I have a BLR in .270 Win. Have not hunted with it yet. Only shot it at the range a couple of times, installed a 3-9 Vari X II scope on Warne detachables mounts & recently mucking around with the Ashley back up ghost ring sight.

Now sometimes this rifle just does not go bang!! After waiting for 30 seconds or so I recock the hammer & then it goes bang. So nothing wrong with the Ammo which is factory 130gn Win Powerpoints.

Those of you in the know, what is causing these misfires? How to avoid them? Obviously could be disasterous in a hunting situation.

Thanks,
JohnT

JohnT,

Is the gun new or used? When it misfires, what does the primer look like? This design relies on a gear and a rack to cam the bolt closed. The problem sounds like the bolt is not closing all the way. The bolt needs to be completely forward to fire. If this gear is damaged or out of time by 1 tooth, the bolt may not completely close. Sometimes the force of the hammer will finish seating the bolt to where it will fire.

On an empty chamber, close the bolt and look closely at the joint between the bolt head and the bolt body. There should be no gap present between the two. If there is, push on the bolt with your thumb and see if you can push the bolt forward. You may need to take it to someone who is well versed with this design to have the gear timing checked or reset. It is too complicated a job to explain on this forum.

If you wish to make the necessary arrangements, I will grab a few tools and my SCUBA gear and come down and check it out for you...


Malm

I've had a similar problem with my BLR, but only when using reloaded ammo. Reloading for these rifles requires the use of small base dies, and even then sometimes a case will not get resized quite enough for it to chamber all the way. When I close the bolt the lever will come up far enough to appear closed and the hammer will drop but not set the round off.

Try this: When you have a misfire, or just chamber a few rounds you suspect, and before you open the lever take a look at through the ejection port on the right side of the rifle and examine the gap between the slide and the rotating portion of the bolt. If there is any noticeable gap the hammer will drop but not fire the round. Sometimes I can give the lever a hard squeeze and take up the slack but I won't fire a round I have to force in the chamber.

Since I almost exclusively hunt with reloads, I've taken to testing every round I'm going to hunt with by chambering every round (at the range) before I hunt with the cartridge. I've never had this issue with a factory round.

I've had this problem ever since I had the trigger lightened, especially with factory Win. Failsafe 168gr. 150's always worked fine. But on mine, the hammer wouldn't drop. I found I really had to slam it closed and it would be fine. I would always test for hammer drop then put it at half cock.

But I'd like to get it fixed, just haven't found a gunsmith quaified. Any siggestions?

Thanks all for the replies so far. The gun is new.
When it does not fire & on the occasions I have extracted the round, there is no mark on the primer. I am always wary of extracting so lately have been just recocking & refiring.

Looks like its not all that rare a problem. Am aware of keeping the lever in tight but was not aware of keeing en eye on the gap between the rotating bolt head & the bolt. Will watch that from now on. But this is just another hassle you don't need whilst hunting.

I am using Win factory ammo. Have the reloading gear but have not yet fired any in this rifle yet.

Those of you that are gunsmiths out there is there a way to fix this?

Malm got it right, It's almost certainly a timing problem. I've seen them right out of the box that were mis-assembled.

Jack you are correct of course. Took it to my gunsmith & there is a timing problem but it is no longer adjustable with the lightning series. Apparently Browning has a different cam available that may solve the problem so the bolt locks up tighter.

Yes, basically the Browning lever guns (BLR type) use a rack and pinion system for their bolt (yes, just like in a car, just smaller). Timing can be off, as well as tooth wear on both components can cause problems as well. The only problems I've had personally with these is when I screwed up the re-assembly, but I have heard of more problems out there. Glad to hear that Browning has a fix in the works. - Dan