Primer problem help! Glock 42 .380 CCI primers

[TheDomFather]

Ok so went to the range today to test my 100gr Berry loads using a CCU sm pistol primer. Multiple rounds would not ignite the primer. This is the first time I am shooting reloads through this gun. I took one bullet and put it back in the gun 3 times before it went off! I have heard a rumor that CCI is the hardest primer out there. I just loaded 30 test rounds of speer gold dots 90 gr with Remington 1 1/2 primers as I hear these are softer primers.

Any thoughts?

 

[Tony k]

Check the case length on the ones that didn't want to go. I had that issue with a few Winchester cases. They were way short and my firing pin would barely touch it.

Cases are supposed to be .675 to .680. The ones that wouldn't go off were .659 or something like that.

Most 380 cases run short in my limited experience.

 

[Blue68f100]

Normally if they go off on a second attempt the primers were not seated till they bottomed out. Primers need to be bottomed out in the pocket to pre-load the anvil. Federal is known to have the most sensitive primers.

 

[TheDomFather]

Check the case length on the ones that didn't want to go. I had that issue with a few Winchester cases. They were way short and my firing pin would barely touch it.

Cases are supposed to be .675 to .680. The ones that wouldn't go off were .659 or something like that.

Most 380 cases run short in my limited experience.

This was brand new starline brass, I will check it.

 

[Tony k]

This was brand new starline brass, I will check it.

I was thinking of range pick up brass.

Hopefully that's not the issue with new starline brass

 

[243winxb]

To much crimp? Head space is on the case mouth.

OAL to long, action not fully closed?

 

[LiveLife]

Normally if they go off on a second attempt the primers were not seated till they bottomed out. Primers need to be bottomed out in the pocket to pre-load the anvil.

+1. If primer fired on subsequent strikes, primer cup was not seated deep enough for the tip of the anvil to contact the priming compound.

Primers should be seated so they are at least flush and I prefer slightly below flush around .004".

To test the primer seating concern, I seated different primers (including CCI SR) from .004" to .008" below flush and they all went bang in my Glock. So feel free to seat those primers hard - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ts-your-experience.630512/page-4#post-7810685

 

[Lokichoki]

I stopped using CCI small pistol when they stopped being reliable in all my 380's (mostly the heavily fired ones) and have had no problem going to other brands, always check the firearms not to blame and clean and check primer strikes depth and seating depth first

 

[TheDomFather]

To much crimp? Head space is on the case mouth.

OAL to long, action not fully closed?

Definitely not action closed just fine.

 

[cfullgraf]

I'd vote for the primers not seated deep enough particularly if many go bang on the second hit.

I go back and forth between CCI and Winchester primers and have never had a primer issue with any of my several 380 ACP handguns including my Glock 42. They all have fired on the first try.

The Glock 42 has other issues with ammunition but if the ammunition gets in the chamber it fires. I hope it gets better with age.

 

[Lokichoki]

To just add in, I use CCI and Winchester primary due to availability in my brick and mortar. I had issue with cci's small pistol primers in my bersa and cw380 but not all the rest, I contacted CCI and they are meant to respond with seating depth is crucial, even then after cramming them in further than usual and every 25 rounds later lessen the depth by feel in a order to just root the problem out, I found the rate of FTF to be the same even when I did this three times over with this particular firearm (cw380 new springs working order etc) but no problems in a mustang and a rm380. But had no light strikes in Winchester, that's my experience take it as you wish, I have looked into this and it seems generally regarded as CCI having a less sensitive primer compared federal, then also there's speak of it only being with military primers so the online community is at odds I would like to hear a better opinion on this to clarify

 

[Captcurt]

Try Federal or Winchester. I had to go to a softer primer with my 7mm TCU in a Contender pistol. These two worked when CCI didn't.

 

[Walkalong]

I took one bullet and put it back in the gun 3 times before it went off!

The number one, by far, reason for primers not going off, especially if they fire on the second or third strike, is not being seated fully.

 

[mstreddy]

TheDom, though it may not be this issue, one thing that I would recommend on the G42 is to detail strip the slide assembly and give it a very good cleaning. My sample had a bunch of manufacturing crud in the firing pin channel and the extractor plunger area. I had some FTEjects and FTExtracts early on, and this deep cleaning helped out a lot with this.

 

[TheDomFather]

TheDom, though it may not be this issue, one thing that I would recommend on the G42 is to detail strip the slide assembly and give it a very good cleaning. My sample had a bunch of manufacturing crud in the firing pin channel and the extractor plunger area. I had some FTEjects and FTExtracts early on, and this deep cleaning helped out a lot with this.

I do a thorough strip of Glocks every 500 - 1000 thousand rounds. Nice thing about a glock is they make it easy to get the entire trigger assembly out so you can do this as well as the firing pin, extractor etc.. Its definitely clean and I just cleaned it again tonight.

I also just loaded up 30 rounds of Speer gold dot 90 gr and made sure every primer was fully seated.

My guess its one of two things:

Primers werent fully seated, I paid very close attention this time around.

CCI primers are very hard. I switched to Remington 1 1/2 sm pistol primers this time.

Now the reason I say CCI primers are hard are as follows: In my Glock 17 I have a pyramid trigger system from the glock store which came with a skeletonized striker, no matter what spring rate I tried with that striker I had 1 or 2 out of every 10 primers that wouldnt ignite. Range Officer said oh yeah those CCI primers will do that so switch to (cant remember if he said remington, Federal or Winchester. I dont have any Federal but I do have CCI, REM and WIN so let me do some more testing this coming weekend and I will let you guys know how it goes.

 

[Walkalong]

Yes, CCI are harder to set off, but I also believe the first ones were not seated fully (Easy to do).

Too much oil buildup in an XD striker channel can slow it up enough to cause misfires with properly seated primers. Dunno about Glock.

Usually the guns that have an issue with CCI SP primers are lightly sprung "match" revolvers. Glocks shouldn't suffer from that.

 

[rskent]

Any thoughts?

When my G42 started having light primer strikes I thought it was my reloads.

After I tried some factory rounds I realized that it was the gun. I ended up with a new striker assemble and firing pin safety.

 

[Rule3]

It can't be the gun, as Glocks are perfect.

Simple test, fire some factory ammo but I agree with the others, Primers NOT seated.

 

[berettaprofessor]

Definitely fire factory ammo. I use CCI primers on everything (don't know why, they're just the ones I was able to find when I started reloading during The Panic, and still are most available in this area). So if you're having trouble, it must be the seating.

Or the Glock. I don't own one and mostly fire Berettas in 380, so I don't have any experience with weak firing pins.

 

[LiveLife]

Yes, CCI are harder to set off, but I also believe the first ones were not seated fully (Easy to do).

Usually the guns that have an issue with CCI SP primers are lightly sprung "match" revolvers. Glocks shouldn't suffer from that.

+1

In the Tula SP primer thread where I experienced misfires due to harder primer cups, many did suggest weak striker spring as the culprit and I even took out the striker spring assembly and cleaned the bottom of striker channel to remove the fouling build up behind the breech face along with changing out the striker spring assembly with other Glocks even to include a brand new Glock - But results did not change and I continued to have misfires - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ts-your-experience.630512/page-4#post-7813451

Tula SP primer showed light primer strike with a brand new Glock - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ts-your-experience.630512/page-5#post-8075948

To rule out whether the light primer strikes were from weak spring, I tried different small rifle primers (as they are supposed to have harder cups than SP primer cups), even .223 SR primer which is supposed to have harder cups and they all fired and showed deep primer indents (With CCI 400 SR showing lightest primer indent) - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ts-your-experience.630512/page-3#post-7806985

In the end, it was evident that it was harder primer cup of Tula SP that was causing light primer strikes and not Glock striker spring as shown in comparison picture where Tula SP showed lighter primer indent than CCI 400 SR primer indent (In this case, CCI primer fired but Tula did not) - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ts-your-experience.630512/page-3#post-7807007

So seat those primers deep to set the anvil tip against priming compound and stop blaming weak Glock striker springs - But do keep the striker channel clean.