First FTF

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Keith G

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6232CE8B-6AC4-4E34-9B85-49326C8B96B4.jpeg First 1800ish rounds went off without a hitch, then got a quiet “click.” Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, just kinda took me by surprise. Still pretty new to hand loading. I guess if something is going to go wrong, this is a pretty good one to happen, at least when you’re just putting holes in paper.

CCI small pistol primers.
 
I’ve only loaded 24,000+ rounds so far, but I’ve only had one dud primer that wouldn’t fire when restruck. It was well dimpled from a normal firing pin strike. I took that round home and broke it down and s-l-o-w-l-y decapped it to find that the primer had no anvil. It was a CCI primer, one out of 23,000 of those that I’ve loaded. It happens.
 
ArchAngelCD said:
Take the round apart and try to see what went wrong. I would really like to know since bad primers are extremely rare. I can't remember ever having a bad primer that I bought.
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I had one, although I think it was good when I bought it. I made a round (actually a batch), pulled them with impact puller for some reason, made that primed brass into another batch of rounds, pulled down one or more of those with impact puller again, loaded same primer/brass combo for third time... would not ignite. Pulled down round (for 4th time!) and discovered that the priming compound had apparently dislodged, along with the primer paper/sealant, under the repeated impact puller hits. These were revo' rounds with a decent crimp on them, so I was having to whack them pretty hard.

I concluded that my somewhat abusive build-pull-re-build-pull-re-build treatment of the primer had finally caused it to fail.
 
I have no idea beyond the fact that the primer didn’t ignite. I’ve never taken a cartridge apart, and honestly wouldn’t know what went wrong even if I could inspect the primer.
 
Keith G said:
I’ve never taken a cartridge apart, and honestly wouldn’t know what went wrong even if I could inspect the primer.
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Oh, you might be able to tell what went wrong if you take the cartridge apart Keith. I've been handloading since the late '70s, and had my first "misfire" (a .38 Special) after an obviously good primer strike just a couple of years ago. I might have even posted about it here on THR - I don't remember.
Anyway, when I pulled the bullet, it was quite apparent to me what went wrong. The base of the bullet was burned black. I have no idea how I did it, but I had obviously forgotten to put powder in the case.:oops: The primer went off, and because I had a good roll crimp, the bullet never left the case. Because I wear good hearing protection I just assumed I'd had a misfire.
Now don't get me wrong, I had a few genuine misfires back in the day. But I learned they were caused by, as a new handloader, I didn't seat the primers clear to the bottoms of the primer pockets. Those rounds (.270 Win) would usually fire on a second strike. In your case, you said you tried again and it still didn't fire, so the primer not being seated all the way is probably not what went wrong.
Anyway, once you get the cartridge apart, it would be easy to see if the primer is missing its anvil. I've never seen that, but I guess it happens:
higgite said:
I took that round home and broke it down and s-l-o-w-l-y decapped it to find that the primer had no anvil.
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If you're reloading, you need an impact puller anyway. Take this one apart, figure out the root cause of the problem, learn something, and share your learning.

If you please.
 
62290EF1-BB39-46F8-944A-45AD07DAF11D.jpeg Alright, pulled the bullet and de-primed it and it appears that like .308 Norma mentioned above, the primer did actually go off, but I failed to charge the round and my roll crimp held the bullet in place. Guess I learned a couple of things today. My roll crimp is good and my hearing protection is much better than I thought it was since I just use plugs, and failures to charge happen.
 
ATLDave said:
There you go.

Next step: Figure out how you missed a charge and what you might do differently in the future to avoid a repeat.
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I believe I’ve already sorted that out. My LCT press wasn’t indexing properly due to me ovaling out the little black plastic indexer during my learning curve, so I was constantly having to fiddle with it and it was throwing me off. It’s since been fixed.
 
You need to use more care, my friend. No charge in one case is exactly how you end up with a double charge in the next case.

This is a warning for you to change the lighting, seating position, press height, and/or something else so that you can see inside each case before you place the bullet.
.
 
I use a Hornady powder check die when making revolver cartridges. It’s not easy to see a small powder charge in a tall case on a progressive or turret press.
 
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