[Plannerdude]

Ok, need a little help with this one. Went to the range over the weekend with my new Xtreme upper. Hornady and BVAC ammo fired fine. Tried the SSA and the hammer dropped and nothing. Primer was struck, but very few fired. Are we talking hard primers on SSA or a weak hammer spring?

 

[paulosantos]

What trigger do you have?

 

[tbready]

Ok, need a little help with this one. Went to the range over the weekend with my new Xtreme upper. Hornady and BVAC ammo fired fine. Tried the SSA and the hammer dropped and nothing. Primer was struck, but very few fired. Are we talking hard primers on SSA or a weak hammer spring?

I bought a batch of 110 gr Pro Hunters {commercial loads} a while back that were doing the same thing. I was using 3 lb JP springs with a stock trigger with the hammer cut down. When I changed my hammer spring to a 4.5 lb one it seemed to stop the misfires. I read a while back others were having the same issues with this round. I think i remember reading something was wrong with a batch of primers SSA was using. 8)

 

[angsniper]

I had the same issue and it happened when I had a whitetail in the crosshairs. I had 4 of 6 misfires. Art at SSA said they would replace my ammo but they never did. I've not shot another SSA with PH's since.

 

[marinesg1012]

I had the issue when I switched to my timney trigger, I switched back to the mil trigger becuase I was oging on that pig hunt and didnt want any clicks...when I got back i called timney and they sent me the AR10 hammer and spring for the trigger. I reinstalled it but didnt get to try it before I was gone again.

 

[aberry]

Doesn't SSA deliberately use the harder CCI military style primers, which when combined with a trigger which was intentionally lightened or naturally weak lead to ignition problems?

 

[marinesg1012]

Yes that is correct.

 

[kalwasart]

We only use Military spec primers which means a harder base to avoid taping and sending the weapon into full auto. I have shot weapons that went into full auto (with commercial primers) and it is a scary thing to say the least. As most know the free floating firing pin of an AR causes this problem and is why the military requires the harder primer.

Even though what appears to be a good strike may not, it could be border line, with some firing and some not. Taking apart the bolt and cleaning the firing pin is a must

An AR is a military weapon not a target rifle, light hammer springs or light trigger pulls with a free floating firing pin is not a good thing.

We supply nearly all 6.8 gun manufacturers with ammo for testing, which includes but limited too, LWRCI, POF, Stag, Rock River, and PRI none of which reported problems. But with that said we had a spring on one of our lowers go bad and it had to be replaced.

There maybe a spot problem they we do not see with the CCi mil-spec primers, but why is it relagated to a few guns or someone that has a consistant problem while others do no have issues. With nearly 2,000 online customers you would think there would be an overwhelming out cry from our customers.

If we go to a commercial primer than we have to look at product liablity issues.

Please weight in as we want to do the right thing and feed back will be helpfull.

Art - SSA

 

[kalwasart]

I had the same issue and it happened when I had a whitetail in the crosshairs. I had 4 of 6 misfires. Art at SSA said they would replace my ammo but they never did. I've not shot another SSA with PH's since.

Send me a PM and we will send you replacement ammo with commercial primers. Who's lower are you using?

Art - SSA

 

[Plannerdude]

Ahh, I'm not the only one then. I'm using a Mega Machine lower, with an Anvil Arms Lower parts kit. Not sure who's hammer spring Anvil uses in their kits. But other than the SSA Ammo issue I had a relatively productive day at the range, even though it was raining the entire day. Once I had the scope "Dialed" in had no problem getting about 1" groups, although I was primarily breaking in that day. Did take down a "Steel Chicken" at 200 yards no problem.

 

[Zippy]

Ahh, I'm not the only one then. I'm using a Mega Machine lower, with an Anvil Arms Lower parts kit. Not sure who's hammer spring Anvil uses in their kits. ...

Interesting. I have an Anvil Arms lower with AA LPK and I didn't see any issues firing it with the SSA 90 gr TNT's.

 

[Plannerdude]

Ahh, I'm not the only one then. I'm using a Mega Machine lower, with an Anvil Arms Lower parts kit. Not sure who's hammer spring Anvil uses in their kits. ...

Interesting. I have an Anvil Arms lower with AA LPK and I didn't see any issues firing it with the SSA 90 gr TNT's.

Perhaps, my hammer spring is a bit light? Some of the SSA fired but I finally gave up and went back the BVAC ammo. I even dropped the firing pin out and cleaned it...didn't change anything. Still had problems spanking the primer hard enough to fire the SSA. I'll probably just change out the hammer spring. Anyone got any reccomendations?

 

[Plannerdude]

Ahh, I'm not the only one then. I'm using a Mega Machine lower, with an Anvil Arms Lower parts kit. Not sure who's hammer spring Anvil uses in their kits. ...

Interesting. I have an Anvil Arms lower with AA LPK and I didn't see any issues firing it with the SSA 90 gr TNT's.

Perhaps, my hammer spring is a bit light? Some of the SSA fired but I finally gave up and went back the BVAC ammo. I even dropped the firing pin out and cleaned it...didn't change anything. Still had problems spanking the primer hard enough to fire the SSA. I'll probably just change out the hammer spring. Anyone got any reccomendations?

Ok, I think I may have discovered the issue. Took out the hammer and as I gazed upon the hammer spring, it dawned on my that the spring is installed "wrong". I double checked what the proper install looks like. The "Tails" of the spring should be toward the front of the hammer, mine were towards the rear. Flipped it around, reinstalled and wow more tension on the cocked hammer. Will test next time at the range. This was my first build...rookie mistake?

 

[marinesg1012]

That would probably cause the issue...

 

[kalwasart]

We had two customers send us a couple rounds each that would not fire for them. We pulled the bullets and check the powder weight. These all had firing pin indents which appeared to be a good strike, we than placed each case into a weapon with different lowers (four different lowers in all) all four cases went pop.


Art - SSA

 

[constructor]

Some times the firing pin does not protrude enough, seems like .030 is the number but, double check that.
The bolts are being turned out so fast that some are long and that prevents the pin from sticking out far enough.
The bolt should be 2.800" long.

 

[Jamesb74]

Things that make you go HMMMMMMM............

 

[FALbert]

I've only had two SSA rounds that did not go boom. The primer was backwards in one. At first I thought light primer strike as it was in an AR with a KAC trigger until my shooting partner pointed that out. The last one looked to have a good primer strike and this was in a Rem 700 LTR.

 

[Nick446]

I have a DPMS lower and I am waiting on my DPMS 16" upper. I recently purchased 200 rnds of SSA 115 Gr OTM 6.8 spc, will this fire without any issues in my DPMS rifle? Will I need to make any adjustments?

Nick

 

[marinesg1012]

You should be fine, the issue (not that it is really an issue) is that SSA uses milspec primers and some trigger groups dont strike the fireing pin as hard as they should. Any milspec lower should be fine.