Broken firing pin?
 

I bought a new Remington 700 varmint in .223 rem a few months ago from Cabelas and finally got a chance to go to the range to try it out and sight in the scope yesterday.

I chambered a round, pulled the trigger, click.... no bang!
I pulled the cartridge and found no indentation.
Tried a few more times and even used another brand of factory new ammo, still nothing but a click.

The gun is brand new never fired and looks like it's going to stay that way for awhile.
I pulled the bolt and can barely see the pin. Too far inside? seems like it's about 1/8 inch recessed.
Any ideas?

Re: Broken firing pin?
 

No firing pin strike on the primers? No safety problem? You felt the trigger break and you heard a snap like when dry firing?

You can't see the firing pin when its cocked, too far back. If you are pretty sure the trigger broke (as in released not broken) and you heard the snap, a firing pin problem isn't too much of a stretch. Look at the pictures below. The 1st is a Remington type bolt with a bolt disassembly tool attached, the 2nd pict is about 10 seconds later. Rem bolt disassembly tools are common, any gun shop should have one on hand. The bolt takes down in 10 seconds. You can do it yourself, look at the bottom of the bolt, see the spring loaded tang that keeps the bolt shroud (which contains the firing pin) from rotating freely about the bolt housing. Retract that tang about a 1/16th and the shroud assembly just turns out. No springs will fly out-promise. You can then look at the firing pin. I keep a couple of shroud assemblies in my box just in case I have a problem at a match.

This is a long shot but try it out. Got a fired shell? Back off your front action screw about one turn and dry fire on the empty. If it works, you will see a very deep indent in the old primer. Sometime the front action screws are too long and actually impede the bolt. Usually when this happens, you can't close the bolt all the way. Do you know what I mean by front action screw?

Re: Broken firing pin?
 

Run it by your nearest Remington service rep for warranty repair. Sounds like a broken pin...stuff happens.

Re: Broken firing pin?
 

Thanks for the responses guys, I got it sorted out. It seems the bolt wasn't closing all the way because the dummy at Cabelas that put the scope on for me used too long a screw for the front mount.
:banghead:

Re: Broken firing pin?
 

Good job. Often it's something simple you can fix yourself. Enjoy. SC

Re: Broken firing pin?
 

I hope you didn't PAY them for the mounting service!

Re: Broken firing pin?
 

I don't own a bolt action, but I've shot several, and I'm considering getting one. Would it be to much trouble for you to post a picture so I can understand how the bolt wasn't closing all the way? Thanks.

Re: Broken firing pin?
 

No they mounted and bench aligned the scope for free.

You know what they say about getting what you pay for.

Re: Broken firing pin?
 

On this model there are no integral mounts, just 4 tapped holes on top of the receiver, two, in front of the ejection port and two behind.

The problem was with the length of the screw in the rear hole of the front set of two holes. or number 2 if counted rearward from the barrel.

Looking at the front of the bolt there are two opposing locking dogs or ears that stick out a quarter inch or so.

As the bolt slides forward to the chamber, these dogs align with two front to back oriented channels cut into the inside of the receiver, at the point where the bolt is all the way forward, these channels make a 90 degree turn and go around the inside of the receiver so that when the bolt is all the way forward, the bolt handle can be lowered and locked. Since the ears prevent the bolt from being drawn back the chamber is now sealed.

The problem was this #2 screw was extending into the channel, hitting the ear and stopping the bolt from locking the last 1/4 inch or so.

I'm sure as a safety feature, to prevent a striker from falling on a partially locked bolt, there is a V at the rear end of the bolt that only allows the full forward travel of the pin when the bolt handle is fully lowered.

In my case this misaligned V was allowing the firing pin to fall only half way.

I hope you can get a mental picture from this description.

Re: Broken firing pin?
 

Hi Ho, I get exactly what you're saying, and was thinking it was something like that. What surprises me is that they allow the screw to enter the channel. Glad you got it figured out. Good stuff and thank you for the detailed response.:ok: