Anyone Reloading With Servicios Aventuras Small Pistol Primers ? Your Results?

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gerrym526

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Powder Valley has these in stock, all other brands are out of stock. I've seen Youtube videos posted reviewing these primers. Some guys say they're great, others say they're a pain in the neck to reload (e.g. primers won't flip over in a hand priming tool or don't seat properly in brass have been some of the complaints. Others have said using them resulted in 1-5% FTF.

Has anyone used these recently, and what have been your results? I'd be purchasing them to reload primarily 9mm target ammo in 125gr and 147gr FMJ or plated round nose. I use a hand priming tool, and my brass is clean (although used), resized, and ready to go.

Thanks for the help guys.
Gerry
 
Just recently received 4k of their primers. No issues using them to prime assorted headstamp 9mm range pick-up brass. I'm using a Lee Auto Bench Prime tool and I primed probably 150 – 200 cases. All seated just fine.

I was curious about primer hardness also so I chambered a few empty (no powder & bullet) cases and they fired just fine. This week I’ll get to building a few hundred complete rounds and see how they do.
 
Just got some from another site. Will be loading them for .38 Special over the next few weeks. Hope all is well. The price and free shipping made it seem worth the chance.
 
Don_P said:
Just recently received 4k of their primers. No issues using them to prime assorted headstamp 9mm range pick-up brass. I'm using a Lee Auto Bench Prime tool and I primed probably 150 – 200 cases. All seated just fine.

I was curious about primer hardness also so I chambered a few empty (no powder & bullet) cases and they fired just fine. This week I’ll get to building a few hundred complete rounds and see how they do.
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I read on another forum that they frequently take multiple firing pin hits in striker-fired pistols. Speculation that they may be small rifle. I haven't been able to obtain any for my own testing.
 
I bought 1000 of these for $80 ($115.82 to my door) from Energetic Applications through Gunbroker. When I first received them, I loaded 30 rounds of .357 magnum for my stock S&W 686 just to try them out. At the range, all were good except one that required two strikes of the hammer to ignite. I've been reloading less than a year, but I've never had that happen before with CCI, Ginex or Fiocchi small pistol primers. I use a Dillon 550 press.

It was then that I started reading about the proper seating of primers...Hmm, I guess it's possible that I didn't seat that one all the way. Next time I use these I'll pay special attention to seating the primers.
 
My experience using the Aquila and Servicios Aventuras small pistol primers did not go well. Hand priming no problem. The issue was using them on a Hornady Progressive press. The Aguila do not seat properly, too high. The other ones seem to not operate the primer slide correctly. Too much bother to ever buy again for an AP press. Now I know why there available. Just my two cents. Too make sure it wasn’t the equipment setup I ran 100 CCI through it no problem. Anyone else run into problems?
 
Update: I used 50 more of these primers in .38 Special with mixed brass as before, but making sure each one was fully seated. All were below flush in the cases. At the range, there were 3 that took a second hammer strike to ignite. After the first strike on these, there was a surprisingly small dimple in the primer. Unfortunately, I didn't keep track of the brass involved with these failures. That is something I will certainly do next time - maybe there is some correlation...

There was one more that didn't ignite even after 7 or 8 hammer strikes! At home, I pulled the bullet, carefully removed the primer, set it on an anvil and put a center punch in the dimple. It finally ignited after a few taps with a ball peen hammer.
 
gerrym526 said:
Some guys say they're great, others say they're a pain in the neck to reload (e.g. primers won't flip over in a hand priming tool or don't seat properly in brass have been some of the complaints. Others have said using them resulted in 1-5% FTF.
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From my experience reloading, I would attribute these "problems" to be 95% operator error. I haven't fired any SA primers yet (it hasn't stopped raining here for at least 2 weeks straight) but I have seated about 100 in mixed brass, mixed calibers and had no problems easily seating to correct depth.

IMO, "below flush" measurements mean nothing. Primers should be seated all the way to the bottom of the primer pocket, no matter how much they are "below flush". As long as they are not protruding above the case head, all the way down is good. (not bragging but I have not had a FTF from poorly seated primers in maybe 30 years)...
 
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I have been through 4000 of these the last year and they have been great for range ammo in 9mm. I usually use cci 500 spp but decided to try these when cci was out of stock and I was saving my cci stash for sd ammo. They seem to seat just fine in my lee classic turret with safety prime and they flip over in the primer tray just like the cci. They do have about a 1% ftf rate on the ones I’ve tried but to be fair, that was with my ruger sr9c before upgrading the internals due to light strikes so probably about .75% ftf rate would be more like it. Never had any ftf in the px9 pcc. It chewed them up like candy but that is to be expected from a AR platform pcc. Chrono results show virtually the same velocities and sd/es #s as the cci spp so that’s a plus. If your removing military crimps from brass and trying to seat them, you might have problems but with the popular USA made brass( blazer, win,rp, etc) they are fine. When powder valley has there next free hazmat special, I’m ordering another 4000 for the future. If your pistol/ firearm is prone to light primer strikes, these might not be the primers for you but other than that the price is reasonable for these times.
 
Patience is a virtue.

After reading the reviews here and elsewhere, I just waited for some CCI's to become available... which they did. Components are already expensive, I'm not going to take a questionable component and crunch a bunch of rounds... hoping they work for me.
 
I have enough handgun primers to last me a few years (more with my reduced shooting?). I chose to buy SA primers to see if they are a viable substitute for my CCI and Winchester primers, just like I did during the obumma shortages when I bought a lot of Wolf primers. I hate running out of anything, from components to crackers or milk. I keep my eyes open for alternates for nearly everything and SA primers fill that niche quit well...
 
My revolvers ignite CCI, Winchester, and Federal primers 100% of the time on the first strike. SA primer ignition is less reliable with a few guns. Usually they go off in single action mode more reliably than in double action shooting. I enjoy SA primers for range practice, will never put them in my carry gun. No issues priming Starline brass on my Dillon 550. The guns are all older S&Ws with factory springs.
 
One ftf with my stock.357 revolver .38 Starline cases but also had a ftf with a Win primer. The Win primer had an anvil but no mixture. Just the one SA out of almost 2 bricks. They do not like to flip in my RCBS hand primer. Ok for range but would use name brand for SD. All primers seated as far in as they will go.
 
sparkyv said:
You can have my allotment, dannyd. Enjoy!
I picked up a brick of CCI SPP a couple of weeks ago from LGS for $79.80 + tax. What I really need is to stock up on LPP.
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I’m hoping by the time I need primers again they’ll be back to 1980’s prices, adjusted for inflation and the value of the dollar. If the TCoP hits $42/K ($15/K in mid-80’s) give or take a few pennies, then I’ll stock up. Mostly on large, though. I burn a lot more .30-30, .30-06, .35Rem and .44Mag than “The NATO MM’s”, 9 and 5.56.
 
I bought 2000 of these, so far loaded and shot 500 in various unmodified pistols and lever guns. They flipped and seated just fine using Lee Auto Bench Prime. So far no ftf on first strike and I’m not expecting any failures going forward. As long as these are priced lower than other offerings I’m going to keep using them.
 
sparkyv said:
You can have my allotment, dannyd. Enjoy!
I picked up a brick of CCI SPP a couple of weeks ago from LGS for $79.80 + tax. What I really need is to stock up on LPP.
Click to expand...

I use 12,000 primers a year, none of the foreign primers have failed me yet.

With 45 ACP switching to SP; LPP are going to be hard to find going forward.
 
I've used 700-800 SA primers so far...500-600 actually fired. Experiencing about a 2% FTF rate in revolvers fired DA. Less than a quarter of that rate in DA revolvers fired SA and SA revolvers. Can't remember any failure in semi-autos...all striker fired. Most failures went off on the second strike, though there were a couple that didn't go off at all.

Within reason, seating doesn't seem to make a difference. I decap and seat as a seperate step on an RCBS single stage. No problems getting them seated. Dimensionally they seem fine.

They're good for range ammo. This saves the domestic brands for more serious usage.
Bob
 
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The Overton Window principle suggests that it's not likely to reach 80's prices and not even likely to be close. I'm hoping for an eventual $60-65/K. Given today's prices and political/supply uncertainties, I'm content to slowly build safety stock at $80/K.
GeoDudeFlorida said:
I’m hoping by the time I need primers again they’ll be back to 1980’s prices, adjusted for inflation and the value of the dollar. If the TCoP hits $42/K ($15/K in mid-80’s) give or take a few pennies, then I’ll stock up.
Click to expand...




I read that as "total cost of product". Not sure if that's correct, but it makes contextual sense.
eddiememphis said:
What is TCoP?
Click to expand...
 
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