The Rohrbaugh Forum
Rohrbaugh Products and Accessories => Rohrbaugh R9 (all variations) => Topic started by: nonseven on March 14, 2009, 07:24:17 PM
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Just bought a R9s a week ago.
Today I shot some Speer 124 gold dots, and some winchester silvertips. All rounds fed and fired, but upon examining the spent casings, I found a few primer strikes that look very light.
The first picture represent the light strikes, the bottom picture represents most of the other casings.
http://gallery.me.com/tom_hill#100344/IMG_0165&bgcolor=black
http://gallery.me.com/tom_hill#100344/IMG_0168&bgcolor=black
On the two light strikes, there is no indentation of the primer, just a discolored area. This makes me nervous, because this was what I was seeing with all the Remington rounds I fired last week when a encountered a few that failed to ignite.
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The only time i have seen primers that looked like the two in the first group, was when reloading and the load was too hot, too much pressure will flatten the primer out around the firing pin indent. John
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nonseven,
I had primer strikes like that last week with Remington Green Box ammo I had lying around, and wanted to use up. (I mostly use Winchester White Box or Blazer Brass for practice.) The rounds fired, but I didn't like the look of those primers. So I fired a couple of those Remington rounds in my Ruger SR9. They fired but looked strange too. There was a small indentation in the primer, but not near as deep as my Winchester ammo.
I then fired a couple of rounds of my carry ammo, 124 gr. Speer GDHP thru my R9s. The resulting primer strikes looked okay like your second photo.
The only other time I've seen flat primer strikes like your photos was when a little shaving of brass got stuck in the firing pin hole of my R9s.
You might want to pull the slide off your R9 and manually push the firing pin forward to make sure there is nothing stuck in the hole or to the firing pin.
Steve
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Couldn't find anything in the firing pin hole. Those two shots were towards the end of a string of 13 shots. I'm wondering if a little dirt on the face of the slide keeps it from closing all the way.
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I've never had enough dirt accumulate on the breech face to stop the slide from going into battery. 80 is the max number of rounds I've fired in my R9S before cleaning / lube. There was just a smear of carbon to be scrubbed off. Not enough to feel with the fingertip.
(I've fired several hundred rounds in one session thru other, full size, pistols without a problem.
Maybe you just encountered a couple of hard primers??
Steve
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Perhaps just hard primers. I don't know how common these are. I've shot it 39 times, and had 5 hard primers?
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I don't want to state the obvious but this may be worth a call
to the factory.
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The only 3 that failed to fire were Remingtons. 100% of the 32 or so winchester silvertips and speer gold dots fired, but I started collecting the spend casings and found two primer strikes that I didn't like the look of. Perhaps I'm just being anal.
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+1 what Tracker said.
If you want to be scientific, make one more trip to the range and try Silver Tips and Gold Dots from different batches. (WWB and Blazers have the same primers as the ST's and GDHP's respectively, for a lot less money!)
Any more issues = a call to Rohrbaugh.
Steve
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Remmington primers are somewhat notorious around here for not working well in the R9. For me its Speer 115 GDHPs, with Winchester WWB for the range. Winchester STHPs also have had great results. Bottom line, find what works well with your Pup and stick with it. If you want to maximize your chances for a great first range trip, start with Speer and Winchester.
Rick
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sslater,
That's a very good point you make about the primers!
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Well I can't very well have another first range session, but I'm using Winchester and Speer ammo and watching the primer indents.
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Well I can't very well have another first range session, but I'm using Winchester and Speer ammo and watching the primer indents.
Please let us know how it goes your next time out. This is an interesting thread.
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It is an interesting thread and started me to think that I
couldn't have told anything about a light primer strike as
long as it goes bang. This will probably prompt me to check
once in awhile. It could definitely affect one's choice of ammo.
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Another thought? Perhaps these are not light hits but excessive pressure. Gun goes bang but pressure pushes the dimple out. I don't know? Just throwing it iut there. Dan
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OK, well I guess my R9s is going back to Rohrbaugh. I took it to the range today to fire a magazine of silvertips, and the 4th one failed to fire. Upon examination, a light primer strike with a unusual nick next to the primer strike. I've seen this nick before. Here are the pics - all 5 photos are of the same unfired cartridge from different angles:
http://gallery.me.com/tom_hill#100352&bgcolor=black&view=grid
Here is one that did fire, but had a light primer strike:
http://gallery.me.com/tom_hill#100359&bgcolor=black&view=grid
These were with the universally loved Winchester silvertips, so it is no longer my carry gun until I get this resolved.
I'll call Rohrbaugh on Monday and see what they say.
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Still looks to me like you're dragging some foreign material along with that firing pin. A bit of brass? Perhaps a little bit of the firing pin spring fractured. I found a little brass shaving in the firing pin tunnel.
Not to worry; Rohrbaugh will fix you up.
Steve
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I figured out what was causing the light primer strikes - I'm regularly getting shaved bits of brass into the firing pin hole. It's happening a lot, like every other shot or so, and causes a lack of ignition. I think it's actually worse with the silvertips, maybe because the brass is softer. Here is what it looks like:
http://gallery.me.com/tom_hill#100367
I don't know if it's coming off of the extractor or what, but it's getting in the hole regularly. So, it's off to Rohrbaugh. At least I have something to show and tell them. I'm not sure how they'll fix it though.
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Bits of brass in the firing pin hole are what kept my R9s from going bang. It was happening often - every few shots.
Rohrbaugh has had mine for two weeks - hoping they can fix it. But it concerns me that one little bit of brass in that hole and the gun fails to fire.
How often have you guys found brass in the firing pin hole when you cleaned yours?
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I've never found any brass in any of mine. But I will say that i've never had a reason to look that hard because I never had a ftf problem. Hope they can come up with a fix for you.
I wonder if you got a hold of a batch of ammo with bad brass? Was it with mutiple brands or just one?
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It happened with silvertips, gold dots, and Remington. I discounted the Remington because of comments here, but I figured the gold dots and silvertips should go bang everytime. The silvertips were actually worse with shaving of brass.
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somthing must be rough inside and did not get polished
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Anyway just heard from Rohrbaugh the gun was shipped and I should have it tomorrow. We'll see.
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Got my R9s back from Rohrbaugh. They said the screws were loose on the right side of the grip, and they replaced the magazine springs. They shot 4 magazines of ammo through it and had no problems. I didn't check the screws before I sent it, other than visually.
I may be dreaming, but is seems the trigger pull is a little stiffer. I've shot two magazines through it so far with no light primer strikes. Maria said that loose screws could cause a problem with the hammer assembly.
Do you think it's possible that loose grip screws could somehow affect the hammer/mainspring to cause the type of problems I was having - light primer strikes or failure to fire?
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Yep, it sure can from past post I have read. Keeping the grip screws tight seems to be one of the only things the R9 has not perfected. I have not had the problem but many have. Keep them lock tighted up tight.
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Great! Hopefully, problem solved!! :) :)
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Since I've got the R9s back from Rohrbaugh, it has fired 8 magazines of WWB FMJ, and a few silvertips, without a problem. Since becoming a more experienced R9s owner, I would summarize the following 5 tips for other owners:
1. Pick a good quality ammo like 115g Winchester silvertips or 115g Speer Gold dots, and fire a few magaznies in your gun to test reliablilty.
2. Keep the gun clean and lubricated. It is not meant to be left dirty and relied on like you might do with your glock.
3. Keep the grip screws tight. Some Rohrbaughs have a tendency for the screws to loosen even after a few rounds are fired. This can cause problems with the hammer/trigger assembly which could cause the gun to malfuntion (FTFr). I check mine after every firing session.
4. Keep track of the rounds you fire through the gun and replace the recoil spring after about 200 to 250 rounds.
5. It's a gun to be carried a lot, and fired a little. Don't purchase one with the intent on putting thousands of rounds through it.
If you follow these 5 guidelines, the chances of trouble-free operation are high.
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Totally agree!! :) :)
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HOOAH! (It's an Army thing.) 8)