Factory 9mm ammo with “soft” primers?

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rpenmanparker

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I might have mentioned a friend gave me a Baby Eagle a while back. Sweet, right? Well yes, but it has a problem. It soft strikes for me about once or twice in every magazine. A local gunsmith tried it with some brown box Winchester he had and couldn’t reproduce the problem over 30 rounds fired. Then I demonstrated the issue every few rounds with my Freedom Munitions ammo. He showed me the deeper impressions in the primers of his ammo and said I needed ammo with soft primers. He said some guns weren’t faulty but just couldn’t handle hard primers. Any ideas for readily available and economical commercial ammo with such soft primers? I don’t know what the brown box Winchester stuff was actually called.

Thanks.
 
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Funny thing is the gunsmith also was successful with CCI Blazer ammo, and I’m seeing posts online saying that is harder rather than softer. What gives?
 
My P380 worked great with Sellier & Bellot when they had the red sealant around the primers. When they stopped putting the sealant around the primers, it started getting light strikes. I noticed others complaining about light strikes with the same ammo at that time. They also noticed that something more had changed than just the red sealant. The conclusion was that they had started using different primers that were harder.
 
Federal primers are generally considered the softest. I suppose you could try a heavier hammer spring. I wonder if the freedom munitions ammo is seating their primers deeper than Winchester? Does anybody make a longer firing pin?
 
My son has a Baby Eagle .40 and it has never failed to set off a round.
Did the gunsmith pull the firing pin and spring? Could be covered in petrified crud.
First thing I would check. Clean and very lightly oiled, not wet.
 
When so first observed the problem, I took the firing pin out and cleaned and the channel and the pin. But I lost a small spring that I never even know was there and the gun wouldn’t fire at all. I took it to the gunsmith to have it fixed. He put it back in its original condition, i.e. occasional light strikes. Between the two of us, the system is about as clean and luned as it could be. What it is doing now is exactly what it was doing when ai first got it. I may have to go back to Desert Eagle or whoever is actually responsible for the gun’s performance.
 
You are lubing the firing pin channel? That’s the one place I don’t lube.
Understood, but the most recent work was by the pro. I assume he cleaned off the lube when he corrected my other errors if that was the proper thing to do.
 
My P380 worked great with Sellier & Bellot when they had the red sealant around the primers. When they stopped putting the sealant around the primers, it started getting light strikes. I noticed others complaining about light strikes with the same ammo at that time. They also noticed that something more had changed than just the red sealant. The conclusion was that they had started using different primers that were harder.

Have Baby Eagle along with several others, have noticed no difference since S&B stopped the red sealer treatment. I have noticed that the S&B primers (large pistol) are a bit tighter when seating into used brass.
 
Fiocchi Top Target have very soft primers.
If you have the one with the decocker, I have to say I've seen many Tanfoglios with the slide mounted decocker (basically the same design) that left only a little mark on the primer. A couple had misfires here and there during the range session.
 
Fiocchi Top Target have very soft primers.
If you have the one with the decocker, I have to say I've seen many Tanfoglios with the slide mounted decocker (basically the same design) that left only a little mark on the primer. A couple had misfires here and there during the range session.
Yes, decocker.
 
Yes, decocker.
In that type of pistols the decocker pushes the firing pin forward to prevent contact with the hammer and bring it back in order to fire. It is a very subtle balance. Moreover the automatic safety of these guns works in reverse (ie the firing-pin block must be released downwards to fire and not pushed upwards as normally occurs in other pistols).
Could you post some pics of the fired primers to see if it is the same kind of light percussion mark I've seen on some Tanfoglio decocker pistols?
 
In that type of pistols the decocker pushes the firing pin forward to prevent contact with the hammer and bring it back in order to fire. It is a very subtle balance. Moreover the automatic safety of these guns works in reverse (ie the firing-pin block must be released downwards to fire and not pushed upwards as normally occurs in other pistols).
Could you post some pics of the fired primers to see if it is the same kind of light percussion mark I've seen on some Tanfoglio decocker pistols?
Thanks for the information. Sorry I don’t have any fired casings. I have return authorization for service by Kahr/Magnum Research. I will keep y’all posted.
 
Yes, Federal makes the softest primers and they use them in their ammunition. American Eagle is one of their brands.
 
Are the Freedom Munitions reloads? Try strictly mainstream factory ammo. Freedom could be using hard primers or not seating the primers properly.
 
Gun is on its way back from Magnum Research. Repaired and returned for $78 total. The spring the local smith put in was wrong and there was a burr on the firing pin. I will let y’all know how it performs when I get it back.
 
Gun is back from the factory service center, but I won't have a chance to shoot it before leaving for a few weeks vacation. Funny how the service center tries to help and sometimes it is the wrong thing. I keep a red dot on this pistol (like all of my pistols), but took it off as instructed by the manufacturer before sending the gun to them. Left the rear sight off too, as I knew I would have to reinstall the red dot on the rear dovetail when the gun was returned. I figured any testing they would do to make sure there were no light strikes wouldn't require a sight. Sure enough, the service center replaced the rear sight at no charge. Now I have to get out the sight pusher and take it off again. Aggravating, but I can't complain. They were trying to do the right thing.

I will let you all know how the gun shoots when I get back to it sometime in mid September.
 
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