A little trouble with 9mm loads in the carbine.

[PO2Hammer]

Had a little trouble at the range today with my 9mm Ruger PCC.

Loads were mixed brass, mixed CCI #500 and Wolf SP primers, 4.0 grains of Bullseye with 125 HAP bullets @ 1.100”.

First issue was quite a few failures to fire. Usually that is poorly seated primers, but only the Wolf primers had trouble, and they have had trouble in several of my handguns. One of the Wolf primers refused to fire even after 4 whacks. Good strong dents, but no go.

Then I had a few fliers. Like 5” high at 50 yards from the bench. I really want to blame the mixed brass for this one. This was brass I bought last winter. A lot of odd ball head stamps, some military stamps. I shot a few groups sorting by head stamp, and thing’s really tightened up. Blazer brass really shot some nice groups, under 1.5” @ 50 yards with open sights off a rest. It might be time to start sorting brass again.

If anyone is considering the Ruger PCC, I highly recommend it. It’s a lot of fun, very accurate with most components and very reliable. Nice trigger. I had the old Ruger police carbine, it was accurate and reliable too, but recoil was pretty heavy with the old one.

 

[LiveLife]

9mm Ruger PCC ... mixed brass ... CCI #500 and Wolf SP primers ... few failures to fire. Usually that is poorly seated primers, but only the Wolf primers had trouble, and they have had trouble in several of my handguns. One of the Wolf primers refused to fire even after 4 whacks. Good strong dents, but no go

If primers were seated deep enough to pre-load the anvil tip, sounds similar to particular lot # of Tula SP primers that had harder cups. Even after multiple strikes, some failed to fire. (I even test fired different SR primers I had and no problems with my Glocks)

Interestingly, Tula SP with harder cups all fired 100% in .45 ACP cases with small primer pockets and that's how I used up the rest so you may want to prime some SP primer pocket .45ACP cases and test fire (Primer only, no powder/no bullet but definitely hearing protection as primer alone can be loud).

 

[mdi]

I have occasionally had FTF with some primers, with any consistency. One method I used was to "sensitize"/preload the primers, some call this "crush". Simple to do with my ram prime but I don't know about other priming methods (couldn't preload with my hand primers with any real success). Seat the primers all the way to the bottom of the pocket, disregard "below flush" measurements, just all the way down, and add a bit more pressure adding "crush". I get 100% performance with all my primers now, no more picky primers...

 

[LiveLife]

"sensitize"/preload the primers ... Simple to do with my ram prime but I don't know about other priming methods (couldn't preload with my hand primers with any real success)

Yes, preloading primers by seating primers deeper until anvil tip is set against the priming compound (Usually done around .400" below flush) will ensure more reliable primer ignition.

I can readily seat primers to below flush with Auto Prime and with a bit more effort using Auto Prime XR hand primers (But not with Metric primers with slightly larger cup size). No issue seating below flush with Lee Bench Primer. And Pro 6000 and 2023 Pro 1000 with new priming system both readily seat primers regardless of primer brand to below flush

Pro 6000 - CCI SP seated to .004" below flush in FC case, S&B SP seated to .003" below flush in R-P case, PMC SP seated to .005" below flush in WIN case, PMC seated to .003" below flush in Blazer/R-P cases - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ing-for-oal-consistency.911743/#post-12442618

2023 Pro 1000 - CCI/S&B/PMC/TulAmmo SP primers in various headstamp brass (Blazer/.FC./R-P/R-P"."/WIN/FC/G.F.L. pictured) seated to .004"-.005" below flush with most seating around .004" - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...3-lee-pro-1000-unboxing.916672/#post-12567479

Seat the primers all the way to the bottom of the pocket, disregard "below flush" measurements, just all the way down, and add a bit more pressure adding "crush". I get 100% performance with all my primers now, no more picky primers...

I tested seating primers down to .008" below flush "crush" depth and they all ignited reliably - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-and-discussions.778197/page-11#post-12576848

 

[PO2Hammer]

I’m running on a BL 550, so I don’t want to slow the flow by pre stressing the primers with my Ram prime.
I’ll just put the Russian primers back on the shelf. I’ll use them up in .357 carbine loads, my Handi rifle will smash any primer.

 

[Riomouse911]

I’m running on a BL 550, so I don’t want to slow the flow by pre stressing the primers with my Ram prime.
I’ll just put the Russian primers back on the shelf. I’ll use them up in .357 carbine loads, my Handi rifle will smash any primer.

Sometimes ya just gotta go with what you know works .

Stay safe.

 

[PO2Hammer]

Yup, back to CCI and Fed.