Shot my "new" sporterized 6.5 today. Used Remington factory 140's. Boy was I let down. I had the barrel cut off to 23.6" and put it in a Ramline stock. I scoped the gun with a Meopta 4-12x40 scope. The gun misfired (snapped)5 times out of 20. Three shot groups ran about 2.5". Firing pin strikes on the primers were light"weak". Could this be a headspace issue? Weak firing pin spring? What could it be? Other 96s have shot much better than this and had no misfire problems. Help.

Could be a (1) weak firing pin, (2) too much oil/grease or debris inside the bolt and slowing down the strike, (3) Insufficient firing pin protrusion, (4) chamber too long or undersize cartridge.

Or, a combination of any of them. Try dismantling the bolt and washing it out in Kerosene, lightly oiling and reassembling, measure the protrusion - 0.040 to 0.050" is OK.
You need a Gunsmith who has a gauge for the 6.5 x55mm Swede OR an RCBS Precision Mic to measure the dimensions of the fired brass versus the factory ammo. If and only IF you think it is a weak strike, replace the spring with the appropriate spring -the ones sold by 'Woolf' are very good.

I should also add that the action should be properly bedded into the stock. Very few 'drop ins' fit correctly enough.

quote:

Originally posted by KimW9:
Could be a (1) weak firing pin, (2) too much oil/grease or debris inside the bolt and slowing down the strike, (3) Insufficient firing pin protrusion, (4) chamber too long or undersize cartridge.

Or, a combination of any of them. Try dismantling the bolt and washing it out in Kerosene, lightly oiling and reassembling, measure the protrusion - 0.040 to 0.050" is OK.
You need a Gunsmith who has a gauge for the 6.5 x55mm Swede OR an RCBS Precision Mic to measure the dimensions of the fired brass versus the factory ammo. If and only IF you think it is a weak strike, replace the spring with the appropriate spring -the ones sold by 'Woolf' are very good.

Good advice. The other good news is that I don't ever remember running across a Swede 96 that is as bad as you describe. In fact, I can only think of a few that had bad bores. Look to the bolt (striker/spring) for relief. Chances are your rifle sat in a closet for years with the bolt in the cocked position.
Prudence demands that the head space be checked...

I tried some of my handloads and that fixed the misfire problem. I took the brass that was fired in the gun and neck sized it, just barely bumping the shoulder. I still have 4 factory Remington shells that will not fire. Handloads wtih a 120 A-Max and 129 Horndady SP using RL-17 have very little verticle spread but a horizontal spread of about 2". I tried H-4350 and groups shrank in half and were uniform. Rl-22 was much worse. I think I am going to have the gun bedded. This gun should shoot better than this. I would expect a 3-shot group about an inch. The 4350 load will just about do this but the other loads are over 2". Any advice on the issue of the horizontal group?

It seems that the initial issue of weak strikes was undersize factory ammo - have you checked firing pin protrusion as well ?. As to horizontal groups, this is most likely to be a bedding problem with the synthetic stock. I use Devcon, but for what you want, a good two part Aluminium filled epoxy putty from your local hardware store is more than adequate. Put a little around the recoil lug and chamber area and the tang on the stock - take care to rough up the stock area around the bedded areas to ensure adhesion and make sure the action is thinly coated in a release compound - I use Johnsons floor wax with a drop or two of oil. Good luck.

I too use H4350 - Lapua cases 120 rem Corelockt and 46 gr of H4350 - that was worked up from 44 gr. I prefer 129 gr hornadys with 48 gr of H4831, also, I started at 46 gr and worked up to that.

Thanks for the load info. I have an update. In the past when I had a horizontal dispersion of groups;I changed to a powder with a different burning rate. I tried a load of H-4895 and that reduced groups in half. In fact the load with the A-Max was about a half inch. I am still going to have the gun properly bedded and try again. The accubond and the 129 Hornady went from 2.5" to 1.5" for 3 shots. I still think the rifle can do better.