I’ve had 4 out of 200 CCI BR4 primers fail in the last few months. Not the end of the world but irksome during a match. I began to blame my firing pin spring so I emailed Kelbly and was told it’s likely the CCI primers and they are getting complaints from all over. Anybody else? BTW, I’ve had no failures from the CCI 400’s.
Bad CCI primers?
- Thread starter Fairchaser
- Start date
Coyotefurharvester
Silver $$ Contributor
I thought I was having 450 issues(ftf), until I removed them(3) and reseated them in a different rifles case. They all fired. So I still chasing an issue.
I have loaded ~10,000 BR4s over the years (bolt guns and gas guns) and have not had any FTF issues.
Are your BR4s recent manufacture and do you have a lot number you can share?
These are less than a year old. They were bought from a reputable online retailer.
A working theory from personal experience and observations. Tell me about your situation. Are you seating by feel or depth? Ever have any of these issues when using lrp? Are you dealing with a quality action with a known solid history?
I believe many of these are from primers seated by feel. The primers feel like they are seated but aren't. Flush with the case head, but not fully seated. When the firing pin strikes the primer some of the energy seats the primer. The primer might be less than perfect and if it was seated better you might never experience an issues. The combination of the not fully seated and the less than perfect primer results in the failure to fire.
I have pulled the primer and weight sorted several hundred primers from the lot in an attempt to look at more than one of these.
My latest is to seat by feel and follow up with a by depth tool. After the last 10 -15k I have a decent understanding of seating by feel for me doesn't mean it it really home.
They seem to be less common with srp seated by depth, but they still happen. I know this is not a brand issues as I have seen this will several brands. There are no absolutes and this is just my opinion of my experience.
Watch the online videos of how primers are made. It is amazing to watch how manual it is.
I believe many of these are from primers seated by feel. The primers feel like they are seated but aren't. Flush with the case head, but not fully seated. When the firing pin strikes the primer some of the energy seats the primer. The primer might be less than perfect and if it was seated better you might never experience an issues. The combination of the not fully seated and the less than perfect primer results in the failure to fire.
I have pulled the primer and weight sorted several hundred primers from the lot in an attempt to look at more than one of these.
My latest is to seat by feel and follow up with a by depth tool. After the last 10 -15k I have a decent understanding of seating by feel for me doesn't mean it it really home.
They seem to be less common with srp seated by depth, but they still happen. I know this is not a brand issues as I have seen this will several brands. There are no absolutes and this is just my opinion of my experience.
Watch the online videos of how primers are made. It is amazing to watch how manual it is.
I seat primers with a lee hand primer and go by feel. I'm loading primers right now that I bought 5 or 6 years ago, cci 450's. I haven't had any issues but when I get into the newer ones I've got a question that may help me if I ha e problems. If a primer seated by hand isn't seated firmly enough if you tried it again immediately should it go off seeing as how it should have been pushed a bit deeper? Just wondering how to tell without using a gauge readout seater.
I'm using #400 right now with the same packaging with zero problems, also some Remington 6 1/2 in the red box with no problems.
There was an issue with CCI back in the late 70's early 80's and I switched to Federal for many years. Something with the primer mix IIRC. After Federal got hard to get I went back to CCI and have only had a few FTF out of thousands of primers. I cant say if its the primer or something I did.
The BR4 has a thicker harder primer cup then most others. Everything has to be right. They need seated with a slight crush, the firing pin spring needs to be up to snuff and the headspace can't be great. The threads in the bolt shroud needs to be clean and lightly greased. This is discussed in lots of threads. Matt
I had issues with CCI 200 LRP back in the fall. About 20% were failure to fire. I loaded them up again and tried shooting them a second time, a no go. I use a Frankford Arsenal hand primer and all primers were seating at the same depth. I tried other primers and no issues. So far I’ve not had any issues with other CCI primers.
Seat them deeper in primer pocket. Also disassemble bolt and clean and make sure no debris or grit or brass shaving down in bolt body. And how many rds on the firing pin spring? Just a couple things to check
CCIs have a harder cup than others. At one time it was accepted to lighten springs for faster bolt work, but has proved not the thing to do. Seat them in the pocket, make sure the headspace is correct or that your brass has a slight feel closing, and then ensure you firing pin/spring has 22-24 pounds of load at cock.
Things very well may prove to be more consistent.
Things very well may prove to be more consistent.
My head space is set at 1.5 thousands and my primers are seated with a 1 thousands crush using a hand primer with adjustable height. I might try a harder crush next time but don’t really feel like this is the problem. Kelby action.
I bought the gun used so I don’t really know how many rounds have been through the action which was made in 2017. I’ll probably just replace the spring.
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