Federal Blue box primers...

[RogerT]

Two months ago I loaded up some ammo for my 625, using the boxes of primers lying on the shelf in the reloading area of my garage.

I made 200 rounds and went out to the range for a practice session before the upcoming local match.

I had not fired the revo since last fall, so I was really ashtonished by the bad performance, click-click-bang-click and so on...

I could not fire a single moonclip without a misfire, and yet the dent on all primers looked OK, some clips I tried many times without any luck, worked the cylinder a couple of turns, only misfires....

I thought something had happened to the main spring, took it out and straightened it to the original shape and 9-10 lbs of DA pull....

A bit better, but not much.... WTF!??

So, disappointend with the gun I used my Glock in the next two matches, I had no time to fix the revo.

Early this week I had a good look at the gun, checked everything I could and decided that it must be a worn (short) firing pin, I could not find anything else to blame. My gun has the hammer mounted firing pin, so I took the hammer to the bench grinder and shaved off .010 in. from tha hammer nose so the firing pin protrudes more trough the shield.

And then I carefully checked my ammo again and sorted out every round that did have anything but a well seated primer, I even tried to re-seat the primers with the hand tool, but didn't succed, so I quit that.

Out to the range again yesterday, and the gun works! No mis-fires, all rounds go bang the first time....

Happily I went to reload some more ammo for tomorrows match and when I reach for the primers on the shelf, some small print on the corner of the box catches my eye, it say's "Large Rifle Primer".....

I loaded some 30-06 hunting ammo last fall on my 550, and left the primer boxes on the shelf.... and I had totally forgot that when I started reloading again this year.

I really miss the old red boxes, that print I could read without my reading glasses on

So now I have re-shaped the main spring again, and a 7 lbs DA-pull sets off the "Large Pistol Primers" without any problem..... I think I'm going to keep it that way for a couple of matches until I'm sure it works OK.

I really hope that the firing in is not protruding too much now, so I punch wholes in the softer primers??

Is there a maximum measure?

[Toolguy]

You won't punch holes in the primers. You're good to go as is.

[eak]

I hate getting old and having to wear glasses!

[Canuck223]

Ironicly, a revolver is probably the one system that will likely tolarate the higher rifle primer, if the main spring is strong enough to light them off.

[RogerT]

I gave the ammo I couldn't fire in my revolver to a friend with a Colt 1991A1, and they shoot just fine in it.

It's not tuned in any way and since the primer is flush with the case, it feeds them OK. I'm happy someone can use it......

[RogerT]

So, this weekend we had our Nationals in Sweden and I participated in the pre-match with my now functioning 625... at least three stages...

On the last three target array of the third stage I shot one target and then all I got was misfires, I reloaded thinking it must be some ammo related problem. No luck, only misfires and then the trigger stuck, it would not move at all.....

So I got 44 points on 150 point stage (30 round) but a decent time

On closer examination of the gun in the safety area, my firing pin point broke off and the broken part fell in to the trigger works and jammed the trigger...

I could fix the gun with help of a gun smith who happened to have some old firing pins in a drawer and one hour later I was back in the match and finished the remaining stages.

But, I'm wondering if my "quick and dirty fix" on the hammer (grinding off 0.010" from the hammer face) caused the firing pin to break prematurely or was it just bad luck and "time" for the firing pin to break?

[Toolguy]

It may have just been time for it to break. Sometimes when you shorten the hammer face it's a good idea to make the firing pin skinny

further back towards the hammer so it doesn't bind up in the firing pin bushing when it goes through the hole. You might want to do

that on the current firing pin. Also, check to make sure the firing pin bushing didn't get loose. If it did, it needs to be re staked with a hollow

end punch going through the barrel to the bushing.

Edited August 31, 2009 by Toolguy

[Dogged]

It may have just been time for it to break. Sometimes when you shorten the hammer face it's a good idea to make the firing pin skinny

further back towards the hammer so it doesn't bind up in the firing pin bushing when it goes through the hole. You might want to do

that on the current firing pin. Also, check to make sure the firing pin bushing didn't get loose. If it did, it needs to be re staked with a hollow

end punch going through the barrel to the bushing.

I must have missed the memo...

How/why does one shorten a hammer face?

[Toolguy]

On the older Smiths with the firing pin (hammer nose) on the hammer, that's how you get the firing pin to stick through further to make more of a dent in the primer. You remove the hammer nose, grind a few thou. (.010 or so) off the face of the hammer, making sure to maintain the original

angle where it hits on the frame. Then put the hammer nose back on, install the hammer in the frame by itself and make sure that with the hammer all the way down, the hammer nose still has some play and is not binding up on anything.