Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What would cause this type of FTF?

I have a DA/SA Sig P232 .380 that I load for. I'm having trouble with the last batch of ammo I loaded for it where about every 3rd or so round will not fire on the first trigger pull, but will always fire on the re-strike (2nd pull). Examining a round that fails to fire on the first pull usually shows a very faint firing pin indention. All the the rounds fit in a go/no-go gauge, though some of them I have to tap the gauge on the bench for them to fall back out. Bullets are 90 gr. Sig V-crown.

Any ideas what might be going on?

Maybe the primers aren't seated deep enough?

I'm about ready to say eff-it and go back to a danged revolver!

Either the round is not headspacing properly in the chamber. Maybe due to a bulge, or the primers have not been seated deep enough. Very small cases. Extra care is needed in handling. Magnifying glass, finger touch, extra light etc..

In American slang FTF is failure to feed.
You seem to have intermittent ignition failure. I would clean firing pin channel using airbrush cleaning brushes and replace firing pin spring and firing pin safety spring.

Easy check is to disassemble the gun and drop the rounds into the chamber. Short rounds that can’t be reached by the firing pin will fall past where the breach would be if they are the proper length.

First thing i would do is clean firing pin and hammer with a degreaser, something like Gun Scrubber.... and then test it...

There's places that TOO much lubricant is a bad thing....

I've cleaned the [bleep] out of it. And it is hammer-fired. And it only happens with my reloads, not factory ammo.

This was my thought, too.

What would cause short rounds, since the .380 round headspaces on the case mouth? None of the brass has been trimmed.

Yes.

Upon the initial firing new brass also usually shortens a bit.

Hornady ammo?

You could also be applying too much taper on the crimp, creating a short headspace condition.

Do you have the same problem with factory loads? If so, I would focus on the gun. If factory loads work well, it’s more likely something in your loading technique that’s causing the problem.

-cases too short and they’re going far enough into the chamber to keep the firing pin from reaching the primers. Were they trimmed?
-maybe having the seating die turned down far enough to slightly crimp the case mouths and again keeping the firing pin from reaching the primers.
-it could be that you have expanded or flared the case mouths too much and the flare is preventing the cases from fully chambering.
-some primers seated too deeply. Hold a straight edge across the case head so you have light reflecting off the primers to see if the primers look like they’re seated uniformly.

Mixed headstamp brass, obtained from a local range.

I thought brass typically lengthened after it was resized.

What brand of primers are you using?, and are you seatings them firmly.

Try a Lee carbide factory crimp die. If your loaded ammo is a bit over spec diameter wise it may not seat all the way and proved a cushioning effect the first, try to fire.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1011209519?pid=668253

It can, but the plug is expanding it again.

I would check overall length after sizing and expanding and make sure they are within spec.

Straight wall ammo tends to shorten when resized.

I would agree with a couple others above.

My first thought would be you’re putting too much taper crimp on so they go too far into the chamber. When I reload auto pistol ammo I taper crimp to a dimension across the case mouth for this reason.

The other place I’d look for problems is primer seating depth. It sounds like your first try is pushing the primer down to where it’s supposed to be so the second shot fires it.

CCI. I primed them on the press, which I usually don't do - usually hand-prime. So I'm thinking that's likely the issue.

I did use a FCD.

I'm not going to do anything until I fire some more and I will pick out the ones that don't fire on the first strike and do some measuring and see how they are different than the others.

If a primer fires on the 2nd attempt, the problem is that the primer is not seated deep enough.

OR

The firing pin channel needs cleaning.

But it is usually the primer seating. CCI has a harder cup than WSP - the WSP are easier to seat.

Do this, at least. Check all your loaded rounds' primers to see if any are not fully seated. If you can verify that they are, then you can eliminate that variable up front.

I'll tell you a quick fix, use Federal primers, you will cease having failure to fire problems.

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This ^^^
It's generally believed that CCI primers use a thicker cup and Federal uses a thinner cup.