Colt Official Police misfires

[Battis]

I've been reloading rounds for a 1949 Colt Official Police .38 (fairly new to reloading). I've been using DEWC bullets, Red Dot and CCI primers. I'd say at least half of the reloads need two hammer hits to ignite. Every factory round fires on the first strike, so it must be my reloading, not the gun.
I was told that CCI primers are made from harder metal. I bought some Winchester primers that I'm going to try.
Is the answer as simple as just seating the primers deeper?

[lefty o]

primers need to be seated to the bottom of the pocket. if not seated, the first strike of the hammer seats them, but absorbs enough of the impact that the primer doesnt fire.

[HeavyMetal]

Your problem is the CCI primers most I've used a very hard but Remington SP are really hard!

Winchester or Federal are my got to primers when ever I can find them.

Try a primer change and see if that works, about seating primers deeper: Ues a Lee hand tool to prime some case's and you'll "feel" the primer bottom out in the case.

Now for the bad news: most primer pockets are not as deep as they should be! Buy a primer pocket uniforming tool, not a cleaner, and see how much brass comes out of a stock primer pocket.

You'll find your primers are now going to seat in that case in the much talked about " just under the case head" suggested by all the gun rag reloading "experts"!

Trying to ram the primer into the pocket will just give you deformed primers and maybe a bang for you efforts, LOL!

Try different primers until you get the ignition you want!

[Naphtali]

Does the same problem occur when firing factory 38 Special ammunition? I ask because I owned the same model. The mainspring-rebound lever was improperly tuned. The result was frequent light hits on primers.

[Battis]

So far, the factory ammo has not been a problem (other than its price) No misfires at all. I'll try a Lee hand tool and pocket uniforming tool, and Winchester primers.

[canyon-ghost]

Using a Ram Prime (RCBS), I install Winchester primers to .004" below the case head. You can measure that with the probe end of a dial caliper. It means seating primers well below the case head. I've heard of guys having primers stop the revolver, they call it 'high primers'. It's never happened to me.

Good Luck,
Ron

PS: Those gold colored Winchester primers are pretty good.

[44man]

Old hammer spring, lost tension. Primers need a good strike for accuracy anyway, put a new spring in the gun. When you need to look for easier primers, you have a bad spring.

[Outpost75]

The Colt mechanism is quite different than the S&W with respect to how the parts interact, and people who don't understand its workings who attempt "trigger jobs" produce unintended consequences which reduce hammer throw, etc. If the gun has been shot a great deal, cylinder end shake and loosened headsoace can also affect driven protrusion. The suggestions to uniform and clean primer pockets, then hand seat a different primer, such as Federal 100 should work. If not, you need to find a gunsmith who knows Colts.

[Herb in Pa]

Is it possible that the reloads are not seating fully in the cylinder and that the first hit seats the cartridge fully, so that the second hit fires.........

[waksupi]

I contacted CCI about this some years ago. I was told that the primers are cut more sharply than others, and need a very firm seating in the primer pocket. After I found this out, and consciously used a bit more force in seating, the problem went away.

[Battis]

The fact that factory ammo works every time makes me think it's the primers or the way I seat them, and not the mainspring. There doesn't seem to be excessive cylinder movement, but I plan to get a set of feeler gauges to check. And it is possible that the reloads aren't seating far enough into the cylinder. Like I said, I'm betting it's user era (mine) and not the gun.

[Scharfschuetze]

Try the Remington 1 1/2 SP primer. It has a soft cup and works well without missfires in my S&W PPC revolver where other primer brands sometimes require a second strike.

[smkummer]

I have many Colt DA revolvers. While the problem could be a lightened V mainspring, I would first check that the primers are absolutely flush or more when seating. The issue first shows up shooting double action, as single action makes the hammer go farther back. The old cop trick was to cock the gun with a awl or hammer punch to bend the mainspring to make both single and double action lighter. This worked fine until one started getting misfires in double action.

[rintinglen]

If factory works and reloads don't, It ain't the gun. Lefty O hit the nail on the head. My 4 inch Python will do the same thing, if I don't seat the primers fully. I ran into the problem a couple years back when I moved and had no where to set up my presses, so I was using a Lee Hand press, and a Lee Priming Tool. The hand press worked great, but the Priming tool relied on my thumb to seat the primers and as the priming session went on, I found that primers were not bottoming out when seated, resulting in exactly the situation you find yourself in.
Seat them boogers fully and I think your missfires will go away.

[leftiye]

The fact that factory ammo works every time makes me think it's the primers or the way I seat them, and not the mainspring. There doesn't seem to be excessive cylinder movement, but I plan to get a set of feeler gauges to check. And it is possible that the reloads aren't seating far enough into the cylinder. Like I said, I'm betting it's user era (mine) and not the gun.

Unless your cases have thin for caliber rims, and/or your gun has excess headspace, it isn't the cases not chambering completely.

It's your primer seating, or light hammer strikes.
My new (to me) Officer's model had a thick moly grease all over in the insides. Cycling and hammer fall were noticeably easier/faster when it was removed and good old Outer's gun oil substituted. Dirt would do exactly the same effect. But even dirty guns fire, and Colt hammer springs almost never wear out. Check the primers. I've even lightened Colt trigger return spring (back side of mainspring) by shortening (instead of making the spring thinner) them without losing hammer speed to the point of ignition problems.

[Battis]

I loaded up 18 rounds using the Remington 1 1/2 primers. I tried DA and SA and all was good. Every round but one fired on the first strike. The one misfire was most likely Loader Era again. With the CCI primers, 10 out of 18 would have misfired.

[mainiac]

I have a 14 smith that someone worked over years ago,,has very light trigger,and a very light hammer spring.cci will hardly ever light on the first whack.ww,rem, fed,,lights everytime. So i beleave cci is made with harder cup or something....

[Battis]

That's what they told me at KTP - the CCI primers are harder metal.
While we're talking about 38 SP - I've been using approx. 3.2 grs Red Dot, and it's a nice, easy load. I also have a Ruger Speed Six 38/357. Using Red Dot, what would be a good +P or .357 load with the DEWC?

[leftiye]

I have a 14 smith that someone worked over years ago,,has very light trigger,and a very light hammer spring.cci will hardly ever light on the first whack.ww,rem, fed,,lights everytime. So i beleave cci is made with harder cup or something....

Have you cranked up (inwards) the tension screw for the mainspring? There are reduced and replacement springs widely available.

[mainiac]

Have you cranked up (inwards) the tension screw for the mainspring? There are reduced and replacement springs widely available.

Nope.... havent even had the grips off it. All i ever bought/shot was rugers for years.Now ive been bitten by the 8-3/8" barrelled smiths,and cant seem to shake the things.I know nothing about the guts of a smith. But now that you mentioned it,i may have to peek in there sometime.