Pitting on breech face. Cause? (Photo added)

[andyo5]

On my .45 autos, I see a ring pattern of pitting around the firing pin hole. The diameter of the pitting pattern makes me think it is from leaking primers.

I shoot mostly reloads, and my cases have been reloaded extensively. There are no visible signs of primer leakage such as powder stains around the primer or loose primers.

Is this unusual?

[BruceM]

Leaking primer pockets IF they are very worn & loose. The brass must be pretty old if .45 ACP is leaking. I've seen it more on magnum revolvers.

Bruce

[Dot_mdb]

I have the same situation on a Glock 23. I sent the slide back to Glock and they said it was an ammo problem having to do with the primers. I don't reload ammo for the gun and all ammo fired through it was Blazer or Gold Dots. Glock said that my slide was safe to use.

Bill

[andyo5]

Originally Posted by Dot_mdb

I have the same situation on a Glock 23. I sent the slide back to Glock and they said it was an ammo problem having to do with the primers. I don't reload ammo for the gun and all ammo fired through it was Blazer or Gold Dots. Glock said that my slide was safe to use.

Bill

Thanks, Dot. At the moment I am trying to determine whether this is a common phenomenon or something due to my reloads. Maybe I should post this question in the reloading section.

[Stevie]

Seems to be a common feature on guns thats been shot a lot

[Cyrano]

It is a common feature and is caused by gas leaking back between the primer and the primer pocket before the primer has had a chance to expand and create a seal. I've seen it on lots of handguns and rifles, those that have been shot with handloads and those shot with factory. it's not a problem.

[4864]

Normal wear from shooting.

[andyo5]

Originally Posted by Cyrano

It is a common feature and is caused by gas leaking back between the primer and the primer pocket before the primer has had a chance to expand and create a seal. I've seen it on lots of handguns and rifles, those that have been shot with handloads and those shot with factory. it's not a problem.

Interestingly, none of my revolvers show this wear. Only my semi-autos. And I reload for both types. Some of my .357 revolver loads are pretty stiff, yet no breech face wear.

[Jhp147]

Were these, by chance, old Remington primers? A friend of mine had some bad pitting on an M&P9 with old Remingtons. He called Remington and found out there had been a recall on the primers due to the leakage-I think something to do with the shape of the anvil. The primers were OLD, though, as in 1990s, and he damage was more extensive.

[andyo5]

Originally Posted by Jhp147

Were these, by chance, old Remington primers? A friend of mine had some bad pitting on an M&P9 with old Remingtons. He called Remington and found out there had been a recall on the primers due to the leakage-I think something to do with the shape of the anvil. The primers were OLD, though, as in 1990s, and he damage was more extensive.

They are Winchester large pistol (WLP) primers and are not very old.
Thanks.

[sheriffoconee]

normal wear....
shoot it, you won't wear it out

[Texas Roots]

I had the same problem with both a Model 19-4 and a Model 27-2. I traced it to a primer seating problem with the old hand-held primer seating tool I was using.

The ram was a little too short, causing primers not to be seated firmly. In other words, as I would seat a primer in the case, the short ram was a little short so that the primer would not go into the primer hole as far as it needed to....it would go in and stop just short of bottoming out.

Thus, upon firing even mild handloads, the gas would leak by between the primer and the case causing the small pok marks or burn holes.

When I replaced the old tool, my problems went away.