More .35 Whelen misfire issues

[kmbrown]

The rifle belongs to a friend of mine. It misfires just on just about every other cartridge on the first trigger pull.  Usually it will fire on the second.  Have tried factory Rem. ammo, reloads with new and fired Rem. brass and necked up .280 brass that was sized to close with some resistance.  The .280 brass did better but still had misfires.  Installed a heavier hammer spring.  Helped a little but still misfiring.  Put the barrel on another frame, still misfires. ( the .444 barrel worked fine on the .35 frame so I don't think there is a frame issue.) I noticed that the sized .280 cases that chambered in his gun won't come close to chambering in my .35 handi (which has had no problems) I also noticed that the primer strikes are way off center.  All of the handi's I've seen have this issue but this one seems worse ( see picture, left is his gun, right is mine).  Are we missing anything or is it time to send Back to Remington?

[trotterlg]

You and just about everyone else in the free world that has one has your problem.  There is a lot of information if you do a search here, but I don't know that there are any sure solutions.  Some report sending back to Remington and getting the same problem back.  I think I would check first the fireing pin protrusion, with the trigger held back to keep the transfer bar raised measure how much pin is out.  Then with the hammer cocked, push the trandfer bar forward with your finger and measure how much pin is out.  If there is a great difference, you may try taking a little metal off the hammer stop that hits the frame.  I would like to see about .060 or a little more.  Good luck and tell us what you find.  Larry

[kmbrown]

My buddy said he measured that and it was within specs although I'm not sure of the exact measurement but I'll find out.  It does protrude a good bit further when you actually push on the transfer bar.  We already thought about removing some metal from the hammer but wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not.  May try it now.  Thanks.  I also know that alot of others have had problems with this cartridge too.  Mine has had about 100 rounds through it so far with no issues.  Guess I just got lucky for a change!

[bikerbeans]

Can you measure or cast the chamber of the FTF 35 Whelan and see if it out of spec?  It seems that H&R tends to over cut the chambers on some of the guns.  Was wondering if you loaded some cast lead bullets into the rifling and used Trail Boss to keep the pressure down if the gun would shot everytime.  Trying this in an effort to keep the casehead tight againist the receiver.  My 45/120 (rimmed cartridge I know) has off center pin strikes but fires everytime because I removed enough metal from the face of the ejector to ensure that the spring pressure keeps the case head againist the receiver face.  Good luck, FTFs are a PITA.

BB

[quickdtoo]

I've had my share of FTFs, but not on either one of my Whelens, but I have attributed a lot of them due to off center pin strikes because I swapped the frames out to frames that had center pin strikes on both rifles that were doing it  and then switched to Rem primers and so far have only had one FTF, and I'm 99.9999% sure that was a bad primer because it wouldn't fire even after 4 hammer drops that made the pin strike look like it was almost ready to penetrate the primer cup! See Fred's firing pin fix in the FAQs, there's a link in accurizing.

Tim