Acceptable rate of light strikes . . .

I truly don't know how many rounds of centerfire ammunition I have fired in my life time but it is certainly in the 100's of thousands now and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of true misfires I have experienced (three to be precise) and can almost do the same for light strikes, so for me any misfire or light strike is considered unacceptable and will lead to me completely going over every part of the firearm and/or disassembling the remainder of that batch of ammo to fix whatever the issue is before I will continue using either.
 
I agree with a failure rate of zero as the only acceptable number, with center fire ammo.
With rimfire.... well, they just are what they are, and why IMO, they are not okay for any serious defensive use.

the only time I've ever had light strikes, was in a sig 238, when I was testing some 90gr XTP over Unique. All of a sudden, erratic strikes. Found one test brass that had a primer with a hole in the center.
Pulled the 238 apart and found that bit o' primer in the firing pin channel.
Cleaned it, good strikes came back, and I abandoned my Unique loads for old reliable Bullseye instead
 
If it’s a firearm I use in timed competition or my life could depend on, it needs to be reliable to the point, it’s shocking if I managed to feed it something it wouldn’t work with.

If it’s testing things to see how far from the edge of function you are, I would anticipate one at some point.

With rimfire, it’s also not very shocking to have failures with cheap bulk ammo. Some stuff that works in one might not work in another, etc.
 
Can't say that I've ever had a light strike. I can say that I've had one fail to fire with a good strike "bad primer". Been shooting for 60 years.
 
If I've paid to enter the match and driven 50 miles to get there I cant afford ANY misfires in anything other than slowfire. I stick to a brand of .22 that works consistently.
 
Speaking of personal light-strike experience with a gun, my brand new Fort Smith Walther PPK had A LOT of light primer strikes in double action right out of the box! Probably every 1 in 4 shots in double action would fail to light, but never a problem in single action since the hammer is cocked a bit more to reach the SA sear. Anyway, I replaced the factory spring with a standard weight spring made by Wolff Gunsprings. Never a problem since! The Wolff spring was a bit longer than the factory one, so I would imagine that problem isn't unique to mine on the new models.
 
twofewscrews said:
Yes and no. You missed the plinking part.

I find a 5% failure rate to be acceptable for plinking ammo because for plinking I generally buy the cheapest most accurate ammo for that firearm. As long as it cycles and is accurate enough to have fun, 5 out of every 100 rounds failing is something I can live with.

Ammo for SD/HD is matched to the firearm and must have a failure rate of 1% or less, preferably less then .25%. If you put 500 rounds down range each month, you put out 6,000 a year, a 1%/.25% failure rate gives you 60/15 light strikes out of that 6000. Maybe I'm wrong, but fire 6000 rounds of anything and I expect to see a couple light strikes.

If you have matched the ammo to the gun and your failure rate begins to increase (1 or 2 failures in 100 where you had 3 in 3000) then it absolutely points to an issues with the firearm.

I don't hunt but I would assume ammo for hunting is generally not shot at a high enough volume to have a failure rate. I could be wrong . . .
Click to expand...
If I pay for it. I want it to work. Failure to fire is like lighting my money on fire. I will pay a little more if it means I don't get failures.
That being said. Most failures to fire are gun related. Unless it's a rimfire. Even then it's often the gun.
If you have a tuned gun that needs soft primers. Pay the money for soft primer ammo.
 
As mentioned before, I can accept a dud in cheap bulk rimfire ammo up to 5%. On centerfire ammo I try to find the reason. I have found premium defensive ammo where the primer had no anvil inserted.
As I6turbo had explained so well, the shape and position of a firing pin have a big influence on transmitting the strike force to the critical area. The Anschutz 54 fining pins are slanted for that very reason.

1407-fp-tip.jpg
 
Outside of rim fire and certain foreign trap shells, I've had fewer than ten failure to ignites in a span of sixty-eight years. Factory, and reloaded. Cartridges from 32acp through 45-70. Now, playing with some hundred plus year old military stuff like 43 Spanish and others, I got less than 50%.
 
Ethan Verity said:
Like I said, it's usually because a company is failing to fully seat their primers when loading their rounds, rather than actually bad primers. If this is the case, they will usually fire on a second attempt.
Click to expand...

I'm curious why a not-fully-seated primer would cause a non-ignition or the primer? I suppose I could understand one that is so badly seated that the firing pin/ striker is unable to strike it with the majority of it's surface area, but it seems odd that it would be a pervasive issue. Also curious where the knowledge that it is usually a not-fully-seated primer.
 
I6turbo said:
I don't accept light strikes, except possibly on a target/range handgun that I keep set for the lightest strike that will ignite the primer on 99%+ of rounds. I adjust for this light of a strike because of the improved overall trigger pull that results. I have one gun that sometimes falls into that category (that I sometimes run a hammer spring that is that light), but the resulting action is excellent so I think it's worth the occasional annoyance of a light strike.

Otherwise I address the cause of the light strike and eliminate it. As far as I can recall, I've never had a gun that couldn't be made to deliver adequate primer strikes.

With regard to rimfire FTFs, IME the vast majority of these result not from the ammo, but from the gun. Either dirty, a weak spring, or a poorly-positioned firing pin strike. Most rimfire guns don't strike the primer rim in the ideal spot if they've not been modified.

Here's a pretty typical rimfire gun's primer strike. This is from my 1958 BRNO Model 4. I don't recall a FTF from this gun, but perhaps there has been one or two at some point that I don't remember. The "problem" with this strike is that the very edge of the rim is being crushed by the firing pin. Crushing the relatively thick edge of the rim requires force, but doesn't contribute to igniting the primer. A weakening firing pin or a unusually thick rim could result in insufficient crush to ignite the primer.
View attachment 1128973

Here are some strikes from the same type of gun that's had the tip of the firing pin reshaped to deliver the strike only to the area that contains the primer, and to avoid crushing the metal rim. This will be more reliable, require less spring tension to drive the firing pin to a reliable strike, and according to several shooters I've seen who tested before and after, may result in slightly improved groups.
View attachment 1128974

Here's another before-and-after of a firing pin re-contour. He simply removed the corner of the firing pin tip that originally contacted the rim edge. IIRC, this was from one of the target shooters who saw improved groups following the modification to his rifle.
View attachment 1128975
Click to expand...

This is very interesting. I've always thought the rimfire strikers were oddly designed to target so far to the edge of the rim where it is stiffened by the case wall.
 
ColoradoMinuteMan said:
I'm curious why a not-fully-seated primer would cause a non-ignition or the primer? I suppose I could understand one that is so badly seated that the firing pin/ striker is unable to strike it with the majority of it's surface area, but it seems odd that it would be a pervasive issue. Also curious where the knowledge that it is usually a not-fully-seated primer.
Click to expand...
If the primer isn't fully seated, then a lot of the kinetic energy of that initial strike will be absorbed in the process of pushing the primer deeper into the primer pocket until it seats, rather than fully/swiftly compressing the primer compound against the anvil of the primer to the point of ignition.

There is one brand in which I have experienced this with a lot, called The Buffalo Cartridge Company of Findlay, OH (specifically 9mm). It was among several different guns, and the rounds would always fire on the second attempt. My best guess is they just don't have enough pressure on their primer press, and every once in a while one of them doesn't go all the way down when loading.

If the primer was bad to begin with (no primer compound under the anvil, or contaminated primer compound) then it would never fire, no matter how many times you attempt it.
 
Light strikes are different from ammunition issues (duds or hard/mis-seated primers). If a firearm has light strikes that implies the gun has a mechanical issue with the impact force, location or depth of the firing pin hit. That is simply not acceptable and needs to be corrected. I've had a few guns with light strikes issues and all of them were diagnosed and repaired.
 
Ethan Verity said:
If the primer isn't fully seated, then a lot of the kinetic energy of that initial strike will be absorbed in the process of pushing the primer deeper into the primer pocket until it seats, rather than fully/swiftly compressing the primer compound against the anvil of the primer to the point of ignition.

There is one brand in which I have experienced this with a lot, called The Buffalo Cartridge Company of Findlay, OH (specifically 9mm). It was among several different guns, and the rounds would always fire on the second attempt. My best guess is they just don't have enough pressure on their primer press, and every once in a while one of them doesn't go all the way down when loading.

If the primer was bad to begin with (no primer compound under the anvil, or contaminated primer compound) then it would never fire, no matter how many times you attempt it.
Click to expand...
Very interesting, I had not thought of that angle. Thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
  • Locked
Accidental Shootings
Replies
4
Views
560
sig226
S
I
  • Locked
Is factory ammo really this bad?
2 3
Replies
50
Views
4K
200Apples
200Apples
D
  • Locked
European Murder Rates Compared to the United States: Demographics vs Guns
2
Replies
27
Views
2K
Dean Weingarten
D
M
  • Locked
What's your arsenal's "sporting purpose" rating?
2 3
Replies
70
Views
3K
Hkmp5sd
H
R
  • Locked
22 diamondback
2
Replies
25
Views
2K
bflobill_69
B
Back
Top