I will never buy reloads again

[ozmosis]

OP you are lucky that hard primers are what you are dealing with.
I have a unused box of 250 rounds of "Professional/commercial grade" .40S&W reloads that are not safe to use. I bought them years ago at a gun show out of state and after a blow out case rupture there useless. I reload now so I pulled a few down to weigh the powder and found that most were 4.9 grains. Which in most of my reloading manuals is around max level. A few weighed 6.8 grains! Yes six point eight grains of powder. The powder is unknown but I suspect it is a Shotgun powder from the looks of it as that was all the rage in 2004. Many shotgun powders are also temperature sensitive to hot days spiking in pressure.
Unless I load it myself I do not use reloads even from friends I reload with.

 

[Joe13]

Just out of curiosity, what causes bad primers?

I finished up the last of a supply of 9mm reloads today and that entire box was nothing but trouble while I had it.

click, tap rack bang, bang, click, tap rack click, tap rack bang, click...

the whole time.

View attachment 363256

Where did you get them?

I've shot hundreds of round from washougal river reloads and haven't had a single issue (all 9mm).

 

[bbbass]

I use only CCI primers, never had a problem with them except when the primer pockets were dirty enough to cause the primer to not seat correctly.

I started using CCI only after having trouble with several boxes of Winchester primers... who woulda thunk it?

 

[Velzey]

The metal that the primer body itself is hard. Like most metals it goes thru some sort of process to make it either harder or softer. Before a primer is ever formed it's in flat sheet form. It goes thru an annealing process to make them dead soft. They then go thru the forming process and then back into the heat treating oven. Now they are reheated so they are just strong enough to withstand the reloading process.
And somewhere along the line here they are cooled to rapidly or maybe heated a little to long, and they get to hard.

 

[Koda]

OP you are lucky that hard primers are what you are dealing with.
I have a unused box of 250 rounds of "Professional/commercial grade" .40S&W reloads that are not safe to use. I bought them years ago at a gun show out of state and after a blow out case rupture there useless. I reload now so I pulled a few down to weigh the powder and found that most were 4.9 grains. Which in most of my reloading manuals is around max level. A few weighed 6.8 grains! Yes six point eight grains of powder. The powder is unknown but I suspect it is a Shotgun powder from the looks of it as that was all the rage in 2004. Many shotgun powders are also temperature sensitive to hot days spiking in pressure.
Unless I load it myself I do not use reloads even from friends I reload with.

Ive come to the same conclusion as you, although Im not a reloader so this means I will only buy name brand new ammo.

Years ago I bought some reloads from a company called Cascade Ammo out of Roseburg, mostly ran fine but I had some cases blow out. Didnt think anything of it back then... Didnt know better. But when you think about the uncertainty of reloaded brass on large scale productions its not worth it...

Since im not a reloader Ill ask, just curios now how many times can one safely reload a case?

 

[DirectDrive]

When I go on AmmoSeek I don't see enough of a price difference between Reman
and new ammo to even consider the Reman.
In today's market that is.

 

[WAYNO]

I wouldn't automatically blame the primer.

There are other things that will cause this. I would be looking at headspace or case length. If the case length is at the short end of the spectrum, and/or the chamber at the long end of the spectrum, it could cause the cartridge to chamber deep enough that the firing pin cannot sufficiently reach the primer. A large (dia) chamber could also cause some ammo to chamber past the case mouth. This could also cause too long a reach for the firing pin. Excessive crimp, although not normally associated with cartridges that headspace on the case mouth could cause this. This phenomenon was found to be an issue recently with some new and otherwise respected ammo.

A really tight chamber or insufficiently sized brass can cause this. A round may not fully chamber. Then the firing pin hits, and drives the case further into the chamber, and that absorbs some of the firing pin impact.

A really anemic round might not allow the slide to recoil far enough to fully cock the striker. So then, depending on the firearm, when you pull the trigger, you only get half-cocked performance from the striker. This is over simplified as there are so many differences between different firearm designs, and may or may not apply.

I would start by (I don't know what gun you're using) removing the barrel from the gun, dropping the problematic ammo into the (clean) chamber and measuring or marking how far the head stamp protrudes from the chamber. Then do the same thing with ammo that is known to work well, and see if there's a difference.

WAYNO.

 

[Koda]

Where did you get them?

I've shot hundreds of round from washougal river reloads and haven't had a single issue (all 9mm).

Joe, these were Washougal River ammo, all 9mm. I still have roughly 500rds of 45 to shoot, have shot hundreds of their ammo no issues but will proceed with caution now. Since were no longer in an ammo crunch my plan is to use up all my reloads I stocked up on when they were all I could find, while continuing to stock up on factory new...

 

[Koda]

When I go on AmmoSeek I don't see enough of a price difference between Reman
and new ammo to even consider the Reman.
In today's market that is.

Same here, occasionally I find reloads on sale on LAX or Freedom for significantly cheaper but often only enough to offset the shipping (usually about $25 per 500rds...). For the most part they are not on sale and my conclusion is $25 savings isnt worth the risk and I prefer now to support my LGS which lately has factory NIB 9mm for the same prices...

 

[Certaindeaf]

Improper storage on my part, or the reloaders?

Ive had these a while, Stored in either the original packaging or in a new plastic ammo can. Acquired these back in the last ammo crunch was all I could find at that time. Been following ammo prices these days there is no need to buy reloads anymore you can get brand name new for the same price.

Either or both.
To me it looks like the dimensions of the cartridge somehow did not allow it to chamber properly and thereby absorbed much of the firing pin blow.
Oh, and the small rifle primers I use in my handguns are generally Tula.. and they sure don't look like that.

 

[UserNameInUse]

Here is an alternative. It might not be the reloads.

One day I was suddenly getting failures to fire on my 938. My brother pulled the firing pin and spring out and there were a lot stray metal fragments in there. After cleaning it all out and re-assembling it never happened again.

 

[bbbass]

Since im not a reloader Ill ask, just curios now how mang time can one safely reload a case?

I load pistol cases until the case mouth splits. Of course, the primer pockets will need to be cleaned out before then.

 

[Rskyba]

I load pistol cases until the case mouth splits. Of course, the primer pockets will need to be cleaned out before then.

Same here. I don't go by how often they are fired because I use mild loads and I reload brass from new ammo I fire and new ammo is all over the map regarding how hot they are originally loaded. Plus I sometimes step on my brass / they bounce off rocks on the ground etc.

 

[The Heretic]

I stopped buying commercial re loads due to a blow out. They were some brand Midway sold. Like you mentioned I worried about where the brass was coming from. After that one close call I decided it was not worth it to me to trust them again.

If i recall correctly the brand i had were midway too

 

[teflon6string]

Can't tell from the camera angle in the picture up top...

Compare that lightly indented primer with one sporting a nice deep divot. Looking from the side, are both primers completely level with the brass, or is the light strike primer pushed into the brass a little deeper than the healthy looking one?

If the light strike primer is seated a bit deeper, then one of two things happened.
- It was manufactured that way (I suppose that's "re-manufactured" with reloads).
- The impact of the firing pin shoved the primer deeper into brass.

Be it second-rate materials or workmanship, neither is acceptable. Anything you have to show like that to the manufacturer (if you get them from a local source) should be fully reimbursed.

I had a unique 1911 in the 80s that I eventually got rid of because it never worked right. Now that I know more about guns, ammo, quality control, etc., I'll always wonder if inconsistent re-loads played a role in that sad adventure.

 

[Pops1911]

I frequently run Freedom Munitions reloads in 9mm. So far so good. I reload all my .45s. Occasionally will buy a couple of boxes of new stuff on sale for the new brass. The Winchester primers so far have been el perfecto! OP sorry for your troubles. Yep, that would bubblegum!

 

[Boboclown]

Since im not a reloader Ill ask, just curios now how many times can one safely reload a case?

Varies. Quality of brass, what load it is (loading to max shortens brass life), round, etc.

With steel once or twice if you must use it, but otherwise stick to brass.

 

[mobil890]

I would look to the case mouth and see if it bullet was over crimped. The 9mm seats on the case mouth and doesn't require a taper crimp very little if any. The case would slide further in the chamber causing light strikes. I would also look at the case length; it may have been trimmed too short. I would love to solve this riddle but need the bullet to tell you whats wrong. I shoot nothing but reloads any more and don't have that issue. The biggest problem with most reloaders they never read their reloading bible. One and done never to look at again.
I also make case for my Contender like 7mm TCU from 223 brass, 30 & 357 Herret from 30-30 brass, and 30-338 Win Mag from 338 mag brass of course for a rifle. Making bullets is like learning to cook.

 

[Alexx1401]

If i recall correctly the brand i had were midway too

Been so damn long I can't reliably remember for sure what it was. Could well have been something made for them with some "house name" on them. This was back before the days of the net so don't know if anyone else was selling them. At the time I figured buying from a large place like that I was safe trusting them. That close call was enough to make me stop trying to save a couple bucks and just by factory or use only stuff I made. The one that blew was a .40 S&W which is already a high pressure round and who the hell knows where the brass came from. Even when I roll my own .40 I used to load it a couple times then leave the stuff. When I used to leave the stuff I had rolled a couple times there I often wondered if some of that was not then being sold to some outfit who was going to roll it into new ammo again.

 

[Rskyba]

I would look to the case mouth and see if it bullet was over crimped. The 9mm seats on the case mouth and doesn't require a taper crimp very little if any. The case would slide further in the chamber causing light strikes. I would also look at the case length; it may have been trimmed too short. I would love to solve this riddle but need the bullet to tell you whats wrong. I shoot nothing but reloads any more and don't have that issue. The biggest problem with most reloaders they never read their reloading bible. One and done never to look at again.
I also make case for my Contender like 7mm TCU from 223 brass, 30 & 357 Herret from 30-30 brass, and 30-338 Win Mag from 338 mag brass of course for a rifle. Making bullets is like learning to cook.

Good point about over crimping.