Author Topic: Help! T/c Contender Carbine misfires-----  (Read 827 times)

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Offline tomf52

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Help! T/c Contender Carbine misfires-----
« on: June 30, 2007, 07:50:19 AM »
Here's the story: Bought gun new. Used .410/.45  and .357 Rem Max barrels. Had no trouble. Then bought a 23" .22 target chamber barrel (new, unused) at a gun show. Had numerous misfires. Talked to T/C and was told to send barrel in which I did. They said they did something with the barrel lugs and to use it. If problem persisted to send in whole gun. Problem persisted but with much less frequency. At this point found a 23" 30/30 barrel and a .223 barrel. Also new and unused. Now have misfires with these also. Called T/C and was told to send whole gun in. I did. Received it back in exactly one week with note saying they replaced hammer spring, interlock safety, firing pins, and locking bolts. They claimed to have test fired it with ten rounds and had no misfires. They should have tested with an eleventh round because the first round I put in it after getting it back went "click". Now in both rimfire and centerfire modes I get misfires about 25% of the time. Those rounds that do fire on the first attempt have varying degrees of strike on the primers, going from indents that you would think should not have fired to deep pin indents. I have discovered that closing the gun  with a little bit of a "snap" seems to alleviate them problem. I do not however like doing this. Any input and help withis would be grreatly appreciated. Trips to T/C for the gun cost me about $18 each and it is getting expensive. Thanks again for any help you can give.

P.s> - Do not have either a hammer extension or Pachmayer grips (of course not the grips, it"s a carbine) on this gun, both of which T/C claims to alter hammer fall.

Offline Lone Star

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Re: Help! T/c Contender Carbine misfires-----
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2007, 09:02:37 AM »
This is not an uncommon issue with Contenders, particularly with handloaded ammo.  The problem is: the locking lugs do not extend far enough into the action to fully trip the interlock safety.  Then when the hammer falls it is partly blocked by the safety giving partial firing pin strikes.  Some will fire, some will not.

First test - dry fire the action on an empty chamber and note if the hammer fully contacts the breechface.  If there is any standoff then the problem is probably in the action.  Make sure you have no oil in the action parts - hose it out with solvent.  You did read in the instructions not to use oil in the action didn't you?  If this doesn't cure the problem then T/C may need to re-work the action.  Firmly closing the action is not a bad thing - as long as you are not setting off the trigger when you do it.

If the hammer did fully fall against the breechface when dry fired, the problem is in the ammo.  This seems likely since you had no problems with rimmed CF cases and most of your problems have been with bottlenecked cases.  Were these handloaded by any chance?   If so then perhaps the shoulder is too far forward or the bullets are seated out too far.  This has been the most common cause of the problem you describe for over 25 years.


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Offline tomf52

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Re: Help! T/c Contender Carbine misfires-----
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2007, 03:17:05 PM »
Lone Star - Thank you for the prompt reply and good information. Yes the 30/30 rounds were hand loaded. The cases were full length re sized the first time and neck re sized after that as they were fired only in this chamber. I did notice however that my seating depth may be too long as there were rifling marks on the cast bullets I loaded. Have to make up a fresh batch of round so I will definitely correct that. Bought this gun many years ago and so do not have3 instruction book with warning about no oil in the action. What is the proper lube to use? Graphite? How can I determine a proper seating depth for the lead bullets I use. Reloaded handgun for years but fairly new to rifle ammo. Thank you very much for the help, Tom.

P.S. - The worst misfire culprit seems to be the .22 rimfire barrel. Any thoughts on that?