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Main Spring Weight


Foxbat

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One of my open guns suddenly started failing to ignite, so I suspect the main spring gave. Not sure what wight spring is there, so asking for recommendation - I have several different ones on hands. Using WInchester primers exclusively.

I have 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21 here.

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Hello: You may want to see if your firing pin spring broke and the piece is not allowing the firing pin to hit the primer very well. I use a 17lb ISMI mainspring. I have tried a 15lb a couple of times but the 17 makes it go bang every time. A Dawson firing pin works on some very hard primers like Remington benchrest. I forgot to add that the mainspring housing may have a burr inside that is not allowing the spring to come up cleanly. Thanks, Eric

Edited by Aircooled6racer
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Thank you guys, good answers! The pin and breach face look perfect, so I suspect it was indeed the spring. I then called Cameron, who built the gun, and they said they put 15# into their open guns, so I went with the 16# spring that I had. The old one was about 1/4" shorter than new, and felt more sluggish. Will test in a couple of days.

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Someone made an 18lb spring because that's what I use. With a 15lb it feels like there's no break on my trigger, just touch & bang, I don't like that. As mentioned, FP springs sometimes break off a coil or two, also primer flow can mess with ignition so i use an extra-long FP (Dawson and McLearn both make similar XL firing pins).

With open guns it's a real good idea before each match to at least remove the FP and the extractor and clean the tunnels out with a Q-tip and solvent, also clean the extractor hook, maybe run a weighted bore snake through the barrel. Don't have to field strip, you can do all that with the slide locked back.

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