Primer failure

[dungheap]

Another "could be": When seating primers with a Lee priming tool, probably with any other hand held priming tool as well, it is a good idea to start the primer into the primer pocket, relax pressure, turn the case about a half turn, and run it home, being sure you actually feel the primer bottoming out. Primers not bottomed out, even a little, can cause misfires.

Just add that to your process of elimination.

[fatboy]

Just got the rifle used, I did pull the bullets, and removed the primers. Put all three on the cement and hit with hammer, all three went off. Not sure of the problem, going to replace the firing pin spring.

[georgeld]

take the bolt apart and clean all the build up off.
down in the tight corners too.

Be mighty careful popping primers with a hammer, wear your safety glasses!
as kids, one of the others had a brother with primers we got into. Dennis got a piece of metal buried deep into his cheek not far from his eye.
that was after some stuck in my forearm. we quit that nonsense shortly after.

about 15 yrs ago i inherited a bunch of OLD reloading supplies when a shooting buddy died and his wife asked if i wanted it. i still have 2-3000 OLD primers.
so old they came in the slotted wood trays. how many of you have even seen those?

I've loaded thousands of those in plinker pistol ammo and had less than 5 not go off. Sometime in the early 50's they switched to cardboard trays.

Amazing how long this stuff stays good. I sure wouldn't get very flustered at only 3 or 4 duds.

[L.Sherm]

Are these brass that have been fired in this particular rifle? If they aren't I'm betting like Nor Cal Mikie says the brass shoulder is pushed back to far. Even with a sharpie marking on the shoulder it's not gonna give you a true reading how much your pushing the shoulder back a comparator is your best friend when trying to measure shoulder bump.
I had a guy have me look at a Marlin rifle that would shoot factory rounds and that was his problem they were to short, you could reload some once fired bras that were fired in it and be just fine.
Some factory rifles have a long headspace and can have problems like this.

[Nor Cal Mikie]

"Put all three on the cement and hit with hammer, all three went off. Not sure of the problem, going to replace the firing pin spring."

Well, at least you know it wasn't defective primers.
If it was me, I'd pass on the firing pin spring but it's your $$ so go ahead and do it if it makes you feel better.

Take those rounds that wouldn't fire, increase the OAL by jamming the bullets into the lands. Once fired,the shoulders are blown forward and being too short in the chamber shouldn't be an issue. Neck sizing is good in this case. Then go easy if you full length resize.
I shoulder bump everything except my gas gun ammo and, I have been known to neck size and shoulder bump my .308 M1A ammo just to say I could do it.
Worked like a charm.

[fatboy]

All but ten fired in this rifle, out of the forty I loaded. Two of the three were out of this ten. I am going to take these three cases and load with just a primer and see if they fire. I will clean the barrel after the primer only test.

[fatboy]

Loaded each case with primer only, all three cases fired the primer only cases, two times in a row. Primers were seated 9 or ten thousands deep if I measured correctly with a dial calibers.

[Jaybird]

Only misfire issues I ever had were with CCI BR-4's in a Cooper 21. Those are very hard/thick primers from what I have been told. Switched to 7.5 Rems, no more problems. Put a new firing spring in and the CCI's worked fine after that. I am suspicious of your firing spring...

[admiral]

Originally Posted by dungheap

Another "could be": When seating primers with a Lee priming tool, probably with any other hand held priming tool as well, it is a good idea to start the primer into the primer pocket, relax pressure, turn the case about a half turn, and run it home, being sure you actually feel the primer bottoming out. Primers not bottomed out, even a little, can cause misfires.

Just add that to your process of elimination.

Agreed. I have an old Lee auto prime bought new in '88 when in high school. I like it for large and small handgun priming and small rifle priming. I don't use it for large rifle priming as I have experienced the same issue the OP has. I found long ago that the tool just doesn't have the ability to seat large rifle primers with 100% reliability in every case year in year out. I would get the occasional misfire as the OP described and when pull down the primer was never the issue. I went back to LR priming on the Rockchucker press and the problem went away completely. After a few years of press priming (got old fast) I bought a used RCBS bench mount priming tool with lots of leverage and haven't had any issues since.

[Nor Cal Mikie]

Nothing but CCI BR (large and small) and Mil Spec for my M1A and Mini 14. At least 5000 Mil spec used on my gas guns with never a FTF. Large and small rifle and pistol. Some Mag primers but not that many. I've got them if I want to use them.
Only FTF was from shoulders being pushed back too far on my .221 Fireball brass and the case being pushed forward in the chamber by the firing pin. Took 3 or 4 hits to get them to go off. Made sure I didn't push the shoulders back too far again. Used ONLY a Lee Auto Prime to seat my primers. Almost afraid to try something else. Not sure how many of the LEE Auto Primes I have worn out OR broken the pot metal handle on over the years. Shooting a LOT of Mil Spec brass on my M1A. Primer pockets are snug so extra effort seating primers is needed. That does the number on the Lee handles.