 

[Will Henry]

Many years ago a friend of mine, Martin Hagn, told me, when he had rifle which was shooting vertical groups, the first thing he did was change the striker spring. Well, I had a pre-war 30/06 which would shoot groups at 300 M which were three inches wide but 6 inches tall; this with Lake City match. I replaced the striker spring, and was rewarded with nice, round, groups, just over 1 MOA. I had re-bedded that thing twice and had no luck, but the spring change fixed it.
Martin is not known as an accuracy 'smith, but in this case, he taught me something. Springs can matter. WH

 

[TaperPin]

Not an answer to your question, but I have found MANY of the gun oils out there will freeze. CorrosionX is the best I have found. It's fixed a few frozen bolts over the years in hunt camp.

Yes, old crappy oil has made many rifles do everything from fail to fire to fire all by itself. I’ve always been a fan of stripping all old oil off triggers, bolts and firing pins.

 

[Larryh128]

To answer your original question, yes I have had a shitty spring to exactly that. Now I use 100 % Wolf springs that average 26#. End of issues, lube could be lighter fluid but many run them dry or graphite.

 

[TaperPin]

Many HP shooters change the firing pin spring when they rebarrel (1300-3000 +/- rounds dependent upon the cartridge). It’s inexpensive compared to the rebarrel, easy to do on most rifles & eliminates a variable in load development.

That’s good advice. I have a couple of Remington 721/735 bolts from the early 60s that are going in a project, and those old springs definitely should be replaced - I’ll use those springs to cut down and experiment with.

 

[TaperPin]

To answer your original question, yes I have had a shitty spring to exactly that. Now I use 100 % Wolf springs that average 26#. End of issues, lube could be lighter fluid but many run them dry or graphite.

I’ve considered running the bolt dry. Surface rust on a week long hunt is the downside. The other downside is an increase in water wicking up between the cocking piece and bolt shroud, which is the most likely area the freezing water is causing problems. A light coat of oil keeps the surface tension up.

 

[Larryh128]

Try the lighter fluid, seems to work ok.

 

[ebb]

There was a discussion on here about a week ago where a member was having issues with a 6.5-55. The whole conversation evolved around the barrel and I thought about an older Mauser rifle could need anew spring or have any number of ignition problems .

 

[TaperPin]

Try the lighter fluid, seems to work ok.

My issue isn’t related to lubricant - it’s literally liquid water freezing. Both rifles this has happened to have functioned flawlessly well down below zero. Easy enough to fix if it’s consistently below freezing, but October backpack hunting can be rain, sleet, snow, below freezing, above freezing - repeated a number of times each day a couple days a week. Stand in the shade and things freeze - two minutes later in the sun and it melts.

Electrical tape covers the barrel (has already been tested and doesn’t affect accuracy a significant amount), and the rifle is kept muzzle up during bad weather so the only places moisture can work it’s way in the bolt is the shroud/cocking piece. I hunt with an empty chamber and firing pin down, so chambering a round moves the cocking piece to hopefully break up any ice that might have formed.