Browning Buckmark issues

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mgmorden

mgmorden

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Hey guys. Just checking in on something. I recently got a new Browning Buckmark Camper. I immediately took it out to the range and out of the box I was having a LOT of light strikes. Like 1-2 per magazine. Looked online, and a lot of people have had similar problems due to firing pin problems.

In an attempt to fix it, I got a TandemKross Fire Starter Titanium firing pin for the gun. This has helped quite a bit, but out of 100 rounds I still got 4 light strikes.

This is with Federal Auto-match ammo which I've always had good luck with. Is that rate (~4%) about what to expect or is something still wrong here?
 
Try a different brand. .22 autoloader are often a bit finicky and prefer this or that load. Test some CCI 40 grain mini mags, those are considered by many a gold standard of reliable .22 ammo that oft run great in many .22s.
 
If you have some of the box of ammo left, and another semI auto 22 (preferably pistol) see if you get the same failure rate.
 
If it has the same misfire rate with CCI Mini Mags I'd suspect a handgun problem. You probably did but I'll ask, did you do a good cleaning and lube prior to shooting the gun or when you put in the new firing pin? The Buckmark I had ran just fine on many different brands of ammo, no jams, misfires or problems of any sort.
 
I also have a new Buck Mark, a Black Label. It ran fine on CCI 36 gr. and some Federal 36 gr. bulk ammo until it got a little dirty. I found in some of my research that failures are more common when the Buck Mark gets a little dirty. And it looks like mine will need to be cleaned after about 150-200 rds. There is a good Buck Mark forum I found at http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=17. Good luck with the Buck Mark!
 
"Any chance that the barrel retaining screw is not snugged down?"

That and also check to make sure the two sight base screws are snugged down as well. I was having the exact same light strike issue with my Buckmark, discovered it was due to those screws (especially the rear one) working loose during range sessions. Now I keep a 3/32" allen wrench handy when shooting and I replace both #8 external tooth countersunk lock washers each time I disassemble the gun for cleaning. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I haven't given the gun a thorough cleaning yet (TBH I usually don't clean new guns I wait until a few range sessions and then clean them).

The sight bar screws were definitely snugged down pretty tight however I didn't check the barrel retaining screw. I'll give those a shot as well as try some more ammo types and see how they perform.
 
In the boxes of Automatch I've used, 5% seems to be the amount of misfires I get in just about every gun I've tried them in.
 
My range has a small pail for bad ammo, .22's seem to be the most represented.

Being the cheap SOB I am, I tend to try my non working .22's again by rotating them 180 degrees and firing them a second time. Probably about a 90% success ratio.
 
The first time I shot my new Buck Mark I put 100 rds. of CCI 36 gr. through it and did not have any failures. It had not been cleaned at all. Before I shot it again I cleaned the barrel with a bore snake and cleaned the chamber, I did not remove the barrel or receiver. The next time I shot it I shot about 200 rds. of Federal 36 gr. from a box of 500 and had several failures.

Before I shot it the next time I removed the receiver and cleaned it and the barrel thoroughly. And I had no failures with the Federal or CCI rds. the last time I shot it.
 
Just as an update I've got this solved. After another outing trying cci mini mags with a lot of failures I examined the cases compared to the ones from my GSG 1911 .22 which tends to work fine. The impact was deep on all the ones that didn't fire but it was short.

From the rim of the case the mark on the rounds from the Buckmark was approximately 0.9mm. The ones from the GSG was 1.8mm. Looking at the firing pin in the channel it had some room it could drop so I took out the plastic firing pin housing and sanded off 0.3mm. Tested on an empty case and the mark lengthened to 1.2mm.

After that I took it to the range today and went through a 225 round box of ammo without a single failure.
 
mgmorden said:
From the rim of the case the mark on the rounds from the Buckmark was approximately 0.9mm. The ones from the GSG was 1.8mm. Looking at the firing pin in the channel it had some room it could drop so I took out the plastic firing pin housing and sanded off 0.3mm. Tested on an empty case and the mark lengthened to 1.2mm.

After that I took it to the range today and went through a 225 round box of ammo without a single failure.
Click to expand...

Nice find and fix! :cool:
 
My Buckmark and new batches of Automatch have misfires. Bought a brick of Blazer and problems went away.
Years ago I had a similar problem due to heavy wax bullet lube keeping the rounds from fully seating. The firing pin would fully seat the round but not make bang.
A boresnake helped with this issue. I keep all my 22lr pistols well lubed. They like running wet.
 
Speedo66 said:
My range has a small pail for bad ammo, .22's seem to be the most represented.

Being the cheap SOB I am, I tend to try my non working .22's again by rotating them 180 degrees and firing them a second time. Probably about a 90% success ratio.
Click to expand...

Ya, I do the same. IMHO the good strike/misfire issue with rimfires is most often due to the priming compound missing in that portion of the rim. When it's spun into place at the factory it can fail to equally flow around the inside of the rim, and if the firing pin strikes that part you get no bang. Rotating it will often result in a fired round when the firing pin hits a new section that has primer.

I always wondered why rimfires don't all have a dual (or split) firing pin set up so two parts of the rim are struck simultaneously. Either that or a wider firing pin to hit more of the rim on a single strike...

Stay safe!
 
mgmorden said:
Just as an update I've got this solved. After another outing trying cci mini mags with a lot of failures I examined the cases compared to the ones from my GSG 1911 .22 which tends to work fine. The impact was deep on all the ones that didn't fire but it was short.

From the rim of the case the mark on the rounds from the Buckmark was approximately 0.9mm. The ones from the GSG was 1.8mm. Looking at the firing pin in the channel it had some room it could drop so I took out the plastic firing pin housing and sanded off 0.3mm. Tested on an empty case and the mark lengthened to 1.2mm.

After that I took it to the range today and went through a 225 round box of ammo without a single failure.
Click to expand...

I had to do a similar fix on a Redhawk .41 that had occasional DA light strikes. The fix was to remove a bit of hammer nose metal to slightly increase the impact energy and depth the hammer imparts on the transfer bar...which then hits the firing pin harder. Looks like your fix was similar in nature and it increased the depth of your Buckmark's firing pin travel as well, nice job!

Stay safe!
 
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