I fired two handloads from my savage 116 a couple days ago and the primer did not ignite until the second trigger pull. It appeared to dent the primer similarly both times the trigger was pulled. I had just previously fired six handloads with primers from the same box and similarly prepared brass (different bullets) without issue. I have not had time to reload anything else since then. Is this likely a mechanical problem or am I overlooking something? I have dry-fired the rifle quite a bit. Thanks.

There are several possibilities. First the primer may not have been seated to the bottom of the pocket. the first strike seated it, and the second fired it. Or the primer was defective to some extent. Third, the brass pocket may have been out of spec. The one thing I do religiously is feel each primer after seating to be absolutely sure it is below the case head. Specificatins I believe call for .001 to .003 below, you can feel it, and it should be the same each time. I am sure there are other reasons, but those are my favorite probabilities.

There are a couple of other possibilities that also come to mind.

1. A dirty firing pin and spring not hitting the primer hard enough the first time.
2. Federal primers and a lee hand primer dont seem to mix well.

I had a Ruger M77 in the shop a week or two back that did the same thing. The ammo seemed fine and I stripped the bolt. Found a tiny piece of flattened brass in the cone where the shaft of the firng pin comes to rest when fired. Cleaned it and it was fine.

I've had the same problem with CCI primers. Some will go off some won't. Even an SKS which had no problem setting off wolf ammo with a milspec primer would not set them off. There was just a scuffed spot where the firing pin hit.

They were CCI primers placed with a lee hand primer. Hopefully I will get some more rounds loaded tomorrow. I don't like this problem a couple months before deer season. Thanks

Befor I got in a big hurry to load more rounds, I'd take apart thebolt and check it out. If in fact it's just a dirty fireing pin and spring, nothing lost. But if sonething else is wrong it would be nice to find the problem befor having loaded up a bunch of what may be flawed ammo. I'm thinking dirty fireing pin and spring or ust a weak spring.

I had a similar problem with a CZ 527, 7.62x39.

Several rounds failed to fire even being tried several times. I pulled the bullets and dumped the powder and tried them in a SKS which did fire the primer.

I found two solutions.

First of all, when I sized the new brass using a Lee die, I didn't check from the casehead to the shoulder and compare that to a factory round. When I went back and checked, I was pushing the shoulder back .020 too far. The firing pin was pushing the case forward rather than firing the primer.

Replacing the Lee die with a RCBS fixed that problem.

Also CZ sent me a stronger firing pin spring which when retested with the short cases, (primer but no powder or bullet) they fired.

Problem solved.