So I'm loading 9mm with SPPs I've used before with no issue. It's been a while since I've done any reloading but the Christmas/New Years downtime seemed a great time to enjoy some reloading therapy. Got the press, projectiles, powder, etc. all set up and configured. Then I proceeded to load 50 rounds. Went well. So I proceeded to load another hundred or so. I figured I better fire the first 50 to make sure all is well. To my delight every round functioned perfectly.
Well the next several days I loaded about 600 more. Well, I decided to change my powder load. Loaded a few to do a test fire. First round "click" no bang. Ejected the dud and the striker definitely did it's job. Chambered the second round, again "click" no primer pop or bang. Third round went bang as intended. Then I dropped the first two round back in and tried them again. One fired normally the other was still a dud.
I had some theories and troubleshooting I worked through. Cleaned my gun, firing pin etc. Used a different gun. Same inconsistency. Loaded some brass with just primers to make sure there was no powder in the equation. Same inconsistency. Some would fire, some fired on the second try some would not fire no matter what. Of the ones that would not fire no matter how many re-attempts I successfully set them off via flame. They all popped.
So it seems my primer compound doesn't seem to be the issue. This brass is all brass I bought off here 1X fired. I tumbled it with the primers still in. And my Lee press pops them out with the first die while the new primer goes in immediately thereafter. So the primer pocket did not get tumbled clean. Could that (dirty pocket) be causing my intermittent issue with the primer's anvil not having the travel it needs from one round to the next?
I'm really scratching my head here. Thought I'd turn to the wisdom here. Any ideas what could be plaguing me?