HELP.....3030 barrel wont ignite primer!!!

[kraky]

Me again.   Just posted about a 30-30 barrel I had just picked up.  Well I got more trouble than just trying to figure out the twist.  I go to the brother in laws to show off my new gun and take a few reloads along.  (Actually the barrel was bought used but looks new)
Can't get the gun to go off.  What was happening is the bar that keeps the hammer from striking the firing pins won't retract downward and let the firing pin take a hit.  Not sure what you call that flat bar but it would keep up the 1/2 safety on the gun?
I played around make sure the gun was totally closed...kind of snapping it closed hard and sometimes it would let the hammer go home and sometimes it wouldn't.  If it did let the hammer go home it barely put a dimple in the primer.  No where near enough to ignite.
Doesn't matter if there is a shell in the gun or not so something isn't fitting right and activating the (what I call) half safety.
 
I have 3 other barrels I bought new for the gun....a 4570,357 and 7-30 waters.  I put on the 7-30 waters barrel when I got home and put a fresh primer in an empty shell and it fired perfectly and left a nice deep strike mark.
 
Don't know what else I can tell you GURU'S of the contender.  I looked over both barrels side by side and cannot visually see anything different about they way they are laid out.  My 7-30 waters barrel has a marking on it....like an american star in a circle and the 3030 barrel that is giving me trouble has a cross stamped in the same spot.  Does that tell us anything...like possibly some sort of foreign manufacturing?  My frame a newer frame with the rubber/wood pistol grip...stamping on that is
TCA-C.
I'll bet some you already knew before you got to the bottom of the post whats going on........so help the rookie and do your good deed for the week.  PLEASE!!!

[Keith L]

Swap the locking bolts from the working barrel to the one that doesn't and test.  If it fires then ypu can either polish the lugs from the barrel that wouldn't fire, or you can send barrels and frame to TC and they will make them work.  Instructions on polishing the bolts are in the FAQ section.
 
 

[kraky]

Ok...been playing around a bit more and did some "self help".  I see there is a little flipper inside the frame that most likely activates the hammer safety.
That flipper appears to be controlled by the spring loaded bar or lug on the barrel.
On the offending barrel that spring loaded lug appears to be .007" shorter than the good barrel.
And, on the offending barrel the lug is about .007" thicker.
 
I do notice I have to snap the barrel hard to get it to lock up.  (Even without a shell in there thus eliminating headspacing etc).
So that lug must be my problem....either it isn't traveling enough to activate the flipper.....or its .007" short of fully activating the flipper?  (That seems like too tiny a dimension to be reliable)
 
So....thinking either I need a lug that is a hair longer....or more likely.....some material has to be removed somewhere to make the lug fully activate the flipper?

[kraky]

Thanks Keith....you and I were typing at the same time....will check the faq section....thank you!!!

[kraky]

Couldn't seem to find the polishing instructions....probably off to the gunsmith tommorrow.

[Keith L]

Read "Contender Barrel on a G2 Frame."  Itr has the procedure.  In fact it applies to all Contender barrels on all frames.