Having trouble with Bergara Premier not detonating primers - help please

[Killertraylor]

Are you sure you had large rifle primers and not large pistol primers? I use CCI 200's so all my rifle primers are silver and Winchesters for my pistols so all of them are brass. I would definitely contact the manufacturer. Somebody shot the bejesus out it for some reason. There's a thread on this site someplace where someone is talking about a new rifle having a bent firing pin causing a similar problem to yours.

seriously??? Why don't you just ask "are you sure you aren't blind and retarded??"

 

[skipglo]

seriously??? Why don't you just ask "are you sure you aren't blind and retarded??"

Keep in mind you asked for help! Folks are just throwing out ideas to that purpose....and you obviously read the reply...and can type.....so now we all know you aren't blind! Lol... I seriously don't think that was the intent.

 

[Waytoofar]

My buddy has a Bergara that does the exact same thing! It's not the primers, has to be the rifle. I read similar reports on another forum.

 

[emp1953]

seriously??? Why don't you just ask "are you sure you aren't blind and retarded??"

Sharing our knowledge and experience is what this site is all about. If I hadn't seen it happen with my own eyes I wouldn't have brought it up. Large rifle primers and large pistol primers are the same EXACT diameter. The pistol primers are shorter. When they are fired the firing pin drives them to the bottom of the primer pocket absorbing most of the energy needed to set off the primer. Sometimes they will fire when struck a second or third time.
I'm quite capable of throwing around my own insults. If I meant an insult there would have been no doubt as to what I was saying. Just trying to help.

 

[Killertraylor]

Thanks, but I'm really really good at reading primer boxes. Maybe the best, lol. No offense taken.

 

[Priley]

Bought a brand new Bergara Premier Approach in 6mm Creedmoor. Took it to the range for the first time this week and it shot lights out with Hornady factory 103 eldx (.327) and 108 eldm (.221) - three shot groups. Decided to try some handloads and all I had other than the spent Hornady brass is a box of new lapua small primer pocket. I've loaded for many 6.5 creedmoor rifles with the Lapua brass without issue. I tried healthy loads of R17 and R26 with CCI 450 primers. I've loaded tens of thousands of centerfire cases and use a Hornady hand priming tool so I can feel the primers seat - everything looked great. I tried 4 different loads, just 3 of each so 12 rounds total. I had 3 failure to fires. One of the rounds I was able to get to detonate the second try. The other two I tried 5 or 6 times and they wouldn't fire. Crater in the primer from the firing pin looked just as deep as the empty cases that did fire. Should I try a heavier bolt spring? Anyone know if the Bergara Premier uses the same spring as a Rem 700? I see Midway sells a heavy Wolff spring for $7. All of the factory ammo shot great, no failures to fire (12 rounds).

One interesting side note - this gun was brand new in the box (purchased directly from a wholesaler as I hold an FFL) and when I received it, I pulled the action from the stock to check it out and then looked down the barrel. The barrel was fouled and the boltface appeared to have quite a bit of brass case-head fouling on it. I scrubbed it with Boretech eliminator 2 or 3 times and even let it soak overnight to get all the copper out. I'll bet I pushed 20 patches through it that came out dark blue. Bergara must have shot this thing a bunch for some reason. Might call them next week to see if that's the norm for them.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I have a Bergara ridge in 6.5 and haven't had any problems with it but I have a T/C Venture in .280 Ackley Improved, that was giving me problems with primers much like you have had. Consulting my gunsmith we found that when sizing the brass I was actually bumping the shoulders back to far thus causing the primers not to ignite due to the firing pin shoving the case forward and not having enough pressure against the primer to fire the round.. Hope this helps....

 

[73driver]

You may find that the reason the rifle was dirty is due to it being made in Europe. As far as I am aware all rifles made in the European Union have to be proof tested with a minimum of either 2 or 3 rounds.

"All premier rifles are made exclusively in the USA" per Bergara website.