CCI small pistol

[chevyiron420]

Is anyone having trouble with these primers or is it just me? There are now three of the guns I load for that won't reliably fire CCI primers. So far Winchester and federal work fine.

[xacex]

I have never had a failure in any of my guns that I load small CCI primers for. How were they stored? Also, the store you bought them from may have stored them in the back where there was moisture. I live in a high humidity place, and store mine in a cabinet in the garage, and still don't have any problems with them. Could have been a bad batch also. Something to think about is cup thickness between brands. From what I have read CCI has a thick cup which makes ignition more difficult with a weak hammer spring, or wore firing pin. If they don't work in your guns I would stay away from them as a precaution until you find out what the issue is.

[retread]

I have switched to Winchester fromCCI. Had trouble with the CCI not seating consitently. Had the occasional misfire. Now I have them sitting on the shelf while I load with the Winchesters. I'm loading 9mm on a Lee progressive 1000 and on a Dillon 550. Same problem on both presses.

[avogunner]

I was also thinking weak hammer spring (mainspring). Although, it does sounds unlikely in your case with three guns giving you problems but I would still look at it. I have a S&W 66 that had trouble igniting CCI (other brands ok) until I installed a Wolff replacement spring. Now all is well.

[Balta]

Have same problem!After i start to seating them deeper things get better.But to be 100% sure i put a heavier hammer spring at my CZ75SP01..and now there ar working 100%

[rexherring]

Some of the small, striker fired semi-auto pistols have not liked the CCI due to a little harder cup. I like the Winchesters for loading the .380's but haven't had a problem with any other guns I have.

[6bg6ga]

Never had a problem with CCI's with my Dillon XL650, square deal, Lyman,or RCBS presses.

[texassako]

CCI is all I have used except to try others for comparison purposes in varying handguns, and no problems. I don't have a progressive press and used a Lee ram prime before going to an RCBS automatic primer to seat them because I prefer the feel of priming this way. What are you using to seat them with?

[429421Cowboy]

Somebody told me a long time ago to unload the gun, point it in the air and put an unsharpened pencil in the barrel eraser up, then pull the trigger to check firing pin strength, most revolvers will be able to clear the barrel, if you were looking for an easy way to compare the guns.

[429421Cowboy]

I also want to add, i only use CCI's in all of our guns except one and have never had a misfire or any other problem with them.

[M4bushy]

A buddy of mine has a few pro-shop smith and wesson revolvers that don't like cci primers. I have been told the cups are harder. I've loaded thousands of rounds of 9mm with cci sp primers and have had no problems in my semi autos.

[BruceB]

[QUOTE=429421Cowboy;2016610]Somebody told me a long time ago to unload the gun, point it in the air and put an unsharpened pencil in the barrel eraser up,"


No.The eraser end goes against the firing pin. The 'rubber' cushions the impact of the hammer against the frame, and the movement of the pencil will indicate the condition of the ignition system. This works equally-well for semi-autos and revolvers. The pencil is usually ejected from the muzzle in my guns.

My experience with tens of thousands of CCI primers is very positive, even into 40-below-zero temperatures over decades in the Arctic No problems, in loading or shooting.

[chevyiron420]

I have had these problems with my Mom's smith 32 hand ejector, my model 76 Taurus target 32 mag, and one of my H&R 732's. All these guns are very nice, even though I know coil springs will settle down with age. It just seems to me the CCI cups are really tough.

[mongoosesnipe]

cci primers cups are a little bit harder i have a 686 with a really light trigger that will on rare occasions misfire with hard primers (magtech factory 357 load) i switched to a heavier hammer spring and solved the problem that said i prefer federal primers in my pistols if you look at what people shooting light race guns load it is usually Winchester or federal primers for comp guns as they are a little softer

[Hammerhead]

I began having problems with CCI's when I bought my GP100. I was priming with the press mounted tool by 'feel'. I checked my primers with a dial indicator and some were up to .005" above flush, no wonder! With softer primers and other guns I was getting away with it, but the GP100/CCI 500 combination didn't work.

I bought the RCBS Ram Prime system to get consistent primer seating and the problem went away. I seat them -.003" below flush. Any deeper and they start to flatten.

[TCLouis]

Years ago I bought 5000 of each size of the CCI's. LOTs of issues in the Contender calibers (TCUs so they were SR) and I NEVER bought CCI's again til the shortage. I had to uy 5000 LR and so far all of the LR go bang in the rifle loads..

[chevyiron420]

Here is another part of this saga, in regards to hard primers in lower pressure calibers. Wile working up a load for this 32 S&W long I chose a middle ground charge of red dot with my 100 grain boolit. I loaded 25 with CCI and 25 with Federal's. I figured I would work up to 750 fps. I fired some of the CCI loads first and all seemed well. Its a habit of mine to look the case and fired primer over for any signs of pressure or any problems. The CCI gave me no signs at all. Then I fired some with the Federal's. I still had some radius, but also a lot of flattening. I got my crony and both loads were running about 900 fps. I had some high pressure and the CCI primer would have never shown it. From now on I will only load my low pressure rounds with softer primers.

[Hammerhead]

^^^
Good point about the softer primers showing pressure signs earlier in light loads.
I've got a stash of Federals, but can't bring myself to burn any until I can find more.
Right now I'm only willing to burn Tulas.

[992B]

I used CCI primers in 90%+ of my reloads and in the last year have had 5 misfires. Two were in old S&W K frame m&p's. Bad primer as powder poured from each cartridge when the cylinder was opened. The other 3 misfires were on an old resurrected 38/44 Heavy Duty S&W. After the third misfire I pulled the hammer spring and it was bent. Probably a kitchen table gunsmith trick. A new hammer spring solved the problem in the old big frame Smith. I have been told by several trusted associates that CCI primers ain't what they used to be. Never had a problem with Remington brand primers!!

[xacex]

I have to agree on the CCI's not showing pressure signs as well as Winchester's. Once I got pressure flattening of primers that filled the primer pocket my brass was trash, and wouldn't reliably hold a primer on the next reload. All that and the fire pin dent showed no cratering, and was nice and formed. Not the best primer for working up a load even in high pressure cartridges.

[rond]

[QUOTE=992B;2025101]I used CCI primers in 90%+ of my reloads and in the last year have had 5 misfires. Two were in old S&W K frame m&p's. Bad primer as powder poured from each cartridge when the cylinder was opened.


If the bullet came out of the case then the primer worked, maybe bad or contaminated powder?

[429421Cowboy]

[QUOTE=992B;2025101]I used CCI primers in 90%+ of my reloads and in the last year have had 5 misfires. Two were in old S&W K frame m&p's. Bad primer as powder poured from each cartridge when the cylinder was opened.



If the bullet came out of the case then the primer worked, maybe bad or contaminated powder?


My thoughts exactly.

[Hammerhead]

I used CCI primers in 90%+ of my reloads and in the last year have had 5 misfires. Two were in old S&W K frame m&p's. Bad primer as powder poured from each cartridge when the cylinder was opened.

Most likely a powder issue. Probably slow powder and an insufficient crimp and/or poor bullet tension.
Just a guess, HS-6?
HS-6 and other low volume, spherical powders are notorious for poor ignition in the special.

[Methuselah3]

After having been reloading for 40+ years, I only recently learned that the anvil in a primer must be mashed into the primer a specified amount to preload the ignition of the primer.I always wondered why there seemed to be a creep feel when seating primers in a dedicated priming tool. If you are "feeling" the seating, you may not be accomplishing the full depth necessary for proper ignition. The .003 depth that someone mentioned earlier seems to ring a bell. A proper priming tool is made to prevent crushing it too much unless you gorilla the operation.My 2 cents worth.Never had a problem with more than 2 or three FTF in thousands and thousand of reloads and they probably had more to do with age( 20 years old) and possible overlube killing the powder and/or primer and I've used wolf, rem,win ,fed and CCI primers.

[FergusonTO35]

For primers in ammo that must work/no excuses I use nothing but Federal Gold Medal. This is all I buy as long as I can find them. For practice CCI is ok but I have found that certain lots of their SP primers will only fire reliably in my Marlin 1894 and even then they seem a bit hard. If Federal is not available I will buy Remington or Winchester.

[Petrol & Powder]

CCI primers have a reputation of being "hard". In just about any factory pistol/revolver they are reliable except when improperly seated (See comments by Methuselah3) I've loaded 10's of thousands of them along with the other major brands and they work fine in factory guns.
If you're running light mainsprings, have headspace issues, don't seat the primer correctly or get oil in the primer you have a whole different set of issues. If you run your finger over a properly seated primer you should be able to "feel" the primer face slightly depressed beyound the case head. We're talking about a very small inset from the case head, it is easier to feel than see. If the primer is "high", some of the firing pin energy will be used to drive the primer that last little distance into the primer pocket and you may get a misfire.
If one crushes the anvil into the priming compound during seating (and it doesn't go off then), a misfire can occurr as well.
The other brands seem to be a little more forgiving.
The slightest bit of oil will deactivate a primer.
I do find that CCI primers are available more often than Federal & Winchester primers.
Good Luck!