How much of a swat does it take? Have you noticed any differences between brands?
I was shooting a Ross rifle this past weekend, and experienced my first ever "dud" on a reload. Or thats what I thought. The Remington primer showed a substantial dent. Then I noticed that the saftey was partly in the on position. I fixed that and the round fired on the next try.
Was this an aberation? Was the saftey a factor? I have always used CCI primers before, but the shop was out of them when I bought my last 1000. I will point out now, that I never handle primers, I'm very carefull where they are stored, and I just bought this batch!

It takes a pretty substantial smack. I'd blame the safety on this one. JMO, Dutch.

Both the hardness and the thickness of the primer cup can vary from brand to brand and lot to lot, at least by a little.

Some "hard" primers are now being marketed to be resistant to the inertial impact from firing pins in military weapons such as the SKS. "Softer" primers such as the regular commercial variety can "double" by igniting from the momentum of the non-spring-restrained firing pins in these guns as the action cycles home on the newly loaded round. Check to make sure you don't have a lot of these specialty primers.

I've recently experienced some misfires (on the initial firing) of some factory loaded shotshells which appear to be heavily nickeled. The extra nickel coating make the primer a little bit tougher.

I'm not familiar enough with the Ross action to say if the partially-engaged safety could hamper the firing pin fall. If it does, then that may certaily be the answer to your ignition failure.

Stonecreek
the saftey is a hammer blocking type, and definatley impeded hammer fall.
But then with the big dent, it still hit pretty hard.

Hello John - which model Ross were you shooting? Where did you get your brass and what did it cost?

Edi - who has a 1905 & a 1910 and a shortage of brass.

John~
If you have a primer that isn't seated FIRMLY so that the pellet is sensitized, you CAN get a deep strike without ignition. The feet of the anvil in the primer have to bear against the brass so that the cup is pushed firmly into the pocket. That sensitizes the primer prllet. I have this happen off and on with a Thompson Contender. Almost always it's when I'm in a hurry and don't pay attention to seating the primers firmly. Sometimes in the T/C if the headspace isn't right on the brass it can also occur. The strike dents the cup but the cartridge is pushed further forward at the same time, absorbing the energy of the strike. In either case the cup will be dented pretty good with no detonation.

Edi
I pressume you are looking for 280 Ross Brass. Sorry, mine is a model 1910 in 303Br. Re Chambered to 303 Epps (I didn't change an original, someone had already been hacking at it.)
You might want to check out The unofficial Ross Rifle Web page at:
http://www.armscenter.com/rossrifles/

The rifle has been headspaced, but it is possible that I didn't seat the primer far enough, I doubt it though, I'm pretty carefull looking for high primers, and I use a Lee hand primer, fairly sensitive for seating.
Also possible that the pocket may be getting loose.I have been using that batch of fire formed brass for a while.

Also the primer can be seated "firmly" and still the anvil may not be at the bottom of the pocket at least in theory.

I have not had any misfires with centerfire handloads though that I can recall.

But I ream the pockets with a Whitetail reamer.