I have had issues with CCI primers in the past. In my case it was 23 out of 100 rounds had issues with misfires. Before I go on let's define the difference between a misfire and a hang fire. Let's start out with this. Any time you pull the trigger, hear the click of the firing pin hitting the primer and nothing happens, ALWAYS KEEP THE MUZZLE POINTED SAFELY DOWN RANGE. Start counting slowly counting the seconds from one to 30 (I usually use 60) or have my students count to 60 before doing anything else. If you reach the count of 30 (60) without the gun going off you have probably simply had a misfire which means that the primer was defective and did not go off. In this case again keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction remove the magazine, open the bolt and eject the cartridge. Check the indent on the primer and put the cartridge off to the side to be either disassembled or disposed of properly. If you are shooting a rimfire, which are known for having misfires if the firing pin hit on the rim shows that it was hit then try rotating the the cartridge either 90 or 180 degrees, reinserting it into the firearm and try shooting it again keeping the muzzle pointed safely downrange. With rimfires sometimes the priming compound is not distributed evenly around the rim leaving some areas where there is no priming compound to set off the powder. By rotating the cartridge you are selecting another spot on the rim for the firing pin to hit. I have found that about 80% of the time the round will go off after the rotation of the cartridge. If it does not that probably means that somehow there was no priming compound in the cartridge. In this case put the cartridge to the side, don't simply throw it into the garbage. To safely disable a rimfire cartridge grab it firmly in your hand and use a pair of pliers to bend the bullet out of the case. Dispose of the powder then dispose of the empty case and bullet. AT NO TIME EVER GRASP THE CASE OF THE ROUND WITH THE PLIERS. IF YOU DO THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT YOU COULD SET OFF THE CARTRIDGE IN YOUR HAND CAUSING SEVERE INJURY. Lets move on to a, "HANG FIRE," A hang fire happens when you pull the trigger, hear a click and of course keeping the firearm pointed in a safe direction and start your slow count to 30 (60) and several seconds into the count the firearm suddenly fires. This is caused by a problem during the ignition of the powder, usually caused by a defective primer or possibly a light hit of the firing pin on the primer. The primer did in fact start burning, but did not flash right away causing the ignition of the gunpowder to be delayed or slowed down until the eventual burning of the initial grains of powder set off the main charge. Now let's discuss the last type of malfunction. This is called a "SQUIB LOAD," In this case a primer fires, but there is no or little powder in the cartridge, not enough to send the bullet safely out of the barrel. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS MALFUNCTION!!!! When you have this malfunction which will be evidenced by a lack of usual recoil, no loud band as the bullet leaves the confines of the barrel and no noticed impact of the bullet on the target. STOP SHOOTING especially if shooting during a timed or rapid fire stage in competition. If you have a bullet or shotgun wad lodged in the barrel the firearm will blow up causing injury to you and anyone close by. Over the years I have run into each of these malfunctions many times. It doesn't matter if you are shooting factory ammo or reloaded ammo it can and will happen. Treat the malfunction properly and it is just an inconvenience. Treat it improperly and it can be fatal.
