Primer Piercing

[jonnyc]

Shooting my "new" Chinese T54 Tokarev. First 100 rounds or so, mixed ammo, no pierced primers. Just shot about 40 Romanian rounds and most got pierced. It's a bitch to clean the firing pin channel every outing. What's the solution?

 

[rockstar.esq]

I'm afraid that handloading is likely your only solution. There are two main reasons for primer piercing. The first and way more likely is that the ammunition is loaded hotter than it should be. The combination of high pressures and thin primer's make for a bad deal. The second reason would be firing pin protrusion. Since you're not getting this problem with all the ammo you're shooting, this seems unlikely. So handloading the ammo with harder primers and lower pressures will likely fix the problem.

 

[SDC]

You could also check the condition of your installed firing-pin; it's likely that escaping gas from previous pierced primers has made it sharp/small enough that it'll CONTINUE to pierce primers.

 

[jonnyc]

I'll check the pin condition and try some other ammo brands.
Thanks.