Bad CCI primers

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EZred

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Has anyone had a bad experience with CCI pistol primers? I loaded 50 rounds of .357MAG this week and 100 rounds of .38SPL. I decided that I would try the small pistol magnum primers this go round, instead of the Winchester Small Pistol that I normally use. In the course of shooting, 35% of the CCI primers failed, even when struck twice. At first I thought it was my pistol, but I shot 100 rounds of 38 with WSP with no failures. The inconsistency doesn't make much sense. Thoughts?
 
EZRED, CCI primers are made of a harder material and it takes a heavier hammer strike to light them up. Is you gun stock or have you or a 'smith lightened the trigger by unscrewing strain screw etc? My S&W 610 prefers Federal primers. If you have a semi-auto, use the cci's in them and get Federal, Remington, Winchester. In this order. My opinion. Good luck Mac
 
What model of revolver are you shooting them in? If a S&W, check to make sure the strain screw is tightened all the way in. That's the screw under the grips on the front of the grip frame. If it's backed out at all, then you'll get light hits.

CCI primers are the hardest of the common brands. Winchester are next softest, then Remington and the softest is Federal.

Another area to check is to make sure the primers are fully seated. They should be below flush, and ideally about .003" to .004" below flush, but some cases won't allow them to be seated that deeply. In no case should the primers be above the base of the case, though.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
This probably dates me, but I am shooting a Colt King Cobra, its all stock, with nothing but the normal mechanical wear. I can't even guess how many thousands of rounds I have put through it. This has been my first experience with CCI primers, so I didn't realize they were so hard. I got 2/3 box that was discounted because someone bought a couple sleeves out of it. I will probably just stick with Winchester. I am going to run these rounds through one of my Rugers and see if they fire, I don't want to break them all down if I don't have to. Thanks.
 
EZred, what powder? you really don't need a CCI-550. This is why I typically load with CCI-500 primers. They're warm enough to ignite most any load. I use WSPs also, but if its with a powder that needs a bit more help, I use CCI-500s. With Magnum Revolver loads, I've had more issues with WSPs and none with CCI-500s. I don't use 550s. You may be experiencing a light hammer strike, but the second go-round should have set things right, unless it's very light, i.e. tinkered with. Could be your hammer spring needs replacing. Colt used a coil spring on the King Cobra, rather than a leaf spring like the Python, or S&W K,L, and N-frames. Wolff Gunspring Co. has replacements, and if it were me, I'd go heavier than the factory rating to make sure you get the amount of force you need from the hammer. As far as nominal depth for primers, the one I grew up with is .006".;)
 
I had Blue Dot under 210gr JHC. I have used Winchester primer forever, but thought I would give the CCI Mag primers a try since I got them at a good price. I usually just use the WSP and never have any problems lighting things up. I will look into the spring issue, it may just be wear over the years, as I have used this gun a great deal with all sorts of loads.
 
Blue Dot is fairly easy ignited, so you could use about any primer you like. Most of the King Cobras I've fired have had good DA triggers, and if you primarily fire the revolver SA you can go to a heavier spring for reliable ignition, and without really affecting the quality of the DA trigger pull, anyway. I suspect you've had this gun a while and have some wear on the spring. The Wolff multi spring packs will have both trigger and hammer springs and you can compensate a bit. What I've done in the past to improve trigger quality on revolvers with this type of spring set-up is to use the Wolff trigger spring that is slightly lighter in weight than the factory spring, but I use a heavier hammer spring to make sure primer detonation is more reliable. your DA pull will stay about the same, maybe even improve, while the heavier hammer spring will also give you a faster lock time in SA; which will aid accuracy by decreasing the amount of time your sights have to stray from where they were at hammer release and where they are when the primer detonates and sends the bullet on its way.;)
 
Save yourself the agony

Hey I am willing to take one for the team so send me all your CCI primers so that you don't have anymore FTF or raised primers.


The things I am willing to do for my countrymen!:D
 
Correction

That was supposed to be 158gr bullet, not 210gr which is another which I have been using in .41M, both JHC.
 
I've used CCI primers almost exclusively for over 30 years with no problems in any gun. Witha 35% failure rate I'd look over your reloading practices and check your weapon as others have suggested.
 
Idano...I would send you my 15 year old "defective" CCI primers, but they are working sooo good I believe I'll keep them. At least until I use them up...You want the used and dented cups??:D

When will reloaders learn to SEAT their primers all the way down into the pocket???
 
I bought a 1K of CCI 300 had one FTF in the 50rnds I loaded for my S&W 696, I'm running my main spring tension on the light side which has worked well for WLP and Fed. 150 primers. I've been using the CCI primers for .45 acp and they have been working great :D
I did notice that more effort was required to seat the CCI primers and I ran my finger over the bottom of the shell cases to make sure they were set, after a while I got the feel for seating these stubborn primers.
Uniforming the primer pockets my help with seating issues, some brands of brass complicate the matter.
 
jibjab...I have never had to reform any of my primer pockets when using CCI primers in .45 ACP, 9mmX19, .38 Special, .357 magnum, .30-30 or .30-06.

I'm sure by now you have figured that that hammer spring seting was too light. Concidering that I own three S&W Mod 10s and one Mod 19 Combat Magnum and have not needed to lighten the hammer spring I have not had no misfires or failure to fire using CCI primers...
 
Bushmaster,

Yea send me your dented ones too, with the crazy price of metals these days :fire: I am saving my old primers and all the old brass to take in for scrap so I can buy more of those great CCI primers.:neener:
 
jibjab...I have never had to reform any of my primer pockets when using CCI primers in .45 ACP, 9mmX19, .38 Special, .357 magnum, .30-30 or .30-06.
Click to expand...
Me neither, I just threw out there. All my reloading stuff is old school and powered by "Armstrong" If it aint broke fix it till it is :D
 
Me neither, I just threw out there. All my reloading stuff is old school and powered by "Armstrong" If it aint broke fix it till it is
Click to expand...
Heh, I tried that on my first car, boy did that turn out bad :neener:.
 
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