Anyone else having problems with CCI primers?

[Tex .416]

In handloading for fifty years (damn that sounds old!), never had any defective primers, except for Winchester.

In addition to several good ideas posted above, could the brass be resized too much causing excessive headspace? Do you have some gauges to compare fired brass to the resized brass? The shoulder should not be set back more than 0.005”, and 0.0015” - 0.003” is the optimal zone.

 

[fourfive8]

Over past 57 years of reloading, I’ve never had any FTF issue with any primer that wasn’t eventually tracked down to some cause other than the primer. FTF can be caused by any number of things with the primer type or brand being the least likely, IMO. Contamination of primer, misfit of primer in primer pocket, wacky case dimensions, excessive headspace, contamination of brass/flash channel, contamination or impediment within bolt body, weak or marginal firing pin strike, etc.

As an anecdote that may have nothing to do with premise of original question about CCI… For loading large rifle magnum ammo for DG, I trust the CCI #34 primer more than any other primer currently available.

 

[JimP]

All I have ever used have been CCI primers and I have quite likely gone through more than 50,000 of them with every one of them going bang when I pulled the trigger.

I have heard that CCI has a heaver housing where your firing pin and spring needs to be able to deliver a heaver blow that others, but as I have said I have never had any problems.

 

[hoytcanon]

No

 

[375er]

Over past 57 years of reloading, I’ve never had any FTF issue with any primer that wasn’t eventually tracked down to some cause other than the primer. FTF can be caused by any number of things with the primer type or brand being the least likely, IMO. Contamination of primer, misfit of primer in primer pocket, wacky case dimensions, excessive headspace, contamination of brass/flash channel, contamination or impediment within bolt body, weak or marginal firing pin strike, etc.

As an anecdote that may have nothing to do with premise of original question about CCI… For loading large rifle magnum ammo for DG, I trust the CCI #34 primer more than any other primer currently available.

I'm just the opposite. I don't trust them at all.

 

[ftrovato]

It's not the firing pin as the firing pin was the first thing I checked; looking for gummed up, worn, chipped, or broken firing pin.

The misfires were randomly: 1 to 18+ go bang, then 1 to 3 misfires, then 1 to 18 go bang, then 1 to 3 misfires. Using 3- 6 count magazines, some where in the count may or may not be a misfire, reload the magazines, rotate use another rifle or 2 while the barrel cools on the 22 Hornet, back to shooting the Hornet and back to not knowing when I'm going to have misfires.

 

[ftrovato]

Get a box of factory ammo and try them.

But regardless, I'd take it to a gun smith and have him replace the firing pin spring.

 

[JimP]

You can also take the spring out and if it isn't gummed up with old oil I would deferentially have it replaced.

 

[M70375!]

I had 6 Remington 9 ½ out of 500 fail to fire in my model 70 375, I was really disgusted with Remington primers and did not trust them in DG ammo, just using for practice loads. Then I decided to change the firing pin spring, so far about 4-500 rounds without a problem, I don't think it was the primers. You might try a new spring.

I was using an RCBS hand priming tool, which was worn out and had a lot of trouble getting primers deep enough(bench wobble). I up graded to the primal Rights priming tool, it is awesome , it has very easy depth adjustment and and all the leverage and more that you will ever need for easy perfect seating every time , it is a joy to use, I love using it, only bad thing is the price, about $750 with all the shell holders, but the pleasure of using it far out weighs the $ pain.

 

[M70375!]

Get a box of factory ammo and try them.

But regardless, I'd take it to a gun smith and have him replace the firing pin spring.

you might look into. replacing the spring yourself, I had a gunsmith replace mine on model 70, charged me $50, I took it as an insult as I watched a guy on YouTube change one in 50 seconds.

 

[MacJenkins]

I’ve been having some failure to fire with BR2’s lately. Probably only 15 or so years old. I bought a lot of either 10 or 15k of them back then and have had zero problems until now.

 

[Grumpy gumpy]

What brass are you using, are the rims on the fail to fire cases thinner, cip and sammi specs differ on lots of brass and some batches of brass from the same manufacturer differ, PPU was notorious for it at one point, as was Winchester, usually didn’t make a difference but with some rifles it did. Also did the cartridges fire on a second or third strike?
Gumpy

 

[MacJenkins]

Lapua 308 is what I was using.

 

[flying sailor]

It’s not a FN Winchester M70 by chance is it?

Mine is a 1965 model BSA, sold by Herter's. Walnut and Maple laminate stock, porky at 10 lbs. for sure

 

[Sarg]

I have been using CCI & Federal for 50yrs also never had an issue !

But Winchester I absolutely wouldn’t trust, had 100s fail in LR & Mag, also messed up several of my bolt faces, the caps failed putting little pits in my bolts.

We couldn’t get ANY primers here so made do & I even tried them on super low pressure Subsonic & Black Powder loads but that didn’t help !

Can never trust Winchester primers again !!!

 

[CRCO]

Years back i got a bad batch with about one in ten failing. Four different rifles so I know it was the primers. Have not had a problem since then.

 

[Ridge Runner]

In handloading for fifty years (damn that sounds old!), never had any defective primers, except for Winchester.

In addition to several good ideas posted above, could the brass be resized too much causing excessive headspace? Do you have some gauges to compare fired brass to the resized brass? The shoulder should not be set back more than 0.005”, and 0.0015” - 0.003” is the optimal zone.

I'll have to check. There isn't much of a shoulder on 22 Hornet.

 

[Vintageguy]

I’ve never had any bad primers in 40 years of reloading and that counts shotgun primers, club shooting skeet and trap. But man, I could have made a pretty penny replacing mainsprings, that didn’t need replacing, on guns folks have brought me where the culprit was poorly seated primers. I hope primer issues are not out there for what they cost now.

 

[375er]

I will argue this one all day long. Sometimes there are just bad primers.

 

[Tex .416]

I'll have to check. There isn't much of a shoulder on 22 Hornet.

On a rimmed cartridge like that, the rim should control headspacing, but checking the shoulder set back may help. One other point to check is compare rim thickness on a new unfired piece of brass to the rim thickness on a resized piece. The die should not make any contact with the rim and the rim measurement should remain unchanged.