I went to the range the other day trying some 220 Swift loads in my Ruger VT and had one round that did not fire.The primer on this round was heavily cratered as if it give no resistance,but gave no ignition.Has anyone had this to happen?I called Federal and talked to a tech and he wanted me to send the round in so I will get an explanation from them soon.Also,I was curious as to the people that have tried different brand primers using the same powder/bullet combinations,could you tell a lot of difference in groups between brands?

I have used mostly cci, mainly 'cause that is what the gun shops that I use mostly stock. I can't recall ever having one not pop. Are you sure the primer didn't ignite and the case wasn't charged? I have had that (red face) happen.

That's not it,no pop or no sound other than the firing pin striking the primer.

In over 40 years of reloading, and hundreds of thouseands of rounds, I have never had a primer that failed to ignite.

Is it possible that you never deprimed and reprimed the case before dumping in powder and cappin with a bullet?

I have seen several people do that...

Ric,
"Hundreds of thousands of rounds without a single primer failure" WOW!
I have come to respect your judgement more then most bylines on this,or any other Forum.
I had 5 or 6 failures in one carton of new Winchesters,3 years ago,and at leasst a dozen more of varioue make,over the last 50 years.
I've also seen hundreds of "duds",over the years,on the range.
Most of my shooting is done with military actions,which have strikers with plenty of oompth.
Do you buy special,premium primers only?
Thanks,
Frank

I buy all primers. Usually 10,000 of each at a time (if I can get the same lot number for all 10,000).

Like I said, I have never had a primer failure. I did have two factory .44 Specials fail to fire (they were Federal).

I notified Federal and they replied with something like, "Gee, that's a shame."

Now, I have had "duds", but it was not primer failure, it was operator error (primer in upside down, primer in sideways, too light a powder charge).

Last week I was loading a small batch of 458's with Federal 215. When I put the primers in the tray I could see that one of them didn't have any primer compound in it.It was a dud in the making. The first time I have ever seen this.

As far as different primers resulting in different groups, I would say yes. At least when I was working up loads for my 22-250, I could notice. I didn't try all primers, but I did use CCI and Rem large rifle primers. The CCI's moved my groups about 1" in the direction of 11 o'clock on the target from where the Rems were hitting. The CCI groups were slightly tighter as well, so I stuck with them. My guess was that the CCI had a little more bang than the Rems. Also, the cups on the CCI seem stronger. With equal loads, the Rem primers would flatten and the CCIs looked normal.

Let a friend use my tools once to reload some .308 Win. ammo. He came back and complained that several had failed to fire! We pulled the bullets, which had well-blackened bases. He said he had heard no sound when he tried to fire them, he had left the powder out of them!!

Here's a lesson from the school of hard nocks. I recently loaded a bunch of .223's for a borrowed bushmaster ar-15. I was using WC844 powder, 60 gr. Hornady V-MAX bullets, LC 90's brass and rem 6 1/2 primers.

Here's the rub, the 6 1/2 primer is made thinner for .22 hornet and m-1 carbine and other small rifle shells. IT IS NOT MADE FOR .223! I had pinholes developing on the EDGE of the primers. I first noticed it while shooting groups during load developement and sighting in. It would make a mess out of the back of the brass. After I returned home and while cleaning the rifle, I was agast at what the hot gases had done to the face of the bolt! It looked like somebody had gotten carried away with a tiny cutting torch!

The problem was made worse by the LC,(lake city arsenal),brass. I got it from Midway on special. It was deprimed, polished and had the primer CRIMP REMOVED. It looks like they,(whoever did the work), had used a chamfer tool to cut away the primer crimp. Problem was they went a bit too far. This gave the primer too much room to flow, making it able to pierce on the edge.

I switched to winchester primers for the reminder of the loads with no problems. The correct rem primer is the 7 1/2.

Oh, the event was a 200 yd bowling pin shoot. Much fun and not as easy as it sounds! You could go prone off a bipod or tripod rest or sand bags, or from a bench, but no rear rest.

Anybody else heard of this? Steve?

The round that did not fire was exactly prepped the same as the other 23 that I had done.They were collet-sized,trimmed,deburred,and flasholes cleaned and deburred.They were all loaded with Federal 210 primers.One just failed to go off.No sound other than the firing pin hitting the primer.And yes,it has powder in it,37 grains of RL15 to be exact.Trust me,it was not something that I done,it was a faulty primer.I was just wondering how many have experienced this but me as I have only been reloading for about 4 years.