All,
A friend and I were at the range last week plinking our .223 HB rifles and his Weatherby was having an issue. On the hot Hornady ballistic tip varmint loads, the rounds were extruding the primer into the firing pin hole after firing.
He had it lock up on him and it actually punched a hole in one of the primers. This punched piece would stick to the firing pin and pull back into the hole and drop it in the internals of the bolt.
He disassembled it and backed off the throw of the firing pin a notch or two, but then it quit firing his HSM rounds with light primer strikes. When firing the Hornady's though, the primer still extruded, but did not punch holes in it.
I have a new model ruger in the same caliber and I did not have these issues with any of the ammo we tried. I had one that his striked lightly while mine fired it. And one that his striked lightly and mine would not fire either. We were swapping ammo back and forth in attempts to diagnose, but to no avail. Everything worked just fine in my rifle and I have to say, I'm a bit more loyal to Ruger after this range session even though I've never owned a Weatherby.
On the background side, he disassembles his bolt while cleaning whereas I do not and never have. I've never had issue and I watch my primers, so I don't do it until it's needed. Don't fix it if it ain't broke mantra for me. I'm suspecting he did not get it back into the exact same postion as assembled in the factory and this may be part of the issue.
Any advice welcome. I suspect if we cannot iterate to a solution in another range session he will be returning it to Weatherby for service.
jeepmor
A friend and I were at the range last week plinking our .223 HB rifles and his Weatherby was having an issue. On the hot Hornady ballistic tip varmint loads, the rounds were extruding the primer into the firing pin hole after firing.
He had it lock up on him and it actually punched a hole in one of the primers. This punched piece would stick to the firing pin and pull back into the hole and drop it in the internals of the bolt.
He disassembled it and backed off the throw of the firing pin a notch or two, but then it quit firing his HSM rounds with light primer strikes. When firing the Hornady's though, the primer still extruded, but did not punch holes in it.
I have a new model ruger in the same caliber and I did not have these issues with any of the ammo we tried. I had one that his striked lightly while mine fired it. And one that his striked lightly and mine would not fire either. We were swapping ammo back and forth in attempts to diagnose, but to no avail. Everything worked just fine in my rifle and I have to say, I'm a bit more loyal to Ruger after this range session even though I've never owned a Weatherby.
On the background side, he disassembles his bolt while cleaning whereas I do not and never have. I've never had issue and I watch my primers, so I don't do it until it's needed. Don't fix it if it ain't broke mantra for me. I'm suspecting he did not get it back into the exact same postion as assembled in the factory and this may be part of the issue.
Any advice welcome. I suspect if we cannot iterate to a solution in another range session he will be returning it to Weatherby for service.
jeepmor
