I have had my new Bergara B14R out to the range on two different days. Each day I have had 2 or 3 failures to fire in each box of 22 ammo. I have been drawing on my stash of Standard Plus. I love every other aspect of the rifle. If I rechamber the rounds, sometimes they will fire on the second strike and sometimes they won't. I should say that my KIDD will eat these up with no failures in any way. Just a guess, but the Bergara firing pin striking surface is rounded and not sharp in any way. Could this be allowing the firing pin to not impart enough force to ignite the cartridge primer? What does everyone think? I am tempted to order another firing pin from Bergara and sharpen the tip to see if that solves the problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Bergara B 14 R failure to fire (light firing pin strike?)
- Thread starter Billsail
- Start date
Light strike? Maybe...maybe not.
Possibilities...
Needs full cleaning, including the entire bolt.
Residue inside the bolt can impede firing pin motion.
Mechanical issue with bolt and receiver.
Out of spec brass, either brass dimensions off or too hard/thick.
Primer missing from rim of cartridges either due to poor application at the factory,
or due to rough handling during manufacture or shipment.
I actually did a drop test with a box of 22lr.
Packed the box of cartridges the same as they are shipped,
then dropped once from 36 inches height.
Unpacked and pulled the cartridges apart.
6 of 50 had the primer knocked loose from the rim.
It was in chunks mixed in with the powder.
Possibilities...
Needs full cleaning, including the entire bolt.
Residue inside the bolt can impede firing pin motion.
Mechanical issue with bolt and receiver.
Out of spec brass, either brass dimensions off or too hard/thick.
Primer missing from rim of cartridges either due to poor application at the factory,
or due to rough handling during manufacture or shipment.
I actually did a drop test with a box of 22lr.
Packed the box of cartridges the same as they are shipped,
then dropped once from 36 inches height.
Unpacked and pulled the cartridges apart.
6 of 50 had the primer knocked loose from the rim.
It was in chunks mixed in with the powder.
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After reading your suggestions I tried to give the bolt a thorough cleaning, but I'm stumped. I can't find instructions on how to take the bolt apart. The manual doesn't cover it and I am hesitant to just rip the bolt apart. Is there a procedure I should follow? (In print would be helpful). Thanks again for the suggestions.
I hear ya' OT.
This is the results from the drop test.
Rim up was okay...open case mouth up...primer busted loose.
View of the primer chunks in the powder
That's the results from a single 36 inch drop.
Think of what the cargo handlers from the shipping services
do with those ammo deliveries on the way to y'er front door.
Rough handling will knock that primer out of the rim.
This is the results from the drop test.
Rim up was okay...open case mouth up...primer busted loose.
View of the primer chunks in the powder
That's the results from a single 36 inch drop.
Think of what the cargo handlers from the shipping services
do with those ammo deliveries on the way to y'er front door.
Rough handling will knock that primer out of the rim.
After giving the Bergara B-14r bolt a thorough cleaning, I made it to the range today. Out of 300 rounds I had only 1 failure to fire. Now I think it was a combination of old ammo, I checked and my stash of SK Standard + is going on 9 years old, and the dirty bolt, (which I have resolved). Thanks to all for the suggestions! I should mention that when I deep cleaned the bolt, it reduced my trigger pull weight to 1 pound 8 oz. It was 2 pounds even.
I have sent thousands of rounds of SK SP through my B14R, and have not had a single misfire with it (nor with any other brand).
This is odd for the B14 to have light strikes. I have found it’s mostly the ammo. I’m running a lighter spring and have no issues with SK ammo. It’s all I shoot. I had no issues with the OEM spring either.
I have found Eley ammo I have, has failure to fire. Rotate the bullet and eventually it goes bang. But the eley is 1 in 3-4 rounds fails to fire. Now it could just be a bad box of 50 but I have read others have had the same issue with Eley using other guns. So that tells me it’s an ammo issue. I was given the box of 50 and still have 30 rds of it. To many FTF with it. This was a box of Eley Target. The pic are 3 rounds FTF. I had a couple more that went bang on the second attempt. But these 3 never went bang and I had the OEM spring in with these. They are dimpled pretty good. The round in the middle is dimpled twice. FTF twice.
I have found Eley ammo I have, has failure to fire. Rotate the bullet and eventually it goes bang. But the eley is 1 in 3-4 rounds fails to fire. Now it could just be a bad box of 50 but I have read others have had the same issue with Eley using other guns. So that tells me it’s an ammo issue. I was given the box of 50 and still have 30 rds of it. To many FTF with it. This was a box of Eley Target. The pic are 3 rounds FTF. I had a couple more that went bang on the second attempt. But these 3 never went bang and I had the OEM spring in with these. They are dimpled pretty good. The round in the middle is dimpled twice. FTF twice.
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My B14 is still running the stock spring. It has the updated striker. If you have an early release model Bergara revised the Striker assembly.
Have not had a FTF in 3000+ SK, Eley, Norma, & CCI.
Hits them pretty hard.
Have not had a FTF in 3000+ SK, Eley, Norma, & CCI.
Hits them pretty hard.
When was your B14 purchased? Mine was originally bought July 2020. I bought it used February 2021.
What did you have to do to get a new striker?
Again I have had no issues with SK ammo. And the guy who owned it before me did a YouTube video where he shot 10 or so different brands with many rounds. Again it may just be the box of Eley I have.
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I did it backwards. Ordered my barreled action 1/03/21 & it shipped with the new striker. The new one has a 14 coil spring IIRC.
Placed a wtb add here for the old style and bought one. Old style is 17 coils with thinner spring.
Bergara sent out replacements free to those that got the early release 17 coil assembly. Not sure what the date was for the switch? July 2020 is probably the old style.
Edit: they did not send automatically, had to be requested. If I remember right the issues with early striker was FTF.
I’ve got a thread on here B14r issues & solutions that goes into detail and has pictures of both old and new assemblies. Should be able to identify yours from the pictures.
Unless somethings changed Bergara sells no parts for these. Warrantee replacements only.
That is why I bought the old striker to experiment with.
My own is from 2019, after discussing some of my concerns, they sent the newer striker assembly, firing pin, and firing pin return spring. I’d rejoice if mine looked like yours!
I’ve viewed with mag removed, and closing on a spent shell, the headspacing looks fine, I don’t believe I have enough potential firing pin protrusion.
These really are a great gun, and for a slew of dimensions that have to come together for perfection I recognize the difficulty in a mass produced firearm.
Thanks. I went to the post B14 issues and solutions. I had seen the post before but haven’t experienced any issues with my gun that I never read the thread. I can’t believe the problems people have had. It’s awful. My gun runs flawlessly. Anyway. I have the new coil spring with 14 coils. Definitely thicker coils than the pic of your 17 coil as well. I also unscrewed my shroud assembly to see how many coils my new lighter spring is. And it’s 12 coils. The coils are also thinner, similar looking to the older 17 coil spring. I purchased the spring from Crossroads Precision (CRP). It comes with a new shroud as well but the new shroud is causing the bolt to require more force to close. So I’m running the Bergara shroud, which has no issues. Still working with CRP on the shroud issue, but nothing is helping.
I went out to shoot for the first time with new lighter spring and to zero again after moving my scope. I only shot 100 rds, but no issues. Gun ran flawlessly. The lighter spring definitely is an upgrade and takes less force to run the bolt. I’ve been nothing but happy with my B14.
I rarely collect 22 brass but I did so to clean up where I was shooting. 20 casings on the left are fired with the new Crossroads Precision spring. The 20 casings on the right are with the Bergara spring. The Bergara spring definitely dimples more and distorts the brass more. The CRP spring is a cleaner strike. Less brass distortion. This is all Sk ammo.
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Your fired cases with the new spring still look like there getting hit pretty good. I tried backing my striker out 1 turn in the bolt and it hit lighter then that.
I think I posted in that thread my plan for making a light weight striker via a titanium rod etc + adding a lighter spring. My opinion is that the 2 are connected. With a light spring on the heavy striker your sacrificing lock time & lightening the primer hit unless travel is increased. Just keep this in mind. Might be worth comparing springs on a known good lot of ammo (SK LR Match) has all shot very well in mine.
I've polished the cocking ramps and the bolt runs very smooth accept for the big speed bump if closing slowish. That is just straight up poor timing by Bergara. I showed it in a video in the other thread. Half un-cocks - then re-cocks while closing. I have a Tig welder, but not going to attempt sice Bergara won't sell me a replacement anything.
I'm very happy with mine after getting the bugs worked out. Looks great, balances great & shoots great. Been flawless since fixes and it's printed a few crazy good groups at 100y.
With the way it's shooting I doubt the light striker + spring will give any noticeable improvement. It's sitting in about 10th place on my project list.
Mine really seams to like ammo in the 1100fps range.
100y SK LR & Eley 10x. Of note here is that all lots of SK LR have shot well whereas only the fast lots of Eley were really good. And the Eley isn't cheap. Eley lot numbers on targets below for ref.
Best 5X5 avg was shot prone. Other 2 where from bench. All were bi-pod + rear bag.
Yep I agree. The lighter spring is still hitting plenty hard. You mentioned “With a light spring on the heavy striker your sacrificing lock time & lightening the primer hit unless travel is increased.” I don’t follow what you mean by lock time.
I too have polished the cocking ramp as well as removed much of the material from the groove. See pic of groove just above my index finger. The second pic is the black metal piece that rests in the groove. When working the bolt, it’s much easier with the groove filed down and polished. The bolt runs a lot better with less force to open and close.
As for wanting the lighter spring, it was to make operating the bolt easier and it does. Accuracy has not been affected by the spring and didn’t expect anything to change. Just an easier working bolt.
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The time it takes from when trigger releases sear till primer is hit = Lock Time. Light spring plus heavy striker equals slower lock time.
There are a lot of rim-fire articles claiming short lock time is important for 22's. The thinking is that since it's low vel & bullet takes longer to leave the barrel a short lock helps minimize shooter induced movement prior to bullet exit. would make a bigger difference in positional type shooting vs from a rest.
I haven't tested it, but the rational in the articles I've read is based on sound principles. Makes sense to me.
Got it. In theory. Lol. If there is a difference, I couldn’t tell. I don’t think anyone could. It’s milliseconds. The gun operated and felt no different other than bolt action.
Other than that, the primer, once ignited, propels the bullet out the barrel at the same speed. But I do get the theory of lock time. Thanks for clearing it up.
You also mentioned your gun likes 1100 MV ammo. I’ve noticed with my rifle using Sk std + and SK RM the MV has a 30 FPS spread based on temps. I try and zero in 30-40 degree weather. The ammo is at its slowest MV at 1074 Fps. Exactly what Sk states on the box. But in 90 degree weather my MV increases to 1106-1107 fps. That’s a big spread. The kestrel has an MV Temp feature that when MV at different temps are entered, the kestrel will adjust dope based on changing temps. Such a fantastic feature of the kestrel.
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