Recently converted my Sako L589 (Forester)to 6 BR. With mild loads, the firing pin sometimes creates a small hole in the Federal Match Primers where the pin hits the anvil (sort of like a reverse dimple). Pin protrudes .052. This problem does not occur with CCI BR4.

Have stoned down the pin and polished it but the roughness comes back. Could this be a hardness issue that was caused by leaky primers heat treating the tip of the pin? This just started in the last several days.

Can the tip end of the pin be tempered if I cannot fine a replacement pin? Any ideas of where to find a new pin?
Ron

STOP!!!

.052" is PERFECT... .050 to .065 is considered GREAT

benchrest primers are ALWAYS softer than regular primers... use the SRM on it, and see what happens.. spend the whole $1.25 and load up a couple.

if you didn't do the conversion, take it back to the chum that did, show him the pierced br primers, and the unpierced (i woudl expect) regular primers...

jeffe

jeffe, thanks for the input. The company that did the conversion, did nothing to the bolt. The boltface and the action were true within .001. I adjusted the pin from .065 to .052 to see if that would help. No change

Will try some regular primers. As you said, the br primers look like they are light on metal. One point that I had overlooked is that the barrel conversion involved switching from large rifle to small rifle primers. I wonder if small rifle primers are softer that large rifle. The gun was converted from a 22/250?????

Is there some way that the firing pin could have lost its hardness since it continues to get rough? Could this have happened as several primers heated up the end.
Ron

C210,

Yes, if the firing pin will not hold it's shape, then it is most certain that it has lost it's temper. And yes, it is possible to have the tip rehardened. Your local gunsmith should be able to do it easily.

Good luck,

Malm