A good buddy of mine just got a Encore and put a 15" barrel for a 7mm08 on it. He was shooting 140gr silvertips. 3 out of 20, failed to fire even with a dimple in the primer. The dimple was not near as deep too my liking but I figured still would fire it off. I also noticed out of the two boxs he had, the primer was alot deeper than my likeing. I figure it for excessive headspace problem. But groups at 100yards wasn't bad at all. If it was headspace I figured that would suffer some.

So I take the three duds from box 1, and 3 rounds from a new box and measure with a head and shoulders gauge. I then measure the fireformed (ones that would fire). I got a 7mil delta. (.007"). Is this excessive? None of my rifles have near that much slop in the chamber. .004" is the most I see.

I figured we could troubleshoot with a encore frame I have to see if that firing pin worked. And take the duds and see if it fires in my 7mm-08 remington.

I know a bunch will say send it back. But I would like to troubleshoot before needlessly wasting money on something that may be an ammo problem and I can fix for myself. I find the WLR Primers to be very hard anyway. I bet Fed 210's would have fired.

I apreciate advise on those who know headspace.

If he uses all reloads in the future once fired in his Encore he probably won't have any problem. I he insists on using commercial stuff it sounds like a gamble to me. roger

Well, hes not a reloader. I think he plans on me loading for him. But I wasn't planning on it.

quote:

I got a 7mil delta. (.007"). Is this excessive?

No....I don't consider it to be so.....nor do I believe there's any relationship between headspace and accuracy.

I'd be looking at primer pocket depth or some feature of the action.....

Could it be that the locking bolt is not seating all the way? I had a simmilar problem with a 30-30 barrel and ended up installing a different bolt from another barrel.

Scot, its a encore, not a bolt.