Hard primer or light strike?

[71velle]

While shooting my Shield 9 today I pulled the trigger and click, no bang. The ejected shell had a hit on the primer but the dent was not as deep as the other fired cases. I loaded the shell back into the gun and it fired. The ammo was PMC bronze. i have 400-500 rounds through the gun and this is the only time it happened.

Should I chalk this up to a hard primer or the a light strike caused by the gun? Is this unusual?

 

[colt_saa]

Dirty gun?

Dirty Chamber?

Firearm slightly out of battery?

Primer not fully seated?

One unrepeatable incident is a non-issue. If it does it again, look more closely at the firearm or have a gun smith check it out

 

[mikld]

1 out of 500? And it fired on second hit? First thing I would consider was a slightly "High" primer. One hit to completely seat it and another hit to fire. If the gun continued shooting after the misfire, I wouldn't worry about it...

 

[scooter123]

PMC is a budget ammo and I would be inclined to agree with mikid. That is that you had a high primer.

As for that "light" hit, there is a lot that goes on during the ignition process you may not be aware of.

Step 1) The firing pin is driven forward and drive the primer cup into the anvil within the primer cup.

Step 2). The primer ignites and sends a jet of flame through the flash hole in the case. As part of this process the captured pressure within the primer cavity caused the primer cup to back out of the case while the firing pin is still extended. Note, this happens so quickly that the firing pin does not have enough time to retract.

Step 3) The powder charge within the case ignites, pressure builds, and the bullet is sent down the barrel. At the same time the case is driven back against the breech face, driving the primer cup back into the case. BTW, the firing pin is still extended somewhat at this point.

The bottomline is this, a normal firing pin strike will ALWAYS look light on a case that didn't fire when compared to a fired case.

 

[71velle]

PMC is a budget ammo and I would be inclined to agree with mikid. That is that you had a high primer.

As for that "light" hit, there is a lot that goes on during the ignition process you may not be aware of.

Step 1) The firing pin is driven forward and drive the primer cup into the anvil within the primer cup.

Step 2). The primer ignites and sends a jet of flame through the flash hole in the case. As part of this process the captured pressure within the primer cavity caused the primer cup to back out of the case while the firing pin is still extended. Note, this happens so quickly that the firing pin does not have enough time to retract.

Step 3) The powder charge within the case ignites, pressure builds, and the bullet is sent down the barrel. At the same time the case is driven back against the breech face, driving the primer cup back into the case. BTW, the firing pin is still extended somewhat at this point.

The bottomline is this, a normal firing pin strike will ALWAYS look light on a case that didn't fire when compared to a fired case.

Your right I am not aware of much with this stuff.. But, I am learning thanks to you guys!!

Will the gun fire if its slightly out of battery? To be honest a friend was shooting it at the time and did not think that was important. It was the first round in the mag so its possible he rode the slide when cambering the round. I was standing next to him but did not notice how he chambered it.

What fmj ammo is good? The price of PMC doesn't make me think budget but ammo prices are high in my area I guess.

 

[AGoyette]

I had the same issue with a batch of reloads I did. For me it was high primers. One night while reloading, I had issue after issue, I finally quit reloading that night. It was while shooting that batch of reloads that I had issues. The gunsmith said high primers. I was safe and pulled the bullets from the brass and threw away the powder. I did not want a hit bullet loose in my bag, pocket, car, whatever. Anyway, I had about 10 of these high primers. None since though.. So like I said, a bad night of reloading.

 

[Bkreutz]

Will the gun fire if its slightly out of battery?

If everything on the gun is working properly, no. If it does fire out of battery, chances are the case will rupture and if the shooter is lucky he will come away with a stinging in his hand and a magazine minus all the rounds lying on the floor. If he's not lucky, well, lets just say it's not a pleasant thought.

 

[steve462x0]

1out of 500 is good compared to the 23 out of 100 no strikes on my Pro Series CORE 9. Waiting on my shipping label since last Thursday.

 

[colt_saa]

Will the gun fire if its slightly out of battery?

When you have slightly large cases of rough cases or dirty chambers or other things, sometimes the breach does not fully close, I mean the smallest bit. As the striker is released the firing pin pushes the cartridge the last .00000? into the chamber and everything is in battery before the cartridge can fire. If it does.

The energy used to push the cartridge that .00000? is gone and does not get used to strike the primer thus the light dimple.

There are many firearms where this can occur and many firearms where it can not. I never tested a M&P to see which category it falls in.

No modern firearm should be able to fire when it is far enough out of battery to allow a case rupture.

 

[Sgt 45]

The issue that I've had with light strikes is the striker block is not getting out of the way fast enough with a new APEX trigger and sear. What I think is needed is a longer trigger bar or the tit that pushes the plunger up needs to be lengthened. It's fixed now but it was a problem.

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