AR-15 light primer strike Problem

[teddy12b]

I was at the range today with my AR-15 and I had several handloaded rounds that didn't fire.  The primers didn't have big dents in them, they were kind of small.  This is the second time out with that rifle and the first time this problem has ever happened.  On the first trip I never had a problem and that was using Wolf ammo.  This trip was all handloads with Remington primers.

I don't know how, but I think I am partly to blaim.  Since the last trip out to the range I tried to polish my trigger to make it more smooth and it worked.  Could my polishing the trigger have caused all this?  I know there was a big topic about this in another thread but when I started looking I couldn't find it.  Trigger vs firing pin kinda thing.

If anything, this may be my excuse to buy that new trigger.

[Savage]

Doubt the trigger is the problem. Possibly you did something causing the hammer to bind while doing your trigger job. Check your ammo for high primers first.
Savage

[teddy12b]

The ammo didn't have high primers.  The small dents weren't from the round being chambered.  The small dents were from the firing pin after pulling the trigger.

[Savage]

Understood your post. A high primer will also absorb some of the energy from the firing pin strike and cause misfires. With high primers the first firing pin strike frequently seats the primer.  Wouldn't be surprised if a second strike fired the round. It's a possible explanation based on experience. Impossible to diagnose problems long distance, but worth a look.
Good luck,
Savage

[teddy12b]

Understood your post. A high primer will also absorb some of the energy from the firing pin strike and cause misfires. With high primers the first firing pin strike frequently seats the primer.  Wouldn't be surprised if a second strike fired the round. It's a possible explanation based on experience. Impossible to diagnose problems long distance, but worth a look.
Good luck,
Savage

Ok, I understand now.  I did actually load them all up again and try to fire them a second, third, forth time.  Only worked once. 

[mrbgt]

check to see if your hammer spring is installed correctly . 

[emsemt911]

I changed my trigger/hammer springs to a lighter set for a lighter trigger pull.
I had the same problem after the swap.  My hammer spring was too light for the NATO
primmer, but would fire perfectly on .223 rem rounds.  I put the stock hammer
spring back into the lower and have never had that problem again with any ammo.
I did leave the lighter trigger springs in the lower, just put the stock hammer in and the trigger pull was still pretty light.

check to make shure that the hammer spring was put back in correctly.  I have seen people who put tem
in their guns backwards wich will dramatically waeken the power that the hammer has to strike the round.

[teddy12b]

check to see if your hammer spring is installed correctly . 

Time to eat some humble pie…..  Well one comment about all this really got me thinking “Did I really put the hammer spring in backwards?”.  When I got home last night I compared how I had it to a picture and yes, I put the spring in backwards.  I goofed up.  I appreciate all the good advice everyone gave me, but like any other problem I brought this onto myself.  The spring is in there correctly now and all systems are working great!  The trigger is in better shape now than my pride is!

[Savage]

Great! Glad you got it worked out!! Have to admit, I never thought of the possibility of installing the hammer spring reversed. I'll pay more attention now to make sure I don't make the same mistake.
Good Shooting,
Savage

[teddy12b]

It really surprised me at just how easy it was to put that spring in backwords.  My pride will come back I guess.

[teddy12b]

This rifle was out at the range last Wed.  Since putting the spring in the way it should have been there have been no problems.  The failure to fires weren't the guns fault, it was all mine.

[Lloyd Smale]

One more hint guys. If you put a reduced tension spring set in your ars it can cause light hammer strikes with miltary primers. I have bill springfield do all the triggers on my ars. He does them for 50 bucks and does a good job. One thing he does is to take some metal off the hammer. He calls it a speed hammer and it insures the hammer falls fast enough to ignite primers even with lighter springs.

[darrell8937]

I owned a bushmaster years back that didn't like 5.56 ammo. Light strikes. 223 rem worked ok. It really got my goat when a mini 14, old beat up anchor would shoot them just fine. Sold the gun. I didn't like that Damn Clinton AK muzzle break any ways. (Loud) I wonder. If a worker at the factory installed the spring backwards. We will never know!

[teddy12b]

Well, 200 rounds later I know I had the spring in mine backwards.  It's a little embarrassing, but once it got dialed in a I was hitting the targets at 500 yards I was starting to feel a lot better about it.