Again, a shooter purchased a new rifle, he also purchased new ammo, the rifle was 30/06, 5 of 20 rounds of the new Remington ammo did not fire, the shooter with the new rifle made two attempts at firing the 5, nothing, with no shortage of 30/06 chambers at the range two more rifles were used in an attempt firing the unfired 'duds’?.
Another shooter/reloader called me from the range and ask about Remington ammo, I suggested he/they call Remington and the manufacturer of the rifle, that did not happen, seems most get more mileage out of a topic by complaining, after it was said and done he shows up with 20 rounds, 15 fired and 5 with primer strikes, he did not bring the box, he did not have the phone number of the shooter with the new rifle, so much for contacting Remington. I dug out ‘MY’ chamber gages, L.E. Wilson case gage, and my home made comparator system, then my RCBS 30 cal bullet puller and at the insistence of the shooter/reloader I used the 10-10 RCBS scale.
The fired cases with a slight thumb pressure seated into my chamber gage, with a straight edge and feeler gage I measured the length of the cases from the head of the case to the shoulder of the case then confirmed the measurement with my home made comparator, conclusion? the chamber was not long enough to allow the case/powder/bullet and primer to out run the primer strike, when weighing the remains of the 5 unfired cases after pulling them down, I was impressed, there was not 1/2 grain difference between bullets, powder or case weight, THEN, I installed the 5 dented primers back into the proper case, then chambered each one at a time in one of my M1917s, I pulled the trigger and each primer fired, after having been hit as many as 6 times in three different rifles, the M1917 firing pin fall is ‘CLICK’!!!!, nothing bashful about the M1917 firing pin hitting the primer, I was not at the range, I do believe the M1917 would have fired all 5 rounds at the range after 6 attempts had been made.
And? still, with no way to contact the man with the new rifle there is someone out there that is giving Remington a bad reputation. I do have a Remington M1917 that does not strike the primer with authority, it has been declared the ugliest rifle ever built and described as “What was he thinking” when he built it. Anyhow, I can not improve on the accuracy, $120.00, I have more money in the mounts, scope base and scope, and it shoots everything, no matter the case, time fired, bullet, seated out, seated back, groups move but never scatter, ugly and accurate? I will settle for that.
F. Guffey
