Something that has never before happened to me

[DWalt]

I had a very unusual experience this morning while firing my M1911. I was firing my usual .45 ACP handloads, 230 grain lead bullet with 4.5 grains of Bullseye. I had fired maybe 30 rounds before I picked up the empties and then saw something I had never before seen-split primers. Six cases had primers with single cracks running radially from the firing pin dimple to the edge, all showing smudges along the crack indicating gas leakage. These were all reloads several years old, so I don't know for sure what brand of primers they were, could be either CCI or Winchester, LPs. I switched to using some other reloads at that point, and no primer cracks occurred with them. I pulled the firing pin and the tip did show some burn evidence with slight pitting. Nothing seemed unusual during firing that would have indicated an overload.

Has anyone ever seen such phenomena? Any ideas regarding a possible cause?

 

[Greyman50]

Never even heard of such. SWIG is a run of primers with brittle metal???Wonder why all of them didn't crack?

 

[RGPM1A]

Maybe the stock being used to make the primers was too hard or not annealed before the primer cup drawing/stamping process?

A flaw in the tooling used to make the primer cups?

The primer cup press lost lubrication momentarily?

The primer was overcharged with primer compound?

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Another possibility, flash hole over size?

Ivan

 

[Krogen]

A lot of years ago, I had similar troubles with some Federal Large Pistol Magnum primers. I'd get radial cracks from the firing pin indentation to the edge of the primer or pinholes at the edge of the primer. I switched to CCI and never had another problem.

I have no confirmed information, but I suspect the cup material was too hard/brittle. It may have been work hardened during forming and improperly annealed. Guesswork on my part; I am not a metallurgist nor do I work for Federal!

 

[burneyr]

I had this happen with some reloaded .45 years ago myself. It was the first case of LP primers I acquired when Winchester quit plating their cups leaving them raw brass colored. Had maybe 100-150 splits as you described.

Never an issue since and thousands of Winchester primed loads afterwards.

 

[DWalt]

I tend toward believing that this was the result of a primer metallurgical problem. It is possible that the primers in question could have been Federal, as I may have had some at the time those .45s were loaded. But it is strange that after over 50 years of reloading I have not seen anything similar happen.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Sorry I can't help but I have never seen anything like that ever! Actually, this is the first time I have heard of it.

 

[rosewood]

Sorry I can't help but I have never seen anything like that ever! Actually, this is the first time I have heard of it.

Same here, but good information. Something to be aware of.

Rosewood

 

[68Dave]

I had some primers split , crack and gas like you described.
They were in factory loaded Remington.270 rounds though.
There was discoloration on about half the bullets and some blue type liquid on some of the cases. I did not shoot the obviously bad rounds, but the ones I did try had the weird primer issue.
David

 

[Rlg#17]

I've never had that happen with a pistol primer-yet. I did have some happen when I first did load development for a brand new 300 WSM Rifle. I was trying to squeeze the most performance that I could out of it with 180 grain bullets. Mag primers split, several different brands of them. I don't use mag primers anymore, but that's just me.

If I was you, and I'm not…. I would keep a log of everything that I reload, and yes I do. I can look back and tell you which primers they were that split. For your information, and possibly the manufacturer.

Regards, Rick Gibbs