Was shooting at distance today when I got the audible "click". Waited a little bit, and ejected the shell. There was a visible dent in the primer, but it didn't go bang.CCI 200 primer, lapua brass. I have shot several thousand of them the last few years. Can't remember a dud in the past. Anyone else get duds with these primers? Not particularly worried about it, just wondering.

Of course, if anybody shoots often enough as we all do duds are to be expected. Now begins 10 pages of Campfire rhetoric on the why's, wherefores, and personal experiences therein.

Gnoahh: And the 10 pages of "personal experiences" is/will be, a good thing!
Right!
Atse: I have been handloading since I taught myself to do so 60+ years ago when I was 12.
I have probably reloaded Rifle 100,000 cartridges (I am often a high volume Varmint Hunter!) and I have never had a "failure to ignite" centerfire cartridge!
I use mostly Federal primers with a few Remingtons thrown in.
Next time you go to the range try that cartridge again - then take it home and carefully disassemble it to see if you can detect and semi-burnt indications of primer or powder or if in fact something was forgotten (powder?).
Its rare anymore when I hear of one of my friends/Hunting partners having a handload fail to fire/ignite.
In my experience good quality centerfire Rifle primers are VERY reliable.
Maybe it was just a "one of" light firing pin strikes?
Be careful and I hope you figure this one out.
Maybe even try that same cartridge in question in another Rifle of the same caliber to see if it ignites?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

And the condemnation of certain brands and the branding of those who use them as unfit to own firearms, as well as the elevation of other brands to the highest pedestals and those who use them to god-like status.

Not here on the Fire...

You gotta be kidding...

DF

I've had a couple of FTF's over the years and over many, many thousands of rounds loaded. Ain't no thing. Whether the odd dud gets through at the primer manufacturing facility or I got a bit of case lube on the primer, either way a 0.002-0.003% failure rate is pretty good.

atse,

The primer pockets on Lapua brass are sometimes deeper than other brass. Some primer tools may not seat the primer all the way down, resulting in a misfire.


Lefty

Kind of my thoughts. Unless it would have been on a coyote. Then I would have been border line suicidal. Would have kicked and fumed all the way to the truck.

I don't use a priming tool. I individually seat each one on the press. Upon examination of the cartridge before I threw it down the hill( last time on these brass) the primer was flush just like all the others. The pockets are a tad deeper than other brass.

You handle each primer with your fingers?

I have only had a few. I have picked up more than a few live rounds off the ground at the range that were FTF with a firing pin dent in the primer. I usually pull the bullets on these and most of the time I found the round devoid of powder.

I have had two significant issues with FTF's over the years. Both were cleared up by disassembling the bolt, cleaning it of filings, and reassembling. Both were inexpensive new rifles.

Yes

Seems like the primer would give it just enough oomph to get the bullet stuck in the barrel.

No, but that's my biggest fear when loading SD ammo, I know damn well they ALL have powder, even hand run them through the various weapons for funstion, the damn primer is the only 'what if' !

Back from my days shooting artillery, You did not have a dud, a dud is when the artillery warhead does not explode. What you had was a FTF or failure to fire. I've had both when firing the M20 75 mm Recoiless Rifle.

........Sigh.......Ya gotta send the scope back to Leupold......

I never had a hand load not fire the primer. I used to load about 300 rounds a week for me and my buddy.. I once had a box of federal 20 ga 3 in mag failed, 15 to fire

Never had a primer not pop. Had a few that folded under pressure.

I always had problems reading primers.

And I dealt with my first primer 60 years ago.

Hold into the bowl.

Have had a few FTF's over the decades, but remarkably few, whether with factory or handloaded ammo.

Once in a while a primer slips through production without any priming compound in it, or not enough to ignite the powder. (Believe it or not, priming compound is still spread by hand, at least in all the primer factories I've visited--which include some of the major American factories.) You can usually tell if this is the case if you decap the case and look at the primer with a magnifiying glass. (Walt Berger taught me that one a while back.) The anvil can also be faulty. But the vast majority of FTF's are due to excess headspace, or a firing pin spring that's not right.

Now to address something that used to be true, but isn't any longer, at least with all the major brands of American primers I know of. Handling primers with your fingers has zero effect, because years ago manufacturers started sealing the priming compound with a water and oil-impervious coatiing. In fact you can soak 'em in water or even oil for several days, rub off the oil, and they'll still go bang. So no, there's no danger of turning a modern primer into a "dud" by handling it with your fingers.

Never have had a FTF on a reload, have had a few with old military surplus ammo. Of course several with 22LR's. I wouldn't worry about it, unless it continues.

Ha! I'm using a SS 3x15 so no wories. ( yet)

John,

I'm glad you pointed that out. Early on when I'd have a rare FTF, I used to wonder if I had gotten a little case lube on the primer while handling it, but more recently I know that most, if not all, modern primers are sealed and in the one or two instances that I've had a FTF, it was either a faulty primer or something in my process had gone wrong.

Mistake ? maybe, You will never KNOW......unless you can find that round and disassemble it.
Maybe bad primer ?
Maybe NO powder ?
You'll never know unless...



In 45 yrs +/- of handloading I've had TWO ftfs.
My little son was watching me at the end of my load table and PICKED UP 2 primers in his sweaty hands.
I ran out of primers ON the table ??? I knew I counted them out. HE had them in his hand.
****** that was before 1986, 82,83,84, somewhere in there. ******

I marked those 2 rounds before I went shooting.
Those TWO rounds did not fire. I RE loaded with new primers.......BANG.

Jerry

There was powder, just no ignition.

O K

Jerry

After burning through several thousand rounds of 223 and 204 over the last couple of years, all loaded with Rem 7 1/2 primers, I had a FTF at the range a couple of weeks ago. I even rechambered it and tried to make it go bang.

Nothing

So I guess the question is, should I find a different primer? Or continue with the Rems? I would probably have use them with my fingers crossed hoping that there isn't another dud somewhere in the two cases I have on the shelf.

By the way, the sarcasm button is on.

👍

I’ve had a couple, didn’t put powder in the case.

I wondered if someone was going to point this out

I had a few FTF's with CCI 200's a few years back. 30-30 in 2 different guns, A 1977 Marlin 336 and a pre-64 Winchester 94. I disassembled them and they all had powder. Reassembled them with Federal 210 primers and the problem disappeared.

Maybe your bolt wasn't all the way closed and the energy required to sufficiently strike the primer just wasn't there. I've seen that happen.

Have broken down all the rounds that failed to fire in my rifles over the years. Found the powder missing in two that I can recall. Otherwise the primer did not go off, and all were retried before breaking them down. Some went off on the second try, and one on the third try. If they didn't fire in 3 tries, I gave up.

Have only had one FTF due to a lack of powder push the bullet into the throat of the rifle. That would depend considerably on the size of the case, and how firmly the bullet was seated (and possibly crimped) into the neck.

I have never experienced a primer pushing a bullet into the barrel. Nor do I know anyone personally that it has happened to. Just my experiences.

From time to time I will pick up a failure to fire at our range. If it is something that I shoot I will try it and find that most fire.

That being said I am very careful what I put in my guns. Most of what I find are unfired commercial loads. Handloads are either tossed or taken apart at home.

IIRC, I read an account where a guy soaked primers in WD-40, loaded them and they all went bang...

DF

I've had it happen with factory ammunition but never with hand loads.

Me too

I had several FTF issues with Remington factory ammo, some Magtech primers during the shortage and recently with some old manufactured CCI 250 primers I picked up at a gun show for $15. a thousand. Traced all issues to the primers or in the case of the Remington factory ammo poorly formed primer pockets.

I have had 2 in the past several years...both were CCI 200. I am thinking that when this batch is used up I may switch.

Same lot or different?

If there us a marginal firing pin or spring problem a miss fire is more likely with a CCI primer because they generally have thicker cups

A good friend dropped the hammer on a 35 Rem (Remington Factory Core Loc Round) in a Marlin and it went click.... on his nicest deer this year. Needless to say he has spent the fall and early winter going through the 10 pages worth of self doubts.... and what ifs.
Round still failed to fire at the range the next day. And the Buck is still walking but looks up a lot more now in pictures!

I've only ever had one primer fail to go bang in over 20 years. It's so rare I don't worry about it. I wouldn't fret over one misfire over hundreds or thousands of rounds either. However, if I was getting several from the same batch of primers I'd be a bit concerned. The recent Winchester primer issue from a couple of years ago has seen my buying CCI instead.

Same lot

I had a bunch of misfires with Win small pistol primers that were bought around '10-'11. I bought about 2k of them, they gave me fits. All from the same lot. Misfires in different guns and chamberings, so I knew it wasnt a gun problem. Called Olin, the basically told me too bad.

I havent bought a WSP since then, nothing but CCI's and no issues.

The 2 I have had misfire from CCI 200 were in 2 different guns, and 1 had just recently had a new spring put in the firing pin because it was striking lightly. I think it is a primer issue for me