# Remington Accutip misfires



## billk (Feb 2, 2008)

Decided to switch from Lightfields this year. Too heavy for the area we hunt and now around $16/box. Lots of open area and long shots are common and I wanted something flatter shooting - even if the price is similar.

Decided to try Hornady SST's and Rem Accutips. I had picked up three boxes from a fellow OGF-er last year but had not shot them until this year.

First time out, Hornady's shot pretty well, 3-4inch groups at 100, but I was really impressed with the Accutips shooting 2-3 inch groups. Shooting a Marlin 512 Slugmaster (bolt action) with 1.5-4.5x scope.

Here's the problem. Of three boxes of Accutips, I had one misfire from each box. Looked like solid, well centered primer strikes on all three. This gun has NEVER misfired in 3 past seasons and many other types of slugs. Chalked it up to the age and unknown storage of the ammo.

Purchased 5 more fresh boxes from Dicks. Also upgraded to a 3-9x40 scope. Off to the range at Grand River last Wednesday.

Once again, very impressed with accuracy. first box had a very nice 1.5 inch group just low at 100 yds. Dialed up a bit and fired the next round 1.5 high at 12o'clock.

Next round - Misfire!, next round, MISFIRE!, next round -

HANGFIRE!!! I had just raised my head from the scope when it went off. 

Switched to Hornadys at that point and got a 3 inch group at 100.

Not knowing if the gun was malfunctioning, I then stripped and cleaned the bolt thoroughly when I got home that evening. There was no buildup of crud or gummed up oil. I even stretched the firing pin spring by .10 inches thinking it might be a light strike problem.

Off to Coshocton range yesterday with the last three boxes. First box - no problem same 2 inch group in a nasty crosswind. 6th round no problem. No 7 - ANOTHER MISFIRE.

Resighted with Hornady's at that point. I'm not entirely happy with a 3-4inch group because the Lightfields and Accutips are more accurate in this gun. No other choice at this point.

I've spoken with Remington and they are sending a Fedex label to return the unfired ammo and three of the misfired rounds for analysis. I've done some Searching on the net and found quite a few report of them misfiring. Rem blames it on "hard" primer metal and primer mix. I noticed also that the shell bases are sometimes concave from the seating of the primer. I measured the depth of the primer face compared to Hornadys and Lightfields with a caliper depth gauge.

Lightfields measured 3-5mils for 5 rounds I have on hand.
Hornadys measured 3-7 mils for the ten that I measured.
Rem Accutips measure 6-12mils for the remaining 7 rounds I have. 

I'm wondering if the misfires could be the rounds with deeper primers as a contributing factor.

Bottom line - I'll never shoot them again and they owe me some coin for wasting my time/money on their product. The hangfire is a SERIOUS safety issue in my book.

They say that they'll send me a report of their analysis results. Count on me to post that report to this thread once I have it.


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## Bad Bub (Jan 17, 2006)

I've not used them, but know 2 guys that swear by them. They both shoot an H&R slugmaster, and I haven't heard of them having a problem. However, that hang fire is scary! People that don't know any better could easily send a slug in a bad direction. Being that Remington is a big, mostly respected company, i'm sure they'll try to make things right. Although it probably won't amount to what you or I would feel is "right". Please keep us posted.

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## eatinbass (Aug 6, 2012)

I would be curious to read the results of the findings.
Most manufactures set the firing pin protrusion, on shotguns, to .055-.065.


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## billk (Feb 2, 2008)

Bub,

Most of the misfires I read about were in H&R Ultraslugs. Did read of a few with Hornadys - just to be fair. Good thing I know enough to wait ten secs after a misfire. Never had a misfire/hangfire in my life with any firearm other than a wet muzzleloader. Could have been ugly if it would have gone off with the bolt unlocked. 

EatinBass,

Measured mine at .068


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## Bowhunter57 (Feb 9, 2011)

billk said:


> Rem blames it on "hard" primer metal and primer mix.


billk,
I had a simular problem with Remington #11 muzzleloading caps. I was shooting a T/C Hawken which has a very hard striking hammer. I restruck the same cap 3x without it firing...on several caps.  Nuts! I was going to give them to someone else, but I couldn't think of anyone that should have to suffer the same disappointment. I threw them out.

Bowhunter57


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## billk (Feb 2, 2008)

primer pics - can't quite get it in focus...


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## Bad Bub (Jan 17, 2006)

billk said:


> Bub,
> 
> Most of the misfires I read about were in H&R Ultraslugs. Did read of a few with Hornadys - just to be fair. Good thing I know enough to wait ten secs after a misfire. Never had a misfire/hangfire in my life with any firearm other than a wet muzzleloader. Could have been ugly if it would have gone off with the bolt unlocked.
> 
> ...


The only shotshells i've ever had a problem with were the cheap winchester target loads about 12 years ago while shooting trap. Out of the box of 100 I probably had 8 or 9 that never went off, and quite a few that "just didn't feel right" on the punch. I just wrote it off to walmart's storage skills....

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## billk (Feb 2, 2008)

Update -

Fedex label and instructions received from Remington. Package going out tomorrow.


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## billk (Feb 2, 2008)

As promised, here is the reply from Remington.

Pretty much what I expected, but I'm not buying it. I'm thinking that the deeper primers relative to the bolt face are creating excessive headspace and contributing to the light hits.

Doesn't change my stance on using their ammo.


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## shot1buck (Feb 23, 2011)

it's great that they sent you a check for a refund. at least they stand behind there product. And wrote you back. I agree with you that the added depth would have caused the primers not to go off. Now that you have the money the only problem is that almost all the ammo is off the shelves these days. thanks for sharing with us


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