38 spl duds?

[jsmith357]

I loaded about 1000 38 spl in mixed brass - 148 gr DEWC with 3.5 gr BE using WSP primers....well about 1 of 20 fails to fire, primer is dented but nothing...first thought was too light hammer spring, but this is happening in all revolvers and Marlin 1894C....the ones that do not fire - never fire with multiple hits from any gun...

Hate to think I have a 1000 rounds with 50 random duds mixed in?

Thoughts

 

[Nevada Ed]

If the primer is struck with a normal pin pressure and seated correctly it will go off..................if the primer is good.

Light strikes, not seated all the way and contaminated primers may not fire on the first strike. Maybe on the second.

With FTF in three weapons I would go with a bad lot of primers..................

 

[max]

Possibly the primers are not seated deep enough. Will they fire on the 2nd strike?

 

[jsmith357]

will not fire on 2nd third fourth....hit - even when tried in different guns

 

[growr]

pull the bullets and see if they have a powder charge......if so, something is amiss to have that many misfires...

Randy

 

[venomballistics]

and they are wadcutter loads.
meaning you have a handful of rounds you can't simply return to a press with a set of vice grips to grab the nose so as to use the down stroke for quick and practical disassembly

 

[moxie]

Not seated deep enough is my guess. What procedure are you using? I recommend using a hand priming tool. Primers should be seated a tad BELOW flush. With a hand priming tool you can feel them bottoming out. You'll never have a dud.

 

[rwsmith]

Is there any chance......

...... any chance of getting with the primer manufacturer?

 

[rwsmith]

It wouldn't hurt at all....

Not seated deep enough is my guess. What procedure are you using? I recommend using a hand priming tool. Primers should be seated a tad BELOW flush. With a hand priming tool you can feel them bottoming out. You'll never have a dud.

+1 It will be easy to put them in a priming tool and 'feel' where the primers are and whether they need to seat better, then try shooting another batch.

 

[jsmith357]

Thanks everyone - I only use a hand priming tool for the reasons listed I will see if I can pull bullets and check primer depth....looks like bad primers though

 

[Alk8944]

The two most likely situations are you somehow contaminated the primers or there is no charge in the case and the primers fired just fine and there wasn't anything to light. If you don't have an inertia bullet puller then buy one and pull down the ones that didn't fire.

Insufficiently seated primers is a popular subject when it comes to mis-fires, but if they are seated deep enough that the cylinder will turn this isn't likely the cause, especially if they are only a few thousandths too shallow. In well over 50 years of reloading I have never had a mis-fire from any of my reloads that I couldn't discern the cause for, and it has never been primer seating! I also have never experienced a bad primer in over 1,000,000 rounds, except for the few that hav become contaminated, and those I knew why and they were my fault! To have a 5% failure rate you are doing something wrong.

 

[scooter123]

If they won't fire on the second or third strike it's a near certainty that you have some dud primers. It can happen but it's not typically as frequent as you're experiencing. So far for me my rate for dud primers is about 1 in 4000. Makes me suspect either a bad lot of primers or the box you are working from was mis-handled at some point. If there is any staining on that box of primers it's an indication that it was mis-handled at some point.

Since these are full wadcutters I only see two options. One is to use an inertial bullet puller to break them down. A rather horrible task to take on considering that you have 1000 rounds assembled. The second option is to use up this ammunition while paying close attention to the potential for a squib. This means that you dedicate this lot of ammunition to slow fire target shooting and use enough targets to insure you can observe every single hit. You also stop immediately any time the recoil feels a bit light and check to make sure the barrel isn't obstructed.

 

[jsmith357]

So I knock 5 cartridges apart - all had powder, I reseat them - all appear bottomed out - tried to fire them again in the Marlin rifle, Ruger SP101, and S&W 637 - none fired on multiple tries - so its the primers or I contaminated them.

To earlier request primers are Winchester Small Pistol Primers

Thanks to all

 

[gwpercle]

From your discription it certianly seems faulty primers are the problem. the reason for other explanations is new fresh primers are usually reliable. I have even used primer 10 to 20 years old and had them all fire. Did you buy the primers at a gun show or from an individual ? Improper storage, handling , old or cheap primers repackaged in new boxes and sold as factory fresh brand-named has been known to happen. If purchased from a dealer , bring them back...you are having way to many failures. Something is not right here.

 

[chief38]

While I can also say I have NEVER had a dud from a reloaded round, one of my friends just had 7 duds from a box (20 rounds) of .35 Remington caliber bullets that were Remington Factory loads! I pulled a few apart and there was NO Primer material in the primer therefore causing duds. 7 out of 20 is 35% ! Could be bad primers...... which brand were they?

 

[Old TexMex]

I hear the "it's your fault" guys again...
. My case, the primers I bought turned out to be a bad batch. The LGS had returns from three other reloaders. It CAN happen. Sellier and bellot small pistol primers. (Only five years old).
I asked what was wrong with them, the counter man said"I dunno, we're just replacing them, here's yours."

 

[jepp2]

If the primer has priming compound in it and it goes off, even without powder in the case it will eject the bullet into the barrel with 38 Special. Just one of many causes of a "squib".

In your case, the primers are not going off even with multiple strikes, it does sound like bad primers. Age, storage conditions, etc?

 

[chief38]

I have only used either Federal, Remington, Winchester and CCI Primers and have never tried any of the foreign brands. Never had any issues in 30+ years of reloading.

 

[jwalts27]

my LGS had a bad batch of Remington primers last year. I would say 1 out of every 5 FTF on me and several other reloaders. They just exchanged them for us.

 

[rwsmith]

Primers fired?????

The primers fired and the OP didn't hear them and didn't produce a squib? That doesn't sound likely.