Rossi Rifleman

Hi,
Went looking today for answers but couldn't find so I'll post my first post here and see what I get. Thanks in advance.

Had my Rio for a year now and put approx 200+ rounds thru it. Recently I'm having trouble where upon firing the first time no bang but re-cocking the hammer will fire the round.
As yo can see from the pic, Left one is OK right one miss fires.

Any Ideas?? Rounds? headspace? Firing pin is Ok and protrudes enough to fire and chamber and bolt is perfectly clean.

Although I've got 100+ rounds of these Remington 150gr. I'm hoping its just the round. I did compare the two cases an the fired one is about 0.015"shorter than the miss fired one.

Welcome to the forum adventurepaul!

Before you venture to far into the rifle, any chance of buying another box/brand of ammo to see what happens with the change?

Was the previous rounds R-P as well?

My dad has an old JM marlin 336 and has had this happen with different ammo he has bought. I measured them and a difference as little as .010 can cause unreliable operation in his so maybe yours as well. As RD suggested try some other ammo to see what you find. Sometimes it can be hard primers as well. Please keep us posted.

Adventurepaul, it sounds like it was shooting fine and then started to not work so well.. A couple questions:
Was it really cold when you were shooting? Oil will thicken and slow things down in cold temps, and I have had Remington ammo miss fire out of one of my rifles that maybe has a little more generous headspace.

Is this the same ammo and lot that had been working for the previous 200 rounds, if so, then it sounds like it may be a gunked up firing pin track. Have you had the bolt out? It might just need a good cleaning with acetone/break cleaner/ white gas... and a light lube with Breakfree clp or some other light dispersing oil.. It is conceivable that a burr came loose and is slowing down the firing pin.. That will take a disassembly and clean and possible debur. Good luck and let us know!

james

I've seen a grain of sand jam the firing pin in a Smith and Wesson 1500 .22-250 bolt action rifle causing failure to fire and jamming the action to the point the bolt hand to be kicked open by one guy while being held by another. Only way we figured the sand got in the gun in the first place was through the air vent holes in the bolt.

My RG has done this from the beginning. When I first bought the rifle the misfires were ridiculous, probably 8 out of ten shots. The primers looked just like the pictures that adventurepaul posted. They always go bang on the second attempt and the primers are properly dimpled when they fire. That tells me the firing pin is long enough or every strike would be shallow. I did a complete disassembly of the bolt and firing pins, and degreased everything really well. There was enough cosmoline and metal shavings to slow the firing pin on a cannon. After deburring the bolt I reassembled the firing pins with just a drop of gun oil. It's way better now, but still misfires about 20% of the time. I haven't used this gun for hunting so I'm not in any hurry to fix it. I'm thinking that there might be an alignment problem between the two firing pins, I'm going to give it good inspection and hopefully figure out this annoying problem.

I'm also considering the use of a baked on, dry film lubricant on the firing pins and the holes they ride in. This would eliminate the need for dirt attracting oil. I also bought some new primers. I was using S&B primers and I bought Winchester to see if they're easier to ignite. I'll let you know if the primers helped just as soon as I get a chance to load some more ammo.

Well here is a topic I have firsthand knowledge with…lol. You better bring a lunch this is going to be long. I purchased a RG 45-70 last spring. First time out it FTF about every 3rd shot. Always fired on the second. Primer strikes looked the same as yours. Here is what I have done so far and I’m still not sure if it is 100% fixed.

1. Tore it down and polished the sides of the hammer because it looked like it was milled with a brick.

2. Discovered that when the hammer went forward it was pushing the cross safety out on the left side of the rifle meaning it was coming into contact with the hammer as it traveled forward. Took out cross safety and removed enough metal on the left side that there was no longer any contact when the hammer traveled forward.

3. Noticed that if I applied any pressure to the loop (Pulling Up) it would bind up the firing pin and would have taken a jack hammer to push the firing pin forward. The bolt block was the problem. I dressed up the upper section of the bolt block where it pushes the back section of the firing pin up. This is easy to check, just make sure the rifle is unloaded first…lol than cock the lever. You can push the firing pin forward with your finger at this point to check ease of travel. If when you apply upward pressure on the loop and can’t move the firing pin dressing up the upper section of the bolt block will fix this.

4. Disassembled the bolt and polished the firing pin till it was like glass.

5. By this point it was better but not 100%.

6. Got mad one day and now I have a one piece firing pin. Welded the two sections together. The firing pin flies back and forth like greased lightning now.

7. By this point it would FTF about once every 20 shots still not 100%.

8. I was mad but vowed to not let this beast beat me. Put it in the corner for about 4 months. One day I decided to take a fresh look at what I was missing. Noticed that there was more play in the bolt when it was (in battery) ready to fire. Removed the lever added some metal to the front blade section of the lever and dressed it up so when it was in battery there was no backward play with the bolt. When I say play I could push the bolt back when it was in battery about an 1/8 of an inch. I felt there should be no play at this point. I will say this; I need to order some Cherry Red metal hardener where I added the metal. It works but the metal is too soft to last long term.

9. No improvement still 1 in 20.

10. So over the winter I looked at the face of the bolt and the extractor. My reasoning was I thought maybe the round was not seating properly against the face of the bolt. Where the case head meets the bolt face that area was completely square. I beveled that area so the case head would be guided into the bolt face. I have not had the chance to fire it since I worked on the bolt face.

11. Doing research on the problem I have found post on the net of folks who were having the same problem. Those that sent their rifle back to Rossi said they were told the hammer spring was replaced and never did update their original post to say if it fixed the problem. I plan on testing what I have done so far and see what happens. If I still get that 1 in 20 FTF I plan on stretching the hammer spring if I can… to increase its strength. After that I may bend the rifle over my knee…..lol just joking. It will not beat me if it takes 100 years.

After more research I believe 95% of the problem is a weak main spring. I don't think my idea of Stretching will work. What I have read is put spacers on the rod to force the spring to further compress. Not sure I will even try that just. The cost of a Marlin main spring is less than $8.00. I think I will just order a Marlin main if my other fixs don't work. I know for a fact my modifications did assist with reducing resistance with both the hammer and firing pin. Maybe Rossi got some real junk main springs? We will find out soon enough....

I'd say either shimming the spring to increase tension or replacing it should be the way to go over trying to stretch a spring any day.

HOWEVER if we don't have checking the lockup for bolt movement when in battery we should have if anybody is getting 1/8" of bolt travel / wiggle it ain't right.

I agree Arch!! I think mine was made on a friday afternoon at quiting time..... Don't get me wrong I love the gun, it has been a labor of love. I may try shimming the spring to verfy that is what gets me to 100% no FTF. Once I know for sure I would replace the spring.

Did read a few article where the Marlin guys put in the aftermarket springs to lighten it up a bit. Several said out of no where they started having FTF on a rifle that never had that problem so they went back to the factory main spring and problem was solved. That is why I feel so sure the biggest issue is a weak spring.