So sayeth T.O. 11A-1-20 that I quoted above:
"WARNING Electric primers may be caused to function by shock. Avoid rough handling." News flash, eh?
Of course, I know a coupla people who *tried* to light off electric-primed Vulcan rounds in guns with percussion firing systems. One was a rechambered Lahti M/39 (so you know it had a heckuva firing pin spring). All that happened was a loud "click" as the firing pin dented the primer...
At the end of the chapter:
"Particular precautions must be taken with 20-MM cartridges containing electric primers as outlined in AFM 127-100."
Now, I would be extremely interested in purchasing even a photocopy of that AFM 127-100 manual if anybody can find one.
I didn't say that it *couldn't* happen, I just said it was a remote possibility. Again, does anybody have any *direct evidence* that an electric primer has ever been accidentally set off by static?
Oh, and lookee here! :
"Primer, Electric M52A3: This primer consists of a small electrical element assembly used with 20mm ammunition in aircraft guns M24A1. It consists of a brass cup with a hole in the cupped end into which is assembled a brass button separated from the cup by a vinylite insulator, [...] . The insulator is red in color."
So much for "red ring means percussion primer". Before anybody gets wise and says "Yeah, but they're talking about Hispano cannon," the same primers were used in Vulcan that were developed in Hispano and .60 Cal. See below:
With regard to Vulcan ammo:
"Electric primer M52A3, which differs from M52A3B1 in the primer charge, may be found in cartridges of earlier manufacture. The insulator of primer M55A2 is colored black, while that of the M52A3B1 is red."
And of course most of the recent stuff has the aforementioned blue insulator.
So the plot thickens: there are three colors of primer insulators used in US 20mm electrically-primed ammo alone, used solely to delineate between advances in the primer design.
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