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bad primer, or?

9mm 124g berry plated fbrn
4.4g hp38
1.15"
aguila primers small pistol
walther ppq

about 800 primers into a box of 1k, with no previous issues, had ~15% fail to fire despite good pin strike dent

what really confused me was of the ones that did fire some would noticably "smoke" and i even saw a few sparks when the slide would open /cycle.. (and they did cycle)

it was like a semi auto musket. what gives O_O ?!

thank you in advance
 
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15% Failure rate????

I'd try 50-100 in another pistol to be sure. What does the primer look like after pulling the round down??
 
Online reviews didn’t seem to have any problems.

How are you seating the primers:??
Flush to the case head.
Just touching bottom.
0.002 or more crush.

Carboned up primer pockets and flash holes?
 
thanks for responses.

im just using hand prime tool

i can isolate it to this particular batch of 9mm ammo, as i washed primed prepped some other brass for other platforms at same time with no issues.

the primer pocket definitely had some gunk in it, I never really get it all out during pin wet tumble...

ive reloaded 10k< 9mm rounds with this exact process and this is the first time ive really had this issue

im gathering that dirty flash hole is prime culprit for the musket rounds?

ill post pic of failed to fire primer
 
I'm betting it was poorly seated primers. When this happens try and fire the rounds again. If they fire on the second strike you have the answer.
 
I think you answered your own question. It's case cleaner residue that contaminated the powder. Did you wash after sizing or before?
 
It would appear from the way the primer is dished, that you did not seat them fully or solid into the primer hole, and the firing pin is both seating them further and therefore not giving you a good spark or even and fired primer.
Clean the primer pockets on your cases and seat those primers solid, then see what and how things do.
 
Doesn't the whole surface of the primer look like it's 'pushed in'?
About 20 years ago I went through ~ 10,000 45 acp handloads; I'm not remembering the surface of the primer being pushed in [in addition to the dent from the firing pin.]

ETA: I was typing as Bill K's post showed up.
 
i wash/deprime n size/ re wash

logically, its possible that they didnt fully dry due to some unknown variables such as temp/humidity. it seems coincidental that the day they dont fully dry would happen to also be the day that i get all these fail to fires. from no problems to two simultaneous problems?

and yes i did rerun them thru gun and none of them fired on 2nd attempt
but yeah ill definitely ream/clean pocket next go round
 
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Eliminate one thing at a time, could be bad primers, bad powder, contamination, flash hole etc. If you have any of the loaded ammo check for proud primers and start there.
 
I've never used that brand of primer, but a 15% primer failure rate seems improbable. Of course, with today's lack of quality control I imagine anything is possible however I believe problem is elsewhere.

In 50 years of reloading thousands of pistol and rifle cartridges, I've only ever had one failure that could be positively traced to a faulty primer. Somehow, the mfg. of the primer in question failed to place priming compound in the cup.

Lots of good advice in posts already offered. Most of the primers problems I've helps sort out with other shooters was traced to failure to seat the primer solidly in the primer pocket. The primer should be seated slightly below the rim of the case. I also inspect the primed cases to ensure they are seated properly.

Other issues regarding prep are tumbler media lodged in the primer flash hole, and excessive build up in primer residue in the pocket. In my experience, it takes a lot of contamination to render a primer a dud. However, using water as a cleaning media could raise the possibly significantly.

Gun issues, weak firing or broken firing pin spring, excessive headspace.

The appearance of the primers you posted would suggest to me that the primers were not seated flush.
 
I'm thinking that you have a headspace problem. Remember all cases should be same length so the crimp occurs with same uniformity. Using several brands of cases can create different types of crimp tension. Also shorter cases can be driven forward causing a poor primer strike. Remember straight wall cases headspace on the mouth. Too much crimp will affect headspace and could be driven forward past actual headspace dimensions. I don't mix case brands but know of several friends that do and making all the cases the same length sure fixed a lot of their ignition issues, FYI.
 
thank you, to be honest ive never trimmed my 9mm brass. granted, if anything id assume its too long, since im barely crimping

i gather between making sure the length is within specs and the dirt is out of primer hole my issue likely will resolve. thanks all
 
I'm thinking you've had a little moisture get in there somehow.Washing twice is a bit much.I don't do anything that involves cases submerged in water.The only time any of my brass is exposed to moisture is when I wipe the case lube off the loaded rounds with a premoistened hand cleaning towel that's damp with an alcohol based cleaner.I dry tumble in walnut hull media when I want them to shine.If you're doing a lot of brass,you probably have to use a wet tumble or something like that to deal with a large volume of cases to prepare.In the colder time of the year,it takes more time for moisture to dry.It's amazing how a tiny bit of moisture can travel.
You stand the cases up in a loading block and any moisture will likely travel downhill-right into the flash hole and into the primer.What method do you use to dry your brass?Do you leave primed cases stand in a block for any length of time.For instance,if you got them primed late in the evening and they sat in the loading block or tray standing up,moisture can settle in the primers.It's got to be something like that going on.I'd warm them up good before I primed them,like maybe in an oven at 200 degrees or so.
 
Also,the carbon in the flash hole can hold moisture.One example of contamination that taught me a good lesson happened in 1983.I'd just bought a new Winchester featherweight on the Friday before deer season which came in the following Monday.I did a very hurried load development and scope zero and when I was resizing the brass it was really dragging on the expander button so I decided a little WD-40 on a Q-tip would be ok to make them go across the expander smoother,and it worked like a charm.The 20 rounds of ammo I loaded on Saturday sat bullet up in the tray until Sunday night when I loaded the rifle.Early morning on a cold opening day a large buck ran across the little opening I was watching and I took a shot at him at around 50 yards running.I heard the firing pin hit the primer,actually said a cuss word and then it went bang.I still hit the deer,albeit in the wrong end.and he died quickly.I went back to the bench with the remaining 19 rounds and had 3 hang fires.I had two rifles in that caliber and used both of them to shoot the ammo and both rifles had at least one hang fire.All because of primer contamination.
 

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