Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Warning - S&B Brass and high primers
bkoenig:
Just a heads up in case anyone else runs across some S&B 9mm brass. I shot in the USPSA match at ENGC a couple weeks ago and had 3 or 4 malfunctions due to my slide not going all the way forward into battery. It was back just far enough that you couldn't tell without looking closely, and the hammer would fall but not engage the firing pin and strike the primer. I only recovered one of the rounds in question and noticed it was a S&B case and the primer was very high. I theorized that the high primer prevented the slide from going all the way forward.
Yesterday I went to the range and found two more rounds just like that - both S&B, and both with high primers. They would chamber, but only with a little extra help to push the slide forward. At that point I figured it must be the brass. So, tonight while I was loading some ammo I paid attention to the case headstamps and I ran across five S&B cases. Of those five, three did not seat the primer fully with the normal amount of pressure that was required of other cases. The primer would still seat all the way, but it required some extra pressure on the press handle. Not enough to worry about detonating it, but enough that you would think it was fully seated before it actually seated all the way.
It appears that S&B brass has some pretty tight primer pockets. I have not run into this before, but I don't ever remember having this many S&B cases so I must have picked up a bunch out at the range. They're not crimped, and they're not shallow as far as I can tell (I didn't mic them) but the primer definitely fits tight. It will seat all the way but you have to crank down a little harder on the press. A search on Google shows that other people have run across this. In a gun with a floating firing pin a high primer like this could be dangerous and cause an out of battery detonation when the slide comes forward. Just goes to show, you should always inspect your ammo after loading. In the future I will make sure I visually inspect my primer seating and run a finger over them to feel if any are too high.
NENick:
Your theory is sound. I've started separating those cases out.
jonm:
What primers were you using?
bkoenig:
Winchester small pistol. I have not tried it yet with other brands.
OnTheFly:
Did you try tapping the primer in the rest of the way with a hammer? Maybe a nail setter might work.
Fly
Kidding of course.
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