Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Thoughts on primer failure

Bone head move on my part. I thought our lack of humidity was going to save me from trouble

I was trying to work up a load for the .264 win mag today, using 125 grain Nosler Partitions. I used some primers that I have had for likely a decade, but I keep my reloading stuff in my unheated garage (in NE Wyoming we have almost no humidity) and it appears to have done some damage. On over 50% of the rounds I had an empty click on the trigger pull. It would fire on the second try. The firing pin marks were strong and deep in the primer. They were CCI Large Rifle Magnum Primers. I assume they are damaged from being stored in an empty cooler in a garage? I thought the cooler would keep them relatively safe. For the last couple years I have reloaded ammo and bought clearance ammo and have kept it stored in the same garage. I am going to move it into the house now to avoid damage.

Any other reason or thoughts for the misfires?

I doubt that caused your misfires. Maybe they were not fully seated or contaminated.

I highly doubt that it was caused by humidity, since you say you have very little. I suspect flash holes plugged by media, or something like that. I've seen that before, from a buddy that loads. He had the same issues... When I popped the primers out, out came some media as well. There could be other possible causes, but I have a hard time believing it was because of storing in a garage. I've stored primers in my garage for well over 20 years and have had no issues..

First trigger pull left a strong indentation in the primer, but no ingnition. In all cases but 1, the second firing caused ignition. 1 round was fired 4 times with no ignition. I am going to pull the bullet. I did have several that fired on the first time as well.

I bet there’s a simple explanation. Double check everything. Good luck.

When I saw that happen (a long time ago) it turned out the FP assembly was dragging in a very dirty bolt interior. The FP indentation on the primer looked normal, but usually shooting the shell a second time ignited the primer.

I think you've got a bad lot or for whatever reason you're not aware of something that damaged the primers or maybe something else goofy going on. I have 20 thousand or so primers that are easily 10 years old stored in an unheated (though insulated) shop and have had zero issues when I do actually break into my stash.

I'm going to say to look else where. I am shooting primers that are at least 40 years old and have been stored in an unheated basement. No issues at all. The fact that they fired after a second attempt makes me think the primers aren't the problem. If the primers were compromised why would they fire at all???

I loaded some .308 ammo for a friend. I'm not sure if I used CCI, W/W or Fed primers. All my primers are a few years old, some pretty old as you just about can't buy primers. My stuff is stored in a climate controlled atmosphere.

I got this photo from my bud, his significant other was lined up on a nice 8 point this morning. CLICK, no BANG. 8 point walked.

Looks like a light strike to me. They're going to check which primer I used. The rifle is a Mauser 12 and shoots really well. I hate that happened, but we'll figure it out. I want to check to make sure the primer wasn't seated too deep, but usually that's not possible. I told him to shoot it again and see if it fired.

If this gun is going to be a light striker, then I'm thinking Fed primers may be a bit more sensitive than some others.

What do you guys think?

DF

That should have went bang DF.

Kinda think you right.

I’m anxious to see which primer I used. Data is on the box.

Will report.

DF

Pull the bullet, dump the powder and inspect the inside at the flash hole. If you can see the shiny primer, and the flash hole is clear, it was a faulty primer. That, however, rarely, happens. Have any of you guys seen where a guy sprays wd40 inside the primers and they still fire? He was trying to disprove the myth that oils from handling them causes misfires. I've used primers that I've popped out of WWII cases (from 1942), without any problems.

I'm not so sure. I think the strike is light.

I haven't seen that video but i've tried to drown a few CCI primers by sitting them submerged in WD40 for a few hours. Half of them still went bang okay. I think they use a sealer of some sort on them.

Agree.

First time I ever had this happen to me - box of Nosler factory ammo where by chance the first 2 rounds selected FTF. Other brands of factory ammo and my handloads went bang just fine.

On inspection Nosler said the ammo had been loaded 3 years prior and the primers were seated too deep resulting in light strikes.

That was a new one for me....

Brass head space issue? Have had die rings slip and introduced brass head space issues, under sized brass.

Mechanical issue Oakster and Dirt

Appears to me like a light strike. Also, with the experience I mentioned above, the primers that didn't ignite for a friend were Fed 210's. I know that Feds have a reputation for being more sensitive, but I'm not so sure......

I realize it's a fine line between a solid strike and piercing the primer, but I bet there was an equal chance the Nosler brass primer pocket was too deep. I had some some Nosler brass with deep primer pockets that would not ignite sometimes with WLR primers. Soon after I installed a Gre-Tan FP assembly in the 35 year old M700 and that solved the problem (I ultimately threw away the Noz brass because it was also very soft). Rifles that are left cocked sitting in the gun safe can eventually end up with a weaker FP spring. I believe our member Las had that problem in cold temps with a rifle of his.