best primer for light firing pin

[45fan]

Anybody have any idea what is the lightest small pistol primer? What I mean by this is my wife has one of the S&W bodyguard 38's. The firing pin strikes the primer fairly light and out of the 5 rounds in the cylinder I always have one or two that need two hits to fire. So I am wondering if there is one primer over another that may fire a little easier than another. I usually use CCI or winchester primers as of now, there is no noticeable difference between these two primers but I am hoping somebody has had experience with others that may fire with lighter firing pin strikes.

[JWFilips]

Federal
My wife has the same ( & same problem) actually I use Federal Match spp. I have a lot of them in reserve

[dudel]

Why not get the pin fixed? Be a real pity if you or your wife needed to use the weapon for self defense; but couldn't find the specially crafted ammo that worked.

From the description though, it sounds like primers aren't being fully seated. First strike seats the primer, second strike fires it.

[fryboy]

second the federal spp , cci by comparison is much harder , second best would be the standard remington #1 1/2 spp

[David2011]

I have no problem with a target pistol that needs soft primers but it's a dangerous condition in a self defense weapon. Dudel is right.

Federal primers are the most sensitive but the gun needs to be fixed.

David

[429421Cowboy]

I also was thinking the exact same thing, having a SAA with a "tuned" action with a super light mainspring that misfires at a SASS match is one thing, my wife having a gun that is not 100% that she might trust her life on is another. I would send it off for a full runthrough and make sure everything is topnotch. I am a huge proponent of keeping stock weight springs in revolvers for reliability on all guns.

Yes, CCI primers are hard, Feds are known to be some of the most sensitive. I would look at both your primer seating steps and make sure they are seating correctly, and also would check that your primer pockets are clean enough that they aren't preventing primers from seating properly and not cushioning the firing pin blow.

[JWFilips]

Well I had changed the springs on My wife's 38 to make her double action easier for her to practice with however once she started getting intermittent misfires
I knew that that was bad news on a defensive pistol so back in went the factory springs & we just limited target practice to 30 minutes or so each trip to the range.
The OP asked about softest primers & Federal primers did not misfire when I had the softer springs installed, CCI's did every 3rd or 5th shot and it was intermittent
That's why I feel the Federal primers are much softer . I make it a point to use them in any SD loads

Very Correct, you don't want a Defensive weapon misfiring intermittently.

[starmac]

I am in the fix the problem crowd. I have no use for any gun not firing when I tell it too. The way components come available here at least, I would hate to have to depend on only being able to use one brand of anything.

[220swiftfn]

Cylinder & Slide or Apex Tactical (?) have a long firing pin that can help..... Some Smith's have a slightly short firing pin, and when they get coupled with light springs........misfires.......


Dan

[MtGun44]

Hand exerciser, use daily.

Bill

[ArchAngelCD]

I also agree the primers might not be seated correctly.

Yes, Federal primers are known to be the easiest to ignite but like said above, be sure if it's not the primer seating that the revolver is in proper operating condition. Does it do the same thing with factory ammo?

[45fan]

My primer seating was the first thing I thought of as well the first time it happened. Since then I have made sure seating was not the cause. Additionally it is only an issue with the reloads I make for her to practice. I load her up with factory defensive rounds (hornady critical defense) and have been shooting these for a long time (since hornady come out with them) hundreds of rounds through this gun and have never had an issue with factory ammo firing. So no fear of not firing when life is on the line. I will give Federal primers a shot if I can find them.

[Bzcraig]

Pretty unanimous, fix gun first, but Federals are the softest.