Match primer fail

[Caster]

Was shootin' my 308 today. Brand new Hornady match brass, 168g Amax over AA 2520. Initial accuracy was AWESOME, but today really sucked bad. Groups opened up by a good two inches. Then.....click. Federal Match Primer, I pay extra for the match primer so I get a better product and this doesn't happen. I lifted the bolt handle twice and with a total of three strikes, it was dead to the world. These are new primers, I just assembled everything last week, and I keep my primers in a seal ammo can.

The bad primer makes me want to blame the poor accuracy on them too. I was shooting the same load, powder, bullet, everything. Even the same bench, same rest, and the same distance.

The real kicker is, I bought these primers as only one box just to see if I liked them. In a moment of stupidity, I pitched the box in the trash when I loaded all 100 of them. Now I don't know the lot number. I can't rightly complain to Federal without a lot number. And before anyone asks, YES it had powder in it.

Grrrrrrr.

This is crap.

[Caster]

Ohh, and I just bought a 1,000 of the things! I like the accuracy from the first test so well, I bought a whole case. Now, I know this will likely NEVER happen again and thing do happen, but that is why i bought match grade stuff made by more experienced employees to keep this from happening. TO boot, I have NEVER in all my years had a bad primer from CCI, Wolf,winchester, Magtech or any other.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I was talking to a guy at a recent highpower match. He said he quit using Federal match primers for that reason. He said it seemed like every match he would have at least one that would not go bang. I asked what he uses most and he said Wolf.

I can say that Wolf has cut my SD down to single digits. I have tried CCI and Remington previously and neither shot as well as the Wolf. Problem now is finding Wolf locally.

Dolomite

[Caster]

That's really funny Dolomite, because in my previous rifle I used to get laughed at for my loads. LC match brass, 174g match bullet, AA 2520 and WOLF primers. Accuracy was awesome and I never had a misfire over the span of several years and several thousand rounds.

Reloaders bench will carry them when they can get them. They just never manage to get any in. I still have about 700 LR wolf primers. I'm switching back. Cheaper too! That's what I get for trying to get bigger than my breeches.

[Raoul]

That's really funny Dolomite, because in my previous rifle I used to get laughed at for my loads. LC match brass, 174g match bullet, AA 2520 and WOLF primers. Accuracy was awesome and I never had a misfire over the span of several years and several thousand rounds.

Reloaders bench will carry them when they can get them. They just never manage to get any in. I still have about 700 LR wolf primers. I'm switching back. Cheaper too! That's what I get for trying to get bigger than my breeches.

FWIW, Wideners has them in stock.

[gregintenn]

Send me the primers if you're scared of them.

Seriously, it does happen, but you'll likely never see it happen again. I've heard it claimed that some primers require a heavier strike to ignite than other brands. It appears in the picture that you had a good, solid strike. For whatever reason, the primer was bad. When you punch it out, look and see if it contains priming compound. That is very uncommon. I've had a couple of misfires with factory ammo through the years, but I can't remember any with handloads, except some that were due to a weak mainspring in a 100 year old revolver.

[Caster]

I ain't scared of 'em, but I don't like that for sure.

I just loaded 50 and the only difference in the load at all is the Wolf primer instead of the Fed. If they shoot just as good, I ain't paying an extra $10 per thousand just so I can say "Match".

[gregintenn]

I ain't scared of 'em, but I don't like that for sure.

I just loaded 50 and the only difference in the load at all is the Wolf primer instead of the Fed. If they shoot just as good, I ain't paying an extra $10 per thousand just so I can say "Match".

I'm with you there!!! The only match primers I ever bought was at a going out of business sale, and I already bought all the regular primers he had.