I ran through my first 100 handloads today. Unfortunately, I ended with a 25% FTF rate. I am fairly sure that it is due to light primer strikes. I attached a picture of a factory load that fired from my pistol and one of my handloads that failed. My question is how to determine the cause. I am shooting them from a Glock 19, with a lightened firing pin spring to reduce trigger pull. I don't believe that is the cause, because since replacing the factory spring I have had 0 FTF's on factory ammo. The OAL on the rounds I handloaded were 1.135". Could that attribute to the cause? And lastly the primers I used are TulAmmo KVB-9 Small Pistol Primers. Any help would be appreciated.

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Striker fired pistols tend to be problematic with some of the harder primers, and this with the factory springs. I don't know anything about Tula primers, but this may be part of your problem. I don't see your OAL as being involved here.

At least as likely is that the primers in your handloads are not adequately seated. Correct seating of the anvil against the primer pocket is critical to positive ignition. Properly seated primers should be a few thousandths of an inch below flush. I use an RCBS hand priming tool and it allows me to feel very plainly when the primer is seated. It is much harder for bench-mounted tools to give you that degree of sensitivity.

Primers that are improperly seated to the extent that they are above the level of the case head pose the real danger of an out of battery discharge. This happens mostly in semi-auto guns when the primer fires from striking the breech face at some point before the action is closed. This is a gun wrecker at best and also can result in injury.

An acquaintance of mine many years ago had this happen with his H&K 91 .308. A buddy of his was shooting the rifle and my friend was standing to the right. The case blew fragments from the open breech and one struck him in the midsection, penetrating to his spleen. The jagged piece (saved by the surgeon in a little bottle of alcohol) was about the size of the end of your little finger. After a hospital stay of a few days and having to contend with a colostomy appliance for about 3 months, my bud was as good as new. We examined some of the unfired rounds and the high primer was as plain as day.....he was careless and paid for it.

When seating primers, I routinely check them visually and run the tip of my finger across the case head. After a while you develop a good feel for a properly seated primer.

I think in your situation I would first check the primers to see that they are seated well. If so, I would then put the factory spring back in and try that. Hope you are able to get it sorted out.

As cjw3 already said, make sure them suckers are seated properly! If they aren't, when the firing pin hits the "high" primer, the primer gives a bit causing the strike to act as if it was light. Make sense? Its like trying to drive a nail into a board you hold in your hand. You hit it hard, but because the board isn't against something solid, the nail doesn't get driven into he board. Put the same board on a hard ground, the hammer effectivly transfers its energy to the nail driving it in.

Make sure you feel those primers "bottom out."

I've seen people mentioning FTFs even with factory TulAmmo ammunition, so I guess hard primer cap plus reduced spring lead to those failures. How does your glock like factory Tula ammo ?

The indentations on your primers appear to be very light strikes. You can have a reliable gun or you can have a light trigger, you can't have both. Find the happy medium and stick with it. If you can't control a 4 lb. trigger pull get a hand exerciser to strengthen up your trigger finger. Light triggers belong on rifles, not on handguns that you may be pulling from a holster.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Make sure you seat your primer, put the stock spring back in and check for crud build up in the firing pin channel, try switching to federal primers as they are the most sensitive and a lot of competitive use them when using light springs. What brand were those?

Did you attempt to fire any of these a second time. If the primers weren't seated properly, the firing pin likely seated them fully, and they'd probably fire if you try again. If not, I'd guess your spring is too light.

I had an opposite problem. To prevent the primer from flowing into the firing pin on my 686 with heavy loads, I switched from CCI (softer) to Winchester (harder) primers.

I remember making 9 rounds the first time I loaded my own, 3 each of 3 different powder charges. I'm always a bit surprised - and sad - when I hear about large first lot sizes, especially when there are problems.

Light pin springs are great for target practice and federal primers................

What gun do you use for SD, when your life is on the line ??

Do the handmade rounds have enough of the case mouth showing to properly headspace the ammo? If the mouth crimp is rolled in too far the ammo can slip forward and cause light primer strikes and some other problems.

I agree with most of the others, that you probably didn't seat the primers deeply enough. I found that Tula
and Wolf primers are quite hard and seem a little oversized, meaning you have to pay particular attention
when seating. If it is just seating depth, these rounds will usually detonate with a second strike.

Judging by the hole, I'd say you're using semi-wadcutters. Most people take their reloads outdoors before firing.

I had the same trouble with CCI in a 38 special. When I took it apart I found a lot of powder and dirt build up in the hammer drop in the frame. Re clean that area totally clean and it took care of the trouble. It looks like the firing pin was not able to strike the primer hard enough. As I can remember that area never got cleaned like it should be. I have not seen this brought up.

So how was the flinch????

Use better primers.

This thread brings back old memories...

I have a spring that needed to be tightened up on one of my revolvers..........
Just that I can't remember which one but it did improve things !!

If you trust yourself to drop a side plate it is well worth it......
never know what you will find. Popping the stock is no big thing.

A little love goes a long way.

I've loaded thousands of Tula primers, both LP and SP, and they will go bang...if you have them seated. The cup they use is a little stouter than most American brand primers and can take some force to seat.
A CZ 75B I had with Cajun springs and light firing pin never failed to ignite them.

My first batch of reloads was 18 rounds, 6 each of 3 different charges. All fired fine and I settled on the middle charge. I always load very middle of the road. Make sure the primers are sated right but also ditch the lighter spring. You want a solid hit on that primer.

That's his rifle cartridge straightener...

A seated primer is recessed into the pocket a few thousandths of an inch. Beside firing more reliably it also prevents interference when the primers hit what they shouldn't and even go off unexpectedly for the same reason. Slam fire is a one possibility. I learned about high primers after trying to close my revolver with my reloads.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"