M1A reloads not discharging

Laubage · Feb 15, 2015

Can anyone clue me in on why my M1A reloads are discharging intermittently? My hunch is that it is because my OAL is too short which stops the firing pin from reaching the primer, but I'm not 100%. In most misfires, there is no evidence of a primer strike. In a few, there were light primer strikes though.

When I reloaded the ammo I set the OAL to 2.800 but after measuring the OAL post-range time, it was 2.770 or so. Not sure how this happened, but I'm wondering if this is causing it to have spacing issues inside the chamber. Do I need to pull all of my reloads and reseat them to 2.800?

Load info is: Hornady 168gr bthp, 41.5 gr of IMR4895, in LC brass.

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761mph · Feb 15, 2015

are you putting a good heavy crimp on your reloads ?
i've always been told you need a heavy crimp on reloads intended for the garand, because the it cycles 'harder' and tends to push the bullet when feeding if not crimped good enough, since the M1A is very similar this might be the problem
you might need to find a factory crimp die(lee makes one for 30-06, so maybe they make one for the 7.62x51)

Laubage · Feb 15, 2015

I put a small crimp in it to secure it, but I wouldn't call it a heavy one. I didn't want to disfigure the bullet too much. I'll check tomorrow to see if the reloads I haven't thrown in a magazine are still at 2.800". If the ones from the mag are different, then I'll know that the bullets shifted in the neck.

I forgot to include this, but on one instance, the round discharged, and the next round was lodged in the chamber when I tried to manually rack the op rod in order to clear the rifle. I had to bang on the op rod to get it to come loose and eject the round. Not sure what causes this either.

mr ed · Feb 16, 2015

sounds like you didn't full length resize them good enough. they headspace off the shoulder not the bullet.
m14s will fire sometimes if not in full battery as long as the bolt makes it past the disconnector. there by not allowing a full-on hammer strike to the firing pin.
which shows as a light or non firing pin strike.
if you set the OAL too long the bullet will grab the rifling which also makes for difficult extraction and can leave a bullet in the bore.

Calamity Jake · Feb 16, 2015

^^^^^^This^^^^ you need to full length resize the brass and push the shoulder back .002-.003 for good function in
your M1A

Sanford · Feb 16, 2015

One more possibility - primers seated too deeply. If you're using MILSURP brass and had to clean the crimps from the primer pocket and did it using a generic primer pocket reamer/uniformer it's possible that you may have over-reamed the pockets causing the primers to seat *just a tiny bit* too deeply. It's a little counterintuitive with the M1A but I did it on more than one occasion before I figured out what was happening when having the same light/no primer strike symptoms as you describe.

Shriner · Feb 22, 2015

On the primer deafth issue I found a tool from uniquetek .com a primer pocket sweg checker ,which alouds you to check for under/over size pockets on brass . I just went back to ck some 06 brass I did and found as the bit worn down the pocket closed up - crimp gone back back not to sec.

Cimarron · Jun 5, 2015

Laubage said:
Can anyone clue me in on why my M1A reloads are discharging intermittently? My hunch is that it is because my OAL is too short which stops the firing pin from reaching the primer, but I'm not 100%. In most misfires, there is no evidence of a primer strike. In a few, there were light primer strikes though.

When I reloaded the ammo I set the OAL to 2.800 but after measuring the OAL post-range time, it was 2.770 or so. Not sure how this happened, but I'm wondering if this is causing it to have spacing issues inside the chamber. Do I need to pull all of my reloads and reseat them to 2.800?

Load info is: Hornady 168gr bthp, 41.5 gr of IMR4895, in LC brass.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Have you had any more problems since your last post?

M1A reloads not discharging

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Shriner

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Cimarron

Marksman

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