Light Primer Strikes ??

[Roland of Gilead]

Question on a couple of my reloads. I've only jinned up a couple hundred .45 ACP so far on a Lee Loader manual kit, so I'm no expert yet. Here's the deal:

Had two rounds didn't go off on the first trigger pull. Did about three more pulls (PT145 - striker fired) with no luck on either round. I reloaded both rounds into the middle of another mag and figured I'd do some failure drills, but this time both rounds went off on their first trip into the chamber.

So, was it something I did when I primed these two cases? Or some other weirdness? Or what?

Thanks.

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[Pkspawn]

Are you using CCI primers?

Also, if it happens again. Check to see if the primer is seated in further than the others. Did you see the indent on the primer from the striker when it didn't fire?

Friends won't use CCI primers because they are a "harder" primer and they get light strikes often. I've only noticed it when I intentionally let my gun get dirty trying to see how long i could go before problems.

[DucatiRon]

Actually some other wierdness. Depending on whose primers you use that can happen. Everyone will tell you that different manufactures have a different hardness of primer cup. If I remember Rem and CCI are the hardest. You may find better results in your/that gun with a different primer. This mostly happens to people that have trigger jobs and lighter trigger springs. I'm sure if you do some searching you'll find a hardness list or someone will chime in with it. I personally use CCI exclusively in my current loads but have also used Rem and Win with good luck. CCI are just easier for me to buy. I would never use Wolf.

[knight0334]

As mentioned above.. CCI's are a tad harder. And if a primer isn't seated all the way the first strike will help push it in the rest of the way without firing it.

[Roland of Gilead]

Yep, CCI. I meant to mention that in the OP because I figured it mattered. We'll see how it pans out with the rest of 'em.

Thanks.

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[Brick]

Seat your primers so they are at full depth and just slightly flattened. Your primer should be visibly below the level of the case rim.

[cephas]

May want to clean out the primer pockets, if needed, for even seating.

[kbcobra26]

"Light strikes" are almost always due to the primer being improperly seated..

Do what the others have suggested and seat your primers at full depth, and be sure you are deburring your primer pockets to allow the said "proper seating"

[Roland of Gilead]

Thanks everyone. I'm pretty sure it was improper seating, since I know I could feel a slight difference in depth when I run my finger over the seated primer. All cases were deburred before cleaning, so that wasn't it.

As mentioned, I'm just really getting the technique down, and since it's a 100% manual operation, there are bound to be some lessons still ahead.

With any luck I'll be poking around here a little more and staying out of the #$%&* Lounge . . .

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[Yoder]

Seat your primers so they are at full depth and just slightly flattened. Your primer should be visibly below the level of the case rim.

This is my guess too. When I first started reloading I didn't realize primers were supposed to be seated below flush. I was getting quite a few light strikes, they would fire the second time. If you can get Federal primers they are the best by far. I've used CCI for 9mm and never had any trouble.

I wouldn't worry too much about cleaning the primer pockets. I've never done this on any of my pistol brass and it's never been an issue.