Primer failure

[sxwatson]

Had an opportunity to do some shooting today and I had two primers fail to fire in my 338. The primers are CCI 250.

I am hoping for a little help figuring out if it was bad primers or if my firing pin isn't striking the primer hard enough.

I had taken 6 shots and the first failure occurred on the 7th shot. I then fired 4 more shots and had another failure. I fired 6 more shots after the second failure with no issues.

Here is a picture of the primers that didn't ignite. To me, they look like they were struck pretty good. The one on the left I tried to fire twice.

So a few questions.

Is there anything I can look for on the firing pin to see if something may be going on there?

I've never had a round fail with the exception of 22 LR. Has anyone else ever encountered a primer failure on a centerfire rifle? I've fired thousands of rounds and never had a failure until now, and two failures within 5 rounds makes me think something with my equipment may be causing the problem.

Is it safe to pull these? I hate handling these things once the primer has been struck. I just feel like it's going to go boom at any moment and striking it on the ground with my puller seems a little freaky too...

Scott

 

[happylilcuss]

SX I had one fail on me today. Same primers mine were in my 300rum.. Mine looked just like yours. First time ive ever had a cci fail to fire. However I have heard that others have had problems with them not firing. I dont think you have anything to worry about. Your primer hits look fine to me.

 

[alexkeyser]

I and the same experiance today with cci 250 in a 7 ultra mag. I pulled the one cartidge of twenty that did not go off and the h-1000 inside was yellow down by the bottom of the cartridge? like the last 1/4" or so. anyone heard of this before? I would be interested to see what your powder looks like sxwatson. the inside of the primer was blackened though.

 

[mike33]

i went thru that about 6 weeks ago. had a brick of federal 215 m's around the fifth packeti was shooting edge 1 night and out of 26 rounds fired had 2 misfires. came back home pulled bullet and yes there was powder there. sent bolt back to travis redell since this was a new build, every thing checked out on bolt. went back out and happened 1 more time. now i switched to regular federal 215 since i just bought 6 bricks no problem. i gave the other 5 packs away. you tell me.
mike

 

[long450]

A question or 2 for each of you. All brand new brass? Any of you check to be sure all primers are firmly seated without being too deep? You need to check with a straight edge across the case or a depth mic if you have one. Sounds like bad batch of primers on the CCI though.

 

[mike33]

no, mine was after a few firings but looked and felt seating to be okey, but i didnt use a straight edge. mine was smcked good like the other pic.
mike

 

[alexkeyser]

My primer was also smacked good and was seated properly. the brass was new. as i said it was actually blackened inside the primer when I pressed it out. was wondering maybe I got some oil/ case lube on it or inside the case?

 

[mike33]

i never touch a primer so i know it didnt have oil on it. my gunsmith 3k miles away from me experienced the same problem in a competion the same weekend. i dont have the answer. think i can only sum it up to **** happens. i do a lot of shooting and any time you do a lot of something things will go wrong.
mike

 

[happylilcuss]

I agree with mike. You shoot a lot your gonna have failures. Mine was a once fired brass. It was seated properly. I am very meticulous with my reloads. Everyone gets weighed mic'd and inspected before it passes muster.

 

[long450]

sxwatson, In the pictures shown the primer on the right appears to have a lighter hit than the one on the left. Is this the same type and batch of primer you have used in the past in the rifle? Any possiblity you have gotten grease or a build up of oil on the firing pin?

Also check the case headspace on these cases compared to the one that fired. Is it the same? You can size a case too far!

 

[justgoto]

In the pictures shown the primer on the right appears to have a lighter hit than the one on the left.

I agree, looks like a big difference.

 

[sxwatson]

I tried to shoot the one on the left twice. My firing pin doesn't strike the primer exactly in the center. I had rotated the case a little bit before trying again.

 

[padd54]

I agree, looks like a big difference.

That's because it was a double strike as noted by the OP.

 

[TerryLamb]

Wow, Mike33 already addressed this issue, but in 50 years of reloading, the only primer failures I ever had were in the very beginning, before I had a primer feeder and was handling each primer with the fingers. Presumably oily fingers.

If that issue is off the table, these failures are truly troubling, causing all to wonder if there is some CCI problem.