I bought a new ruger hawkeye in 35 whelen this summer and went to the range today to sight it in. I bought a "cheap" box of 200gr psp from remington to do the work. I put one in the chamber and pull the trigger. Nothing happens. I wait a bit and nothing. I take the bullet out and the primer has a dent in it but it's not very deep. I tried 5 more rounds all the same thing. I did clean the gun when I bought it and took the bolt apart. I took the bolt apart again at the range and there was not gunk or sticky stuff inside.

I'm not sure what the problem is but perhaps someone else knows? Is the brass to short? Chamber to big? Something wrong with the firing pin? Am I doing something wrong? I slid the rounds into the chamber and closed the bolt like I do with all my other push feed guns. Can I not do that with CRF or something?

Thanks for any help.

First, make sure that the bolt shroud is screwed on completely. Catch and retract the cocking piece and insert a retaining pin through the hole in the cocking piece and screw the complete assembly in (clockwise) until it stops. Then, remove the retaining pin back the shroud off (anti clockwise ) until the nose of the cocking piece drops into the big notch and check to see how much firing pin is sticking through the face of the bolt. If you have a way of measuring it, the pin should protrude from the bolt face somewhere between .055-.065. If it does and still won't go BANG, then you might want to take it to a gunsmith for further inspection.

Would bet money it is the Remington brass being undersized allowing it to be pushed deeper into the chamber when the firing pin hits the primer, which lessens the shock on the primer.
Had a 35 built a couple of years ago that did the same thing.
Went back to the smith who did the barrel work and his first comment was, "bet you are using Remington brass". Which I was. He confirmed headspace was good with the go/no go gauges.
Pulled the bullets out so they engaged the lands and every one fired. Adjusted the sizing die so they would just chamber and end of story.

Brass was sent back to Remington with a note. They told me the brass was in spec, and tough shit.

Dont get to carried away with other issues until you try the simple approach.

Sometimes if a rifle is stored vertically
oil will run into the firing pin hole and reduce the firing pin force. Clean up yhe firing pin first.
Good luck!

quote:

Am I doing something wrong? I slid the rounds into the chamber and closed the bolt like I do with all my other push feed guns. Can I not do that with CRF or something

The NORMAL procedure when loading a CRF is to first stick the round in the magazine and allow the bolt to push it forward and pick up the round. The case rim will then for sure be under the extractor. When you slide the round into the chamber then close the bolt on a CRF you are forcing the slight ramp on the front edge of the extractor to move it sideways enough to the slide over the rim. If your case is slightly short on headspace or chamber on the deep side or worse a combination of both you are REALLY jamming the case forward.

If you load from the magazine you will insure the exctractor has the case head. Heck in most cases the extractor will hold the case enough to even provide headspacing.

Take the rifle back to the range load from the magazine and I'll bet you a good it will fire fine. Then if you reload make sure you set your dies up to minimize the shoulder setback.

I know some do but I NEVER simply slide a round into the chamber on a CRF rifle.

Ramrod340 is right. I just had this happen on a new .338 Federal (Kimber). It was Federal brass....Tom

quote:

"bet you are using Remington brass".

Brass was sent back to Remington with a note. They told me the brass was in spec, and tough shit.

Dont get to carried away with other issues until you try the simple approach.

Same thing happened to me with two boxes of the 200gr shit ammo. I don't know if it is as much a problem with the 250's if they still make them. Remington's quality control sucks and is almost as bad as their customer service.