What are the chances of a bad batch of primers?

ironpony · Nov 3, 2014

Last night I had 8 out of 12 primers not ignite.
CCI small rifle loaded from fresh box, untouched by human hands, good firing pin marks, ran 20 rnds factory loaded Rem to check and those were flawless. I have about 30 more from the same session of reloading for more testing when I get home. New Spikes NB BCG. I know I have ran about 3K of these this summer with no problems and this seems unusual to me so is this possible or unusual?

eightshot627 · Nov 3, 2014

I had a bad batch of Remington once that I bought during one of the primer shortages. But the next time I thought I had a problem it turned out my new fancy priming tool wasn't fully seating them. 8 out of 12 I would check primer seating.

Good Luck!
Walt

Sticky · Nov 3, 2014

Not likely.. check to be sure they are properly seated. Run you finger over the base and the primers should be a few thousandths BELOW the face of the base, you should feel that just be running a finger over them. If not, the primers need to be seated deeper into the primer pocket.

The firing pin will dent a primer cup, but if the anvil is not in contact with the base of the primer hole in the case, it sometimes will not ignite (ask me how I know.. lol)

John from MD · Nov 3, 2014

Not likely these days. If you are swaging out the primer crimps, you may not going far enough allowing the primer to be set a little high in the pocket. When this happens, the primer will be indented but all the firing pin does is move it forward in the pocket and not set it off.

A couple more possibilities:

You have debris keeping your primer arm from pushing the primer all the way into the primer.

There is a piece of cleaning media blocking your flash hole.

Regards,

John

outrider58 · Nov 3, 2014

ironpony said:
Last night I had 8 out of 12 primers not ignite.
CCI small rifle loaded from fresh box, untouched by human hands, good firing pin marks, ran 20 rnds factory loaded Rem to check and those were flawless. I have about 30 more from the same session of reloading for more testing when I get home. New Spikes NB BCG. I know I have ran about 3K of these this summer with no problems and this seems unusual to me so is this possible or unusual?

Same lot?

DaemonAssassin · Nov 3, 2014

ironpony said:
Last night I had 8 out of 12 primers not ignite.
CCI small rifle loaded from fresh box, untouched by human hands, good firing pin marks, ran 20 rnds factory loaded Rem to check and those were flawless. I have about 30 more from the same session of reloading for more testing when I get home. New Spikes NB BCG. I know I have ran about 3K of these this summer with no problems and this seems unusual to me so is this possible or unusual?

Oil/case lube in any form will kill a primer and render it useless. Make sure you didn't get any case lube/oil inside the case.

j8064 · Nov 3, 2014

Once in a while we all get a bad primer that won't ignite. But an entire batch of bad primers would be very strange. If that was the case you'd think CCI would already be aware.

I agree with what's been said: either the primers were not seated fully/correctly or they were somehow contaminated during the reloading process.

As a test, you could smack a primer from the batch with a hammer and see if it goes bang? :innocent0

ihriec · Nov 3, 2014

Been reloading for quite some time now and haven't had any bad primers.

Traveler · Nov 3, 2014

Make sure you have eye and ear protection on if you decide to bang it with a hammer.

ironpony · Nov 4, 2014

Traveler said:
Make sure you have eye and ear protection on if you decide to bang it with a hammer.

Lol, that was my first thought.

Actually finding in 16 out of the 30 I have left the primers are not fully seated. My bad. Lee turret press if anyone is curious.
Thanks all.

Gunner220 · Nov 10, 2014

Did you give any of your misfires another strike? What were you shooting them through and caliber might help.

If I missed any of the above you have my apologies.

fnfalsar48 · Nov 10, 2014

I have a batch of bad Winchester large pistol primers. So it does happen.

John from MD · Nov 10, 2014

fnfalsar48 said:
I have a batch of bad Winchester large pistol primers. So it does happen.

If you send them back to Winchester, they will replace them. You might also ask for an extra box or two to offset shipping.

John

fnfalsar48 · Nov 10, 2014

John from MD said:
If you send them back to Winchester, they will replace them. You might also ask for an extra box or two to offset shipping.

John

I filed an incident report, sent samples back to them and waiting for an answer.

noahhh · Nov 11, 2014

I'll bet with increased demands on production of late, QC mistakes may be a tad bit more common with stuff like primers and RF ammo.

Sticky · Nov 11, 2014

Gunner220 said:
Did you give any of your misfires another strike? What were you shooting them through and caliber might help.

If I missed any of the above you have my apologies.

I have successfully lit rounds with a second or third strike on a not fully seated primer. I suspect that eventually I drive it in enough to make the anvil strike the charge, but it's a pia to go through, so I am much more conscious of checking every primer a couple times through the loading process when using reworked milsurp brass for the first time .. lol

lmorrison17 · Nov 25, 2014

I got a bad batch of Wolf SRM's I bought back in '08. I have 4 actions that wont set them off reliably I hangfires and misfires. Iwent through all the " you gotta seat em hard crap"
tried everything.The primers are bad.

Not_an_outlaw · Nov 25, 2014

I am having difficulty with my batch of CCI 400s. They are not seating flush with the bottom of the case. They extent to a point at which I am going to mark them as seconds and expend them in a very controlled environment in case of a slam fire. My Winchester primers are fine. Not sure what the issue is here!?

ironpony · Nov 26, 2014

Finding that out of 100, 10 did not leave the barrel. 1 squibb, 2 primers lit off but no powder, I am guessing the primer alone will not push a 208 gr. pill far as they were hard to eject/pull out of the chamber once I noticed they did not launch and seemed to be original OAL. the other (7) had powder and I did double strike/attempt to shoot each. I may have contaminated the primers somehow or just bad ???

Now I am having trouble with the Lee Classic turret auto disc sticking. the post has a single guide that rides between two guides (1/2" long 1/16" high x 1/16" wide) and they are soft enough to scar and cause friction and jams to allow the disc to go fully under the powder chute. So maybe a few partial charges? I have lubed this thing since original assembly, maybe 5K + rounds through it now. and have turned it 180 utilizing the same guides on opposite side. I might ask Lee for a solution as I can see the metal damage.
No complaints though, learning the hard way is good as long as they are not double charges

.
I've been too busy to load lately but did find 5744, 296, HS-6, and Trail Boss at a Raleigh NC gun show. Yes some other handgun powders as well! FYI
Thanks all.

Oh, 300 blackout, Spikes upper w/10.5" LW barrel, Suppressed.

Pinecone · Nov 26, 2014

ironpony said:
but did find 5744, 296, HS-6, and Trail Boss at a Raleigh NC gun show. Yes some other handgun powders as well! FYI

WOW, great find.

What are the chances of a bad batch of primers?

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