BarnesX.308

Has this happened to anyone before? It happened to me this weekend after 11 years of handloading. The culprit was a CCI Magnum primer. The firing pin put a nice dent in it so I know it wasn't the rifle.

Should I panic? Throw out all my primers and buy brand new? Is it just a fluke and I should go into the big game season with confidence? Thanks.

marshall9779

In the last 8 years that I've been hunting I have never had a dud primer until 2 weeks ago. I got my new .243 barrel in for my Optima Elite. I went to sight it in with some Remington Corlokts and 2 out of 16 failed to fire. I tried both twice. Needless to say I will not be using those again. I have been shooting mostly reloads that my Dad does for me lately and I believe that he uses Winchester primers. My Dad is currently working on reloads for the 243 now. Hopefully I won't have that problem anymore.

You could probably call CCI and let them now what happened. There might be a bad batch or something.

bobfm10350

Yeah this always happens to my dad's reloads but not mine ... haha. Anyways i have no clue why this happens.

bigcountry

I have had maybe 2-4 in over 15 years. 2 were CCI mag pistol primers, and 2 were CCI mag rifle primers. Imagine that?

bronko22000

About the only thing that can ruin a primer is oil or petroleum solvent. The only time I ever had a problem with primers was when I used Lyman case lube. I thought it was the same as Hornady One Shot. But the Lyman can contaminate primers. Other case lubes too can do the same thing.
I'm sure a few get through processing without priming compound or an anvil but this is rare.

eldeguello

Never had, nor even seen, a dud primer in a handload with the exception of some that were contaminated with oil, like Bronco22000 said! Oil or grease MUST NEVER be on your fingers or any other place when you are handling primers!!

In Alaska once, a kidI knew came over and used my reloading equipment to load up some .308 ammo for his upcoming bear hunt. He returned,relating a sadtale of "duds-bad primers", and swore never to use another reload!!! Turned out that he had omitted putting POWDER in about 1/3 of his cases. Bullet bases were black as hell, primers had worked perfectly! (He was lucky he didn't get a bullet stuck in his bore, since he did get a shot at a bear. He got it with one of his bad reloads! One he'd put powder in, no doubt!!)

BarnesX.308

Some of my primers are pretty old. I got a lot of hand-me-down stuff when I got my reloading equipment from a friend of my dad. So, I bought all new primers just in case. I can't remember if I used newer primers that I had bought myself or if they were older. The reloading stuff is up at the cabin and I won't be there for a while.

That being said, I seat my primers on the upstroke of resizing the cases. Sooooooo, it is possible that I had a little case lube on my fingers. I keep paper towels by the press and rub my hands constantly. I guess, after 11 years and possibly a 1000 loads, one got by?

I'm going to prime new cases for my old man andrelegate the batch I primed last weekendto the practice squad. I don't want my old man to miss a shot at a buck due to my hand loads. The rounds I loaded for myself, I will keep. I got my buck in archery so I'll be taking my chances with a doe . Well, I also have a bear tag.

bowhuntingnewbe

BarnesX.308,

I have never in my 15+ years of reloading had a dud primer. I have had rounds not fire due to the primer being seated to deeply(firing pin made no contact). I also never combine 2 steps into one. I am assuming that you are Full-length resizing so you are using a case lube on the outside of the casing plus a bit in the neck to aid the expander ball correct. Here is what I do. I will lube cases as I resize them. Onceall of the casings are resized I put them all into a case cleaner/tumbler to remove the case lube and to clean up the casings. Once they are clean I will then re-prime all cases at once then move onto power charges etc,etc. After the over seated primer experience I bought a bench mounted RCBS priming tool. The press mounted tool has way too much leverage and lacks feel when seating primers. With this bench mounted tool the primers are held in a tube and you never come in contact with them to run the risk of contamination. So yes you could have inadvertantly contaminated some primer with the case lube. Try resizing all of the casing, clean off all of the lube from them, wash your hands good with Dawn, then resize in a seperate step and see if this helps you with the duds.

Andrew

bronko22000

For resizing, I use Hornady's One Shot. It does not contaminate powder or primers. When I prime, I use an RCBS hand primer. My fingers never touch a primer unless one happens to fall out of the pack. Also, with a hand primer you can 'feel' the primer seating into the case.

BarnesX.308

Yes, I'm priming with the primer seating arm on the press (Rock Chucker) at the same time I am resizing. An yes, I lube the outside of the case and swab a little on the inside of the neck so my expander ball doesn't get stuck.

I guess I just have to be more careful. 1 in 1000 ain't too bad. But if that 1 out of 1000 was on a B&C buck, I would be reduced to tears.