Dis-colored primers

D

db4570

New member
This isn't a reloading question, but an ammunition question I figured you guys might know about.

I have been having trouble with a new gun (S&W BG380) with occasional light strikes. I have determined it happens mostly, if not always, when I shoot Winchester white box ball through it. I figured the primers were a bit less sensitive than other brands.

But then I noticed that many of the primers are discolored, like from a tarnish. I assume this is just from my sweaty fingers or something, and can't affect their reliability. Is there a chance this is the cause of my light strikes? I am guessing not, but am trying to rule out all possibilities.

Thanks,

David

 
Actually, I have been noticing lately that a lot of my winchester primers look the same. Have not had any function issues though.
I have used about 2000 of those primers in the last 2 months.
 
Looks like the same colors you get when you anneal brass. I wonder if it's left over from the metal treatment phase of the manufacturing process.
 
I have several boxes of Win primers look like that
Not one problem with them.
I'm with Mike I -"I wonder if it's left over from the metal treatment phase"
 
Primer cup material may be a slightly different alloy than the case, probably was exposed to a different heat, rolling environment, primer cake is put wet into the cup and dried. So there is a little tarnish on the back of the primer. It has never made a difference to me about ignition. What makes a difference is the match between primer sensitivity and the impact energy of the ignition system.

I have been having trouble with a new gun (S&W BG380) with occasional light strikes. I have determined it happens mostly, if not always, when I shoot Winchester white box ball through it. I figured the primers were a bit less sensitive than other brands.
Click to expand...

That is my conclusion also. This is worth reading on the subject, how the firearm industry has lost enough technical competency and design firearms with ignition systems that don't ignite ammunition

IT DON’T GO BANG:
FIRES, HANGFIRES, MISFIRES AND SHORT ORDER COOKS IN JERSEY
By Mark Humphreville

http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2009/08/primers-it-dont-go-bang.html

What your pistol is telling you, it does not have sufficient ignition energy to reliably ignite all factory ammunition and only has enough energy to ignite some factory primers. I would not want that pistol as a self defense item as in cold weather, lack of ignition power increases the chance of misfires.

Poor ignition systems are why primer manufacturers have had a race to the bottom in terms of primer sensitivity. Commercial primers are very sensitive because ammunition makers get the blame for weak firearm ignition systems. How this works out to our disadvantage is that in semi automatic mechanisms with free floating firing pins, the rebound energy of the firing pin will ignite sensitive primers causing a slamfire.

Now we have a slamfire denier in this thread, so you will come across people who don't believe that primers vary in sensitivity, but your pistol is showing you, yes, primer sensitivity varies and sometimes, the gun won't go bang.
 
Does the gun have a light target trigger weight? Did someone turn the mainspring screw to get a lighter trigger or cut some coils?
If you want to test the primers, separate the discolored from the regular and go to the range and note how many non-fires you get with each.
 
I am well stocked on win small pistol and large rifle primers. I haven't seen any of this color is the last 5000 or so I've used, do you think this happens after loading the cartridge? Maybe a post tumble? I've never seen it "preloaded" is all I'm sayin
 
Mike's right that the purple and blue look like annealing stain oxides. I would guess from this that they are probably annealing the cups after drawing them to remove the work hardening. They would then have a cleaning step to bring the brass color back and those look like they've missed that step. If so, it should have no performance effect and that kind of oxide on brass is actually more corrosion resistant than cleaned up brass.

But I could be full of it. Call or write Winchester and ask.
 
Light strikes

Something to check with random light primer hits: Check for brass shavings in the firing pin channel. I purchased a new Ruger LC9 right after they came out and wasn't able to fire one box of ammo without that problem. After searching the internet for the FTF problem, I was not the only one- I sent it back and Ruger sent a new gun. Brass shavings were the problem.
A sergeant that I work with was going to send his P85 or P89 or such back to Ruger for random FTF. I took it into the armory and inspected it, I found a big wad of brass shavings in between the rear of the firing pin hole and the face of the firing pin. The wad moves around and randomly acts like a shock absorber depending on how it is positioned.
 
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