Anyone uses large S&B pistol primers?

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VinnyQC

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Anyone uses them? I bought quite a lot (5k) of them from tenda to reload 45acp. About 4% of them require a 2nd strike. No such problem with CCIs in the same pistol, or with PMC ammos. This is especially annoying since it's a 1911 (which isn't DA, I have to manually pull the hammer). The gun is a smith&wesson performance center that otherwise runs smoother than any other gun I own.

I haven't had the same problem with the S&B small pistol primers in my 9mm either. And those have reduced tension main springs.

Anyone has tried a meaningfull amount of them? If so, did you run into something similar?
 
I've gone through a case (5,000) of them. You certainly aren't going to get away with very light double action trigger pulls, like you can with Federal primers, but they have worked absolutely fine for me.
 
Ive used quite a few thousand of them and Im quite happy with them.I have noticed that they are a bit harder to seat than other primers and you have to pay close attention with seating them that they are seated properly or else you will get misfires.Im not sure of the mainspring weight of your 1911 but they are also a harder primers than federals(more like CCI probably) ,so need a harder hit to ignite.All in all Ive been happy with them and like the price.
 
I've used somewhere around 1k of them in .45acp in my tuned up Norc 1911 with zero issues so far. As previously stated, light DA guns may have the odd issue with them, but if you're running something with a super light trigger than you should probably just be buying federal primers anyway
 
It's not a DA, it's a 1911, so SA only.

I also thought they would be similar to the CCIs, with which I have no problem. Or similar to the small pistol I use in my shadows with reduced spring. The failure rate is very low, at first I thought it might be just one fluke, but 1-4% is more than just a fluke. I must be just sitting on the line between too light a strike and correct strike.

Sucks to be me I guess :)
 
A primer has to be seated firmly, so the anvil is supported. If the primer is level with the case rim, instead of counter sunk a bit, you will get some misfires.

Can you adjust your primer seater to seat a bit deeper?
 
Ganderite said:
A primer has to be seated firmly, so the anvil is supported.
Click to expand...

I have learnt this lesson all too well in the past well. Not so bad with target rounds but really frustrating when hunting, as you line up your game often with the benefit of a little adrenaline flowing, pull the trigger at the perfect moment only to be rewarded with an unexpected and somewhat baffling click. Of course my game walks off surely laughing at my reloading skills :)
 
If the primer fails to fire completely then it's more likely to be a dud primer. If the primer fires on the second try it could be seating or light strikes.
 
The main issues I've had with S&B large pistol primers is the thickness, I find they are on the thinner side.
Depending on the brass you're using, I've found that they can sometimes seat deeper than usual if the primer pocket is deeper.
My press (Hornady LnL Progressive) sometimes jams with these primers and I've even had several incidents where the primer flipped and got seated in the case backwards.
 
Ganderite said:
A primer has to be seated firmly, so the anvil is supported. If the primer is level with the case rim, instead of counter sunk a bit, you will get some misfires.

Can you adjust your primer seater to seat a bit deeper?
Click to expand...

It was my first hypothesis too, but I use a hand primer for all my priming, to get a good feeling of how deep I seat, and after there was 1-2 light strikes out of my first batch of 100, I primed some more and made sure they were seated deep enough, so much that I was kind of affraid the primers would blow up while I was seating them. I had roughly the same failure rate (1-4 failures per 100, all go bang on 2nd strike). I use the same hand primer and shellholder for the CCI and the S&B primers, and I use the tool the same way.

The one thing that's different is that the CCI I've all used them with my own 1fired wet-tumbled PMC brass. The S&B I've used on a lot of brass with different headstamp, and they were dry tumbled then deprimed, and I didn't bother cleaning the pockets. So maybe some crap in the primer pocket would keep the primer from seating completely? I always deprime, then wet tumble, but I hear those who dry tumble don't bother cleaning primer pockets on pistol cases so I didn't either.
 
I doubt it is a clean pocket issue.

Is the primer strike well centred? I have a pistol that misfires and the strike is quite off center. I have to use Federal primers for it.

have you used a light hammer spring in the 1911?

Changing that little hammer spring is very easy. You can order one 2 pounds heavier. That might solve the problem. I had to do that when I converted a 1911 to 7.62x25. It would not fire the milsurp ammo with a stock spring.
 
I haven't changed any spring, and really wished I didn't have to, since the gun runs smooth as butter.

The strike is 100% centered, but it seems a bit light to my naked eye. Not sure if my eyes is a gauge worth much though.

Where did you order the springs from? I'm not much of an expert on 1911, I shoot a lot more with cz shadows, and if I had that problem with a shadow, I'd switch the firing pin to an extended firing pin and maybe reduce the tension on the firing pin spring. But I don't seem to have that option with a 1911. I see most "extended firing pin for 1911" have a length of 2,296", which is within spec for a normal firing pin, and I can't seem to find anything like a reduced tension firing pin spring. For a shadow they would have all the required stuff on ipscstore.com, but no such luck for a 1911.
 
Replacing the hammer spring with a heavier one should solve the ignition problem. The trigger might become slightly heavier.

Changing the hammer spring is easy. At the bottom/back of the grip is a cross pin. This pops out easily and the back strap then slides off. The hammer spring is in the backstrap. The little cup you see at the top pf the backstrap is sitting on the spring. Push this down with a screwdriver and then the little cross pin will come out. It will have no resistance. A finger nail will do it. then let the spring ease up.

Avoid the dreaded SPROING....TING....

Wolf sells the hammer springs. Less then $10 each, as I recall. 23 lb is standard. Try a 26 pound.

https://www.gunsprings.com/COLT/1911 GOV'T PISTOL/cID1/mID1/dID1#2


You tube will show how to change the spring.

 
Thank you man. Didn't know of that website. Ordered the whole pack of hammer springs so I'll probably have one that'll work fine. Also ordered new springs for my Ruger GP100.
 
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