Hello all,

I recently purchased a used 760 in .30-06 at an auction. I shot it at the range yesterday for the first time. I noticed that when cycling rounds through without firing (I do this with all my rifles to ensure proper cycling), there was a slight firing pin mark on the primers of the ejected cartridges. The mark was not as pronounced and deep as a spent primer, but it was definitely noticeable.

I tested it several times with factory rounds by slamming the slide shut with as much force as I could, trying to get the rounds to go off (rifle safely pointed downrange, of course). None of them went off. But this still worries me, as I intend to use this gun for hunting and I've never heard of this happening in a 760.

Has anyone ever seen this? Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking I may need to have a gunsmith take a look at it, but with any luck it's something that I can just fix myself.

Thanks,
Dan

Here are two pics of the problem Dan is experiencing with his Rem. 760. All cases pictured are from factory ammo. In the photo with two rounds the case on the left shows the dimple left on the primer from the firing pin when the action was closed and the live round was then ejected. The case on the right is from a fired round.

The photo of the single round is another example of what happens when the round is chambered then ejected without firing.

Yeah, The 760s don't have a firing pin return spring to hold them back. The gun really can't fire unless the action is fully closed. The firing pin can't hit the primer until the bolt shroud is fully forward. But on a hard slam the firing pin can bounce forward and back and tap the primer. I have never heard of a case of one firing on closing from this and if it had happened I expect Remington would have dragged them all back in years ago. I would put it up there on the (one of those silly things that came with the design) shelf and not worry about it. Just for peace of mind you could email Remington an explanation and a photo but I expect you would get much sort of the same explanation from them. I did warranty for Remington for about 15 years and I never experience a problem from this little idiosyncrasy. Nor was I ever made privy to any sort of possible problem with it.

Purely hypothetically speaking. If one were to load a 760 and stuff it down the barrel of a cannon and shoot it muzzle first against a cement wall the firing pin could, and probably would build up enough kinetic energy to kinetically fire the gun.

Thanks Tom for posting the pics, and thanks Rod for your detailed response.

I'm glad to hear this is likely a non-issue, but if anyone else has had any experience with this, or has ever heard of any issues or unintentional discharges as a result of this, I'd be grateful if you would share.

Many thanks.

Iknow all that but it still doesn't make me happy.

If you fire any of the rifles that don't have a firing pin spring, you would not be surprised at your 760, which, is completely normal.
Like M1s and M14s/M1As, M16s for example. That is why they added a spring to the firing pin of the new AR-10; but the firing pin is heavier.
NOW, you can fire them whilst the action is locked, by slamming the butt down on the concrete floor very hard. I have not done this, but a friend has. Once. That was on an M1.

Actually, my 94 Winchester leaves a tap mark on the primers. Now that I think of it.

Right you are; 94s do leave marks; I noticed that when I got my first one in 1966. I thought it was odd, then, but I was 15 and didn't know anything.
Just like now.

As part of our firearms safety instruction here in NZ for those applying for a firearms license, we advise against carrying a bolt action rifle with a live round in the chamber and the action uncocked e.g. pulling the trigger while lowering the bolt handle. While this seems a safe way of carrying a loaded rifle and is practiced by some it does mean that the firing pin is fully protruded with the weight of the spring holding it against the live primer. Extracting a live round from a rifle carried this way shows an indentation in the primer similar to but possibly not as much as shown in Dan's photo.

Potentially if the rifle is hit hard enough on its butt the inertia generated on the unretained firing pin can cause it to rebound hard enough to fire the primer and the live round.

Or, and I have personal experience of this as it happened to a member of my staff just prior to Xmas 2015, if a hunter is carrying a rifle in this state and trips or slips slamming the muzzle into a hard object the hunter can experience an AD.
My staff member did just this; had seen a deer, loaded a round into the chamber, carried the rifle uncocked and then tripped in the riverbed he was negotiating with the muzzle of his rifle slamming into a rock and firing. He wore a lot of bullet and rock shrapnel in his left leg, shoulder, arm, face and eye. Lost the sight in his left eye although fortunately the piece of bullet jacket that penetrated the eyeball did not go through the retina so his eyesite has been restored to some degree with a repair to the lense with another operation to put a new lense on his eye coming up sometime in the future.

Dan's 760 and other rifle types where just the unrestrained firing pin is resting against the primer may not be quite in the same league as an uncocked bolt action which has the fully extended firing pin held against the primer under tension from the spring and then has the inertia of the whole cocking piece behind that firing pin.

Nonetheless that indentation on the cartridge from Dan's 760 is perhaps a warning to be careful.

the Winchester 1200 also leaves a mark on the primer from the firing pin at times. I once had a client freak out on me because it was the way Winchester designed it and I couldn't "fix" it.

Just to be clear on eagle's comments; NEVER lower a spring powered firing pin/striker onto a primer. That is patently unsafe. Floating firing pins, OTOH, are safe.
Never carry a single action revolver with the hammer down on a live round either. Which is why Ruger quit making them; don't trust the "safety" hammer notch. Carry them with 5 rounds. Except for post 73 Rugers.

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded. Very helpful and it's good to know that this is really just a design thing and not indicative of any kind of defect. Looking forward to hunting with it.

I just checked my 760 and it also puts a small mark on the primer but is a lot smaller than what yours does. Very interesting.

Rad