6.8MM MISS-FIRING

[Hopalong7]

My hunting buddy just got two G-2 carbines(1 for each grandson to learn to deer hunt with) in 6.8mm.  Wednesday afternoon he headed out to the range to sight in the little rifles with 2 boxes of Hornady factory ammo.  One would not fire at all and the other fired 6 rounds out of a twenty box.  All rounds had a pretty good dimple on the primer.  Needless to say, he was not a happy camper.  He called Hornady first and they told him to box up the ammo and ship it to them.  Next he called T/C and they said that they were aware of the problem and the fix was to switch to Remington ammo, explaining that Hornady was made to military spec and Remington to Sammi spec.  Being one of the few Contender rounds that I've never played with, I haven't followed the 6.8 dicussions too closely, but I seem to remember mostly good comments and few problems.  Has anybody else experienced this?  Thanks! Walt 

[Lone Star]

If the T/C chamber headspace is cut to SAAMI specs (short) and the Hornady ammo is dimensioned to milspec (long) then the T/C interlock safety will prevent the hammer from hitting the primer with full force.  The result is usually a dented primer and a misfire - as your friend expereinced.  This happens often when a reloader does not set the shoulder back far enough on any bottlenecked case.  I do not know the dimensional differences in headspace are between the two specs, it is probably not much but obviously here it is too much.  Perhaps T/C could change their chambering specs, or not.  My advice, just get the Remington ammo.


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[JW/OK]

Yes I had that problem with Remington factory ammo. Changed hammer springs, same thing. Finally ordered factory ammo from Silver State Armory Tell them you are shooting a Contender so they won't send you ammo with Mil-Spec primers. I ordered the 115 gr w/Barnes XXX. Goes bang every time now, best three shot group at 100 yds  from bench was 5/8 ". Extremely effective on whitetails.

[alsaqr]

Not sure about Contenders, but Encores are very sensitive to hammer extensions.  Bought my Encore as a muzzleloader and used it with a hammer extension and no problems.  One day at the range I put the .30-06 barrel on it.  A regular at the range told me I would have misfires with the hammer extension.  He was right.  Bought a stronger hammer spring and the problem was fixed. 

[Improved 4 Me]

I had a G2 6.8mm and had same problem.  But I also had a hammer extantion on it as well. 
I had miss fires with Remington ammo as well as hand loads.  I removed the hammer extantion and they both shot just fine.                                                           

[Hopalong7]

Thanks for the replys fellas, But, no hammer extensions were involved here.  I feel sure we can cure the problem when we reload the brass, sizing the brass to fit the chamber.  I wasn't present when the misfires occured and my buddy is not an experienced Contender shooter so first off we are going to try the factory ammo again and give the action a good firm snap shut and see if that will make it fire.  GOOD SHOOTIN', Walt