contender misfire

[bearfighter]

My contender is leaving a very slight firing pin mark on the primers.
Primers are flush with the case so the primer depth should not be a factor.
Is there any ajostments or tricks to get this gun to fire?
This happens to both of the barrels that i have.(7mm tcu and 44 mag)
Any help would be appreciated

Thanks in advance

[WEAVE]

Had something similar happen a few years ago, mine would drop the
hammer but not fire or touch the primer. Sent it back and TC replaced
the whole gun.

[KN]

How about a little more info. Caliber? Are you reloading? Neck sizing? Full length sizing? Using factory ammo? Does it do this with all ammo or just certain brands? There are several causes for this. I have experienced it with neck sizing and not getting the shoulder pushed back enough. It can make the action harder to close and the lugs don't fully engage causing the safety to not move far enough out of the way. You can try closing the action a little harder and see if it helps.   KN

[EdK]

the lugs don't fully engage causing the safety to not move far enough out of the way.

Yes, this is one misfire failure mode however in this case you would not expect to see firing pin strikes upon the primer at all because as you mentioned the safety is preventing this.

[KN]

Thats not quite true, The farther the safety moves, the harder the hit will become. Thats why it doesn't always misfire under these conditions. It all depends on how hard you closed the action from one shot to the next. Basically cramming the round into the chamber if the shoulder isn't pushed back.   KN

[RonF]

Have you checked the hammer spring?  Ifyou have the old style one with two legs, one can break and the hammer will work but generally not fire.

RonF

[EdK]

Thats not quite true

OK - I'm up for learning something new. Note that this happens to the original poster with straight walled cases (44 mag). I have a frame that is doing this now with 357 Max rounds. I'm quite sure the rounds are not too long for the chamber - in fact I'd really like them to be longer to minimize the jump.

BTW TC told me to send it in - but I'd really rather understand what's going on and even fix it myself if possible.

[KN]

If it's happenning with straight walled rimmed casses then yes the problem lies elswere. I would check RonF's sugestion first before I sent it to TC.   KN