Sorry if this is long, but I'm trying to get to the bottom of this and am hoping that you all can help me out. I have a 338 Edge built on a Rem 700 action that has me about to pull my hair out. The problems all started when initially doing load testing. Everything was going fine as I was using loads that have been proven in this chambering i.e cci 250's, 92.0 grains of H-1000, 300 grain SMK's coal of 3.890" with remmy brass. Things started going wrong when I got a pierced primer. I hadn't noticed any signs of pressure prior to that, so I continued shooting. Five shots later, another pierced primer. Now I was getting concerned. I went back to the bench and loaded some more rounds with a reduced charge of 91.0 grains. As I pulled the trigger on one of these loads, the primer did not ignite and I could tell that there was something wrong with the firing pin. I proceeded to remove the firing pin and cleaned it out thinking the blowback from the pierced primers fouled something up. This seemed to resolve the issue; however, after another five or so shots, another pierced primer. I went back to the bench again and loaded some more rounds with 90.0 grains of h-1000. The first few shots out of the rifle seemed okay. I was very concerned however when the next chambered round failed to discharge upon pulling the trigger. I waited with the barrel down range for a few seconds then proceeded to eject the round. There was a slight indent where the firing pin struck the primer, but obviously not enough to ignite the primer. This happened three more times. I determined that something had occurred to damage the firing pin due to the blow back or that something was wrong with the firing pin to begin with. I proceeded to order a Tubbs speedlock firing pin for the rifle and installed it upon receiving it. The first round ignited fine and showed no signs of pressure with the 90.0 grain load. However, the second and third shot did not ignite and demonstrated the same problem with a slight indent on the primer.
I'm not quite sure how to proceed from here. Has anyone had similar issues with a rifle before? Any ideas as to what is going on? And most importantly, how can I fix this rifle? Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.
I'm not quite sure how to proceed from here. Has anyone had similar issues with a rifle before? Any ideas as to what is going on? And most importantly, how can I fix this rifle? Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.