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I had a Mark II frame with a Tac Sol upper. Ruger bolt. It ran fine, no problems.

I bought a new Volquartsen Mark III frame; used the upper and bolt mentioned above. I shot the first 100 rounds or so with no problems. At my next range session just about every other round had a light primer strike.

Took it home and gave it a good cleaning, test fired it with four five round mags in rapid succession. Used four different brands of bullets in these four mags. No problems at all.

I shot a Ruger rimfire match today. On the third stage, with only 20 round shot out of a clean bolt, it started having the light primer strikes again.

I removed the firing pin and matched it up against one from my back up Mark II. they looked the same. I didn't see any damage on the pin from the bad gun.

Does anyone have any idea what would cause these light primer strikes?

I am wondering if one of the springs in the new frame needs replacing

I have been thinking about getting one of the VQ bolts anyway. Wonder if that will help.

Thanks in advance….

How close do you have the overtravel stop set in your trigger? What may be happening is the sear is not clearing the hammer face fully and imparting drag on the hammer slowing down its momentum just enough to cause the lighter strikes. You may want to back off of the stop setting a little bit more.

You may also want to inspect the rebound spring underneath the firing pin and ensure it is not broken and impeding the pin's travel. Sometime these break and cause similar problems.

If everything was fine with the old frame and upper but now your experiencing issues with the new frame the problem may be caused by some tolerance issues with the new VQ frame. Makes me wonder if you reinstalled all the the parts onto the old frame would you still be experiencing the light strikes. Typically the bolt doesn't need much attention to keep the firing pin track clean. Are you getting a lot of blow-back residue up on top? If not then the problem with the light strikes has to be with the hammer not hitting the firing pin hard enough.

R,
Bullseye

The VQ frame came assembled, the preset was factory set. It worked properly when I test fired it so I never adjusted it. I will back it off a bit and see if that helps. Just to be sure I understand, are you referring to the upper set screw in the trigger or the one where your trigger finger rests over?

The spring in the bolt is intact. And there was no blowback residue or excessive powder fouling.

Thanks for your help Bullseye, I knew if anyone could help me understand this problem it would be you.

Your trigger has a set screw in the pad area, the one where your finger pad rests over and adjusts frontward or rearwards, it adjusts for trigger overtravel. This is the one you want to adjust the screw forward, or back it out, a little bit.

The upper one, the screw that is angled forwards, adjusts for trigger pretravel or slack.

R,
Bullseye

That's what I thought, just wanted to be sure..

Going to the range this morning..I'll let you know how it goes..


Thanks again

Vic

I went to the range this morning. Backed the set screw out a few turns, it still had a light primer strike. I went ahead and backed the screw all the way out and had another light primer Strike.

I am thinking I just rules that out.

Any other suggestions?

I tried to call VQ several times today, kept getting busy signals. Perhaps I'll have better luck calling tomorrow.

I agree. When you pulled out that firing pin did you get a chance to look at the rebound spring and guide? If it is broken or improperly installed it can interfere with the FP's travel.

R,
Bullseye

They were fine. I cleaned then and inspected them when I had the pin out.

Is the hammer spring in the take down lever? I used the same takedown assembly so that should not have made a difference.

I'm stumped!!!

Yes, the hammer spring is part of the mainspring assembly. I think it may be a good idea to take your upper and put your old lower back on just to see if you have a problem with the frame or one of the internal parts. If the old frame works then there's a mis-match somewhere with the VQ one.

It could be as simple as the hammer strut rivet dragging inside the VQ frame. VQ hammers have had this problem before, and you did say this frame came with all the internals. You could swap in your old hammer if it comes down to it.

R,
Bullseye

Yes, the lower frame came as a complete, assembled frame to include grips. All I did was attach the Tac Sol upper and reuse my Bolt and MSH assy.

Hopefully I can talk with VQ tomorrow and see what they say

Look inside that VQ Frame and see if the rivet head on the left side of the hammer has any rub marks on it. It would be rubbing on the inside of the thumb safety lever so rub marks would also be showing on the finish there. I have also seen some examples where the hammer strut can be rubbing inside the mainspring housing. You should look for any shiny spots along the sides of the strut to show evidence of chafing on the housing. Then I'd start looking at the magazine safety hook, if this Mark III frame comes with one, to ensure it is not impeding the sear from moving away from the hammer. I would do the same for the thumb safety hook. If either is contacting the sear it can cause a similar situation that we adjusted the overtravel stop for as contact could prevent the sear from rotating fully away from the hammer hook and obstruct its movement causing light strikes.

Unfortunately, this is one of those situations where I could locate the problem in just a few minutes under direct inspection but I must rely on your feedback to isolate the source of the friction.

R,
Bullseye

I got a hold of Volquartsen tech support. They said it could be one of two things.

1. The frame to receiver fit. They said it needs to be tight. Mine meets that criteria.

2. Same thing Bullseye said, to check to see if the rivet that holds the hammer to the hammer strut shows evidence of rubbing.


I haven’t had a chance to get the gun out and check.

They said if this was good then they could not troubleshoot it further without the frame in front of them.

Well I finally decided to send it back to Volquartsen. They have had it a week and a half, called them today and was told that they have not looked at it yet.

Just wanted to let you all know whats going on.

I've been interacting with them over the last few weeks and they've been very busy lately. So much so that they've had trouble keeping up with their correspondence too. It's not you they are just swamped with work.

R,
Bullseye

Called them again this morning. Was told it would be fixed today and shipped this afternoon.

I sure hope it doesent turn out to be "checked and found OK".


Stay tuned..