Small pistol primers

[Zendude]

The primer has to be seated to the bottom of the primer pocket to work correctly. This is covered in every reloading manual.

Think about it like this, say you want to hammer a piece of metal thinner. Try doing it it two ways, one by holding it up in the air, and one where it is laying on an anvil. Which one will work better?

You have to crush the primer compound between the cup and the anvil (No, not the big one in your shop, the little three legged anvil in the primer cup.)

If the primer is fully seated you do not waste any energy by the primer moving deeper in the primer pocket. All the energy goes to crushing the primer compound quickly. It has to be a sharp blow, not a cushioned one. If the primer is moving in the pocket, it is cushioning the blow. This is also one reason some folks like to clean all primer pockets.

Seat it to the bottom of the primer pocket, and seat it very firmly. Error on the side of seating them hard.

That makes good sense. I appreciate all the info. My initial assumptions were all out of wack. That's why I love these forums.

 

[7mmb]

In the thousands of rounds I have loaded over the years I've only had one dud. It was a Remington 1 1/2 in 9mm. Neither of my nines could make it go boom. When I got home I pulled the bullet and powder and put it in my Blackhawk's 9mm cylinder and it had no luck too. I normally use CCI but with the shortages I had to get some Remingtons. Back on CCI now.

 

[Dr.Zubrato]

I've used cci for the longest time with no issues at all. Any word on s&b primers? I used maybe 50 last time I was out with no worries or problems, but was hoping someone here had more experience with them

 

[gamestalker]

Even though I know that primers are designed only to ignite when the compound is broken, I still can't bring myself to seat a primer that appears shallow without first pulling the bullet and powder. Better safe than sorry I always say, and especially so when it concerns this hobby.

That said, I've never had a mis fire in 30+ yrs. of reloading.

GS

 

[GLOOB]

Some primers are simply harder to ignite. Some guns are just weakly sprung.

I shot 1k CCI 400 SRP in a Glock without a single issue. Same gun would only pop 1 in 10 Tulammo SRP (they might have been 223 primers, specifically). I had a 0.1% failure rate with those primers in my rifle, too, so I quit buying them.

I have a revolver that won't fire Tulammo SPP, reliably. And I have had a 6-7 failures in a Glock, as well. I quit buying those, too. I gave them multiple chances in my Glocks, paying particular attention to my priming process. And the occasional failure still occurred. The last couple, in particular, I was highly confident were properly seated, and they both occurred in FC brass which I notice has deeper than normal primer pockets. I could blame the brass, but domestic primers have never failed in any of my brass, and I rather have a bigger margin for error.


I have nothing bad to say about Russian primers. Those particular ones just don't work for me. I still buy Tula/Wolf LPP if they're any cheaper.

 

[PO2Hammer]

I had some trouble with Tula SPPs, I wasn't getting them seated to the bottom of the pocket with my press mounted priming arm. I switched to the RCBS Ram Prime on top of the press for better feel & leverage and the problem went away.

 

[oldreloader]

Listen to bds, walkalong and rcmodel.

 

[Zendude]

Just a follow up... I made a batch of ammo using Federal Match Grade primers and had no misfires. I used match grade because those were the only Federal primers that the store had in stock. Very little price difference though. Anyway, most importantly, the saga had a happy ending.