39a fail to fire

[fwt1712]

My new 39a is generally performing very well. Accuracy is excellent, it ejects cases perfectly, the action is smoothing up nicely, trigger pull is crisp (although a little heavy), but it has an occasional fail to fire.

It appears that this is not an uncommon issue with rebounding hammer models, which generally have a fairly light hammer strike.

There are a number of options suggested on various websites around the place and I was wondering what any of you guys have done.

It looks like the best option is to remove the lower rebound leg on the hammer actuator, but this means that firing pin strike can be too heavy and that this requires the fitting of a lighter main spring (to stop the peening of the edge of the chamber, or causing the rim to be hit so hard that ejection becomes a problem I presume). A lighter spring will also give a much improved trigger pull.

My questions are:

1. is this the preferred option,
2. what replacement springs should I get - Brownells have several options inc. Wolf , or
3. should I look at other modifications

As I said I'm really happy with this rifle and if I can banish the ftf then it will be close to perfect for what I need.

thanks,
Nigel

[daisy]

I took off the rebound leg on mine and put in a lighter spring. On a mates gun I just ground a bit off the rebound leg and it seemed to fix the ftf . I also had a carrier break, but was lucky the dealer I got the new gun from had a old style one that fitted . If I was to do it all over again I would buy a used one.

Daisy

[Ramslammer]

You still wouldn't hit anything Daisy!!!
Anyway it's Gibbo's rifle so just bring your grinder down this week and do a job like you did on the 44.
Juddy

[boats]

My approach to hammer springs is buy a new one in case I go too far. Then with a dremel cut off wheel remove a half coil at a time until I get it like I want it. Go easy little bit makes a big difference. After cutting the coil run the cut off spring on a grinder to restore it to dead flat where it hits the spring retainer. If you go too far you can increase spring tension by adding a washer over the strut.

Igniton is more than the hammer fall however many guns have a lot of stuff between the hammer and the primer. Older 39A's not so bad that way however I would make sure the pin is smooth and slides easy in he breechblock

Just worked over a 1953 39A and the pull is sweet just under 3 lbs They are easy guns to tweak. New ones not so easy am working on a new 1894 now and it's full of extra parts. Don't forget some .22 ammo will fail to fire in the best striking guns. Running a test with good stuff before working on the gun is good policy

Boats

[jnyork]

3 or 4 shooters in my club here in Yuma have the newer 39a. All had problems, all have removed the lower strut and installed the Wolfe spring, all have no more problems.

[fwt1712]

Thanks everyone,

looks like it's a 'reboundstrutectomy' and a new wolfe spring.

About $20 of new parts (keeping the factory bits for spare).

As stated it shoots very well and the ftf are a minor glitch (but it really didn't like pmc - although Winchester power points were nearly 100%).

regards,
Nigel.

[fwt1712]

I finally managed to install a wolff spring (thanks Ramslammer) and removed the rebound strut.

Complete success. There were no misses from 100 shots, even using some tough pmc cases.

The trigger pull has also dropped from a nice crisp 4.5lb to a still crisp 3lb 3oz.

So a really great result and thanks to all for their feedback.

regards,
Nigel.

[teetertotter]

When I bought mine new 4 years ago, it had FTF and FTE problems with several manufactures HV ammo. Back then they were having problems which apparently still exists. I elected not to send mine back to the factory like many and come back in the same condition. Local Gunsmith fixed mine for $50.00 with 3 day wait. I had more eject problems. I did find CCI Blazer shot the best at 100M and eject the best.
It is has not been fired since end of 2010 season. That is the only other rifle I have besides the CZ replacement.
I hope they found the quality issues and fixed. Spend $400.00+ and does not work out of the box.............

[dan222]

hi folks,
i also have the same ftf problem. what i would like to know, is what wolf spring(part #) did you use?
and also, which part of the hammer rebound strut did you cut off? top/bottom. thanks....dan

[jnyork]

Here ya go, Dan. Go over to Rimfirecentral, click on this link, then email "Gizzy" for the instructions on how to do your strut. http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/sh ... p?t=418838

Here's your spring, you dont have to mess with the lever spring, just the hammer spring. http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/cid=0/k= ... Marlin_39a

[dan222]

hi jnyork,
thanks for the information, contacted steve, and had incoming. on my 1951, 39a, i only had to male a strut hammer spring change, well on my 2008, i needed the info steve gave me. thank you all.......dan