PTR Failure to Fire/Feed

Hi, all,

I’ve got a PTR-91 GI that I’ve had a few problems with. I sent it back to the factory a few months back, where they fixed a problem with the front sight (inaccuracy wasn’t my fault, for once!), but now I’ve noticed another issue.

I was shooting my rifle this weekend, and I had a problem with failures to feed (bolt closing on an empty chamber) and light primer strikes. I suspect it is a magazine issue, since it happened multiple times, but only on one of the three mags I was using.

The thing is, it happened 5-6 times out of 20 rounds, but I believe (though I could potentially be mistaken) that I have previously used that magazine without that issue coming up. I’ve also had the same thing happen on another range trip, where I was using a different magazine (I bought ten milsurp magazines at once, so I guess there could be two duds).

I know the simplest explanation would be bent feed lips interfering with the bolt and carrier, causing cycling and return to battery problems, but the magazine looks no different than any of the others that function fine. Is there another potential culprit, or do I just need to quit thinking about it and toss that mag?

Thanks for your help.

For ammunition, I was using Austrian surplus Hirtenberger.

I numbered all my mags awhile back, so I know for sure which mag I had the problems with most recently. I sat down and compared that magazine vs my others, and I noticed a couple of the things.

adcoch1 said:

You may have a dent in the mag body delaying the cartridge column in it's upward movement. Had an fal mag do that once. Number your mags on the floorplate(with a sticker if you want it temporary) it helps keep track of which mags have issues.

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I think that may be the culprit on the failures to feed. The offending magazine had a small dent in its side, right next to one of the stamped ridges in the magazine, so I never noticed it before. I disassembled the magazine, and I could feel the spring catching on that dent. The dent is in the lower part of the magazine, and the failures to feed were within the first handful of rounds, when most of the spring would have been compressed below that dent.

As to the light primer strikes, that same mag seems to fit very loosely in the magazine well. It has a lot of slop, back and forth, side to side, and up and down. It feels like much more play than my other magazines.

I tried an experiment just now where I inserted that mag, put pressure on it to one side, and eased the bolt forward. I could feel the bolt rubbing against the magazine feed lips, to the point where it almost overcame the spring pressure on the bolt and stopped the action from moving.

When I had the problem last weekend, I was practicing some position shooting, where I had my support hand back by the magwell, I’m sure I was putting pressure on the magazine. I it possibly could have interfered just enough to stop the bolt from going all the way into battery.

I’m going to toss that mag and take my rifle out this weekend to test all the others. If the problem persists, I guess it’ll be time to call PTR. Incidentally, I love the rifle. I bought it during the pre-election rush last year. I would imagine that probably had an effect on their QC. When I had to send it back to fix an issue with the sights, their customer service was top notch. Despite the hiccups, I’d still recommend them. Just make sure to put a new rifle through its paces during the warranty period.

Thanks, everyone, for your help! I’ll update with what the tests of the other magazines show.