Bad day on BLM today....

[Wykyd]

So went to practice some exercises for USPSA and Steel shoots coming up. I made up a few different loads to test. I started out with some factory blazer and then moved to my reloads. This is my basic routine to get a benchmark. Well once i got to my reloads I started getting misfires. Glock 35 highly modified and a glock 22 close to stock for my backup. Both were getting the misfires at about 2 per 10 round mag. The 22 would ignite one out of 5 or so of the misfires.

I am reloading on a dillon 550 and have reloaded 1000's of rounds without a single misfire and today I had more than 20 easy. I don't know what is different or what could cause this. I did soak my brass in dawn and lemon shine then dried and tumbled with maybe too much nufinish car polish? What are some reasons that maybe a primer goes bad? I know handling it too much, moisture and etc but anything else? Too much nufinish in the tumbler? I am using the cheap SB primers but they have been good so far. I have shot probably 500 without issue.

Thanks for the input!

Wykyd

[pterrell]

Typically it's from oils coming into contact with the primer. If you didn't get your brass completely cleaned after putting the polish on then it's likely that there was still some in many of the primer pockets which "killed" the primer. Personally, I don't ever put polish on my brass. Eliminates one, very real, way to ruin your day on the range. Sorry about your misfortune OP

[hermosabeach]

Did you try firing the rounds a second time?
Did a second primer strike do anything different?

Have you pulled the projectiles to see if the primer visually looks different?


Could it be possible a batch of primers was shipped with no primer material??

[noylj]

Call the primer company and talk to them.
Usually, as above, the reasons are:
not fully seated
contamination
no anvil
lightened main spring
firing pin/striker problem
and, the most embarrassing,
the primer was seated upside down

[KB1911_NewBie]

I also experienced about 10% failure rate of misfires on my last batch of reloads but these misfires rounds fired just fine the second time. So I went back and checked my setup and found the primer plunger/seater had backed out a little causing it to not fully seat the primers in the pockets.

maybe your issue is different but worth checking. good luck.

[Religious Shooter]

I use Federal pistol with all of my modified Glocks.

[Wykyd]

Did you try firing the rounds a second time?
Did a second primer strike do anything different?

Have you pulled the projectiles to see if the primer visually looks different?


Could it be possible a batch of primers was shipped with no primer material??

Yes I tried them with my G22 and 1 in 5 err i would say 3 or maybe 4 fired the second time i tried them. I haven't counted yet or pulled any apart but there are well over 20 more like 30.

I will start pulling them today after work and report back.

Thanks
Wykyd

[Wykyd]

Typically it's from oils coming into contact with the primer. If you didn't get your brass completely cleaned after putting the polish on then it's likely that there was still some in many of the primer pockets which "killed" the primer. Personally, I don't ever put polish on my brass. Eliminates one, very real, way to ruin your day on the range. Sorry about your misfortune OP

Thank you for the advice. I will have to really think about my process now!

Wykyd

[Pauliedad]

I once had the polish clump on the media and find its way into a few too many of the cases. This happened with both 9mm and .40.
My adjust was to shake the living crap out of the polish before adding to the media and to run the media/polish for about 15 minutes without any brass in there to get the polish to mix in evenly to the media.
I think all this is more likely to happen with smaller cases. 45acp is so much bigger, even some polish soaked media is likely to fall out.
Now this all said, it sounds like you're chasing a primer seating issue that makes more sense anyway.
I had an upside down seated primer puff some smoke into my face once that caused me to adjust my procedure from that day on.
Every single round that comes off my Dillon 650 gets put upside down in a plastic mtm ammo box so I can inspect the primer. I have caught a number of proud seated primers and the very occasional upside down primer. This step has eliminated all ftf issues in competition or practices for me.

[kcstott]

You said RL550
check your shell plate for looseness then check your primer tube mount.

They come loose after awhile and will cause all kinds of trouble. also make sure everything in the priming mechanism is clean. that area picks up spent primer residue, dirt and dust. if anything prevents the ram from coming fully down you will have a miss seated primmer. BTW you need to push that handle home with some authority and feel that primer seat.

[SinisterBud]

Also clean your firing pin. Same thing was happening to. I cleaned the firing pin and it stopped. It will get so dirty that the firing pin will not fully strike the primer.

[Wykyd]

After inspecting the misfire cases 29 I am noticing the primer strikes are light. My 35 does have lower power springs but I also tried these a second time with a pretty much stock G22. They do not have the tall tell glock rectangle primer strike on them. Now here is my thought.....

I am using the Sellier and Bellot primers that say small pistol, rifle and revolver. I think they are probably a little harder than the federal or even tula primers i have been using. I'm wondering if the first light strike in my 35 is making an impression in the primer so when the 22 tries to strike the primmer its not positive enough to ignite it off? Am I just grasping at straws now?

I may go and try just shooting the 22 first to see if that works. I can also try the 27!

[ar15barrels]

My 35 does have lower power springs

This is a common glock issue.
If you are running a lightened striker spring with a stock weight striker, misfires are normal.
You need a lightened striker to make proper use of a lightened striker spring and even then you may still have problems.

[Wykyd]

This is a common glock issue.
If you are running a lightened striker spring with a stock weight striker, misfires are normal.
You need a lightened striker to make proper use of a lightened striker spring and even then you may still have problems.

Thanks Randall! ya I have read about the issues you mention and that is precisely why I take the almost stock G22(just a 25 cent job) with me so I can benchmark. If the misfires went bang with the 22 then I would know exactly whats up. My problem is they didn't go bang with the G22 so I was ruling out light primer strikes. Now I am thinking back and wondering why I do not have the rectangular glcock striker mark even after trying them in the G22. Dont know if it means anything but figured I would share my thoughts with the experts! ;-)

[Wykyd]

Well I'm ashamed to admit this was my fault but if it helps someone else down the road then at least i can take splice in that...

So like i said before the S&B primers say pistol, rifle revolver on them and everything looks almost exactly the same on the boxes. I separate all my primers and store them in the respective classification. When i tried out the S&B primers I didn't notice that the boxes are only differentiated by SP or SR. Thus i put the boxes all in my small pistol primer storage. Well turns out i got a box of SR mixed in and i was using those in my pistol reloads. I am an idiot and this is definitely a lesson learned. Now I have 29 rounds that have been struck and maybe 300 more i have to breakdown.

At least nobody got hurt(except my pride) and maybe this can serve as warning for someone else to pay attention when reloading!