Gun didnt fire this morning

[MTCOMMER]

Well, long story short. I was out hunting in the brutal cold this morning, wind chill was -20 this morning. I was sitting out for an hour when 7:15 rolled around and a nice buck stepped out and gave me a broadside shot at 120yds. I turned off the safety, got him in the crosshairs and pulled the trigger. NOTHING.
THE GUN DIDNT SHOOT. I tried to get another round in the chamber but by that time the deer spooked back into the woods.
anyone ever have that issue, i would bet it was from the cold. The round i pulled out had a dent in the 'strike zone' but didnt fire, it didnt pierce. Was it the round that was faulty, or is there anything with my 30.06 I can do?  Its a remington model 700, one of the most trustworthy guns out there.
it was a pretty demoralizing time, its almost worse than missing, cause there wasnt anything i could do. And it was a nice buck too.

[DDSBYDAY]

  Bad primer.  It will happen once in a while if you shoot enough.  The temp is not the culprit.  If it was a powder issue you would have had a squib fire (where the primer fires but not the powder).  This will usually lodge a bullet in your barrel.  Chances are it won't happen again.   

[Cody Gruchow]

just a shallow strike or a bad primer. it happens unfortunately.

[beeker]

i would try that same round in a buddy's gun and see if it works with their gun. I've had this happen with shotgun shell rounds before where the primer dents and no boom in my gun.. then the next guy grabs it and it fires.

or you need to pull the bolt apart. you could have a bunch of oil built up in there and it froze into a sludge slowing down the firing pin so it didn't get a good poke on that primer.

[deadeye]

I'd go with beeker here.  An accumulation of oil/dirt etc in the bolt caused the firing pin to move so slow it only dented the primer.  The bolt needs to be disassembled and cleaned in solvent.   

[Wicked Jester]

Considering the reliability of both firearms and ammunition, I would guess cosmoline in your bolt is the culprit. It's a very thick, sticky rust preventative. It's great for that and that's why manufacturers use it, but when it gets real cold it can slow your firing pin. The pin will move enough to mark the primer but not quickly and sharply enough to fire it. I'd take the bolt apart and clean it out.

[beeker]

oh ya.. didn't even think of the cosmoline. the 700 hundred bolts aren't as hard as you think to pull apart. youtube probably has a dozen videos on it.

just googled this and midway USA has a nice video on breaking it all the way down.  (can't get the link to pasted)

[JohnWester]

i would say probably not bad primer... like deadeye said...
how old is the gun??  might want to think about disassembly and cleaning.  also, depending on age, new firing pin spring.

[DDSBYDAY]

  It's easy to just try to fire the round again out of the gun warm to rule out the ammo.  After further thought I agree it is probably gunk that slowed the firing pin.

[MTCOMMER]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen.  In disgust I threw the round off the stand, so that will never be found again!  The gun is about 4yrs old and maybe only has 150roundds through it.  I don't shoot it much, couple times a year to make sure its still sighted in.
I will take it apart one of these days and see how it looks like inside.  When it happened, I just assumed it was from the cold, I thought about trying to shoot a new round, but never got around to it.  It was too cold out there to stick around (then the hunting party would get all excited thinking I shot something too).
Ill let you know what I find inside.

[deadeye]

I had the same thing happen a number of years ago.  Prior to doing anything, I  removed the shell from the chamber, set the safe to fire and opened the bolt.  Now, hold the trigger as if you want to shoot and slowly lower the bolt.  You should see the back of the firing pin move forward. 

[beeker]

deadeye's tip is a good way to store that rifle also.. hold the trigger in as you push the bolt forward, it releases the spring and firing pin so it doesn't store cocked, and you don't have to dry fire.

[The General]

 Sounds like a good excuse to trade it in on a Browning.

[dew2]

That Rem 700 is a excellent rifle! I'll take a shot at a guess of why the misfire. CONDENSATION.In and out from warm to clod builds up condensation (Moisture) That moisture settled in the neck of the firing pin when it got cold it froze,Stopping the firing pin from making its full forward movement.
 When I firearm hunted the rifle always stayed in the truck so the inside to outside condensation wouldnt build.
 Thaw it, blow it out with compressed air and squirt some key lock anti icer in it. OR the WD-40

[Boar]

I clean my bolt every couple years and if yiu dont remember how manytime it takes to uncrew the bolt from the pin you could have a week spring. Ront know if yu clean yur bolt if not it could be gummed up. Ive cleaned mine from the begining when i boughht it. Got rid of factory grease which is a gumm magnet. Clean with a good evaporating cleanor like shooters choice. The just a few dops of oil.

[kenhuntin]

I have had this happen before and it is really disappointing. The shell was live and my firing pin was fine what happened was the primer was just set in that particular shell a little too deep. You could visually see that it was inset deeper for some reason as were three others from the same box. I sent the gun to a gunsmith and he enlightened me on this when we looked at the ammo. Ever since that day I check every primer on every shell I load when it comes to business day.