OK guys, I can't hold this in any longer. I've been biting my tongue for many months now and I feel everyone has been totally ingnoring the "Elephant in the Living Room".
What I'm about to say will P O some and cause some to puff up and roast me. Go ahead and flame away.
When new members post range reports, many times they talk about light primer strikes (lps), dud, fail to fire (ftf).
Invaribly, a board member will blame the ammo, talk about hard primers, bad ammo, that brand is known for that, etc.
I'm here to say that is BS. I know nothing is 100%, but factory ammo is as close as it gets. I shoot between 4-5 thousand rounds of factory ammo per year(most common brands) and can only remember of one round that was bad, and that came from their generic "yellow box " line. Now this was before I got my pup. Now all of a sudden, I get 2 lps per mag. And some of you guys want to blame the ammo?
I also shoot action competition and go through over 10 thousand reloads a year. Last year I had 3 ftf. I traced it to the ammo. One- a piece of cleaning media from the tumbler blocked the primer flash hole, thus the primer did not function properly. The other two, similar situation, but bug parts got solidly smashed in the primer hole by the primer swager.
My point is on this is, even with reloads, which have a bad reputation with some people, is be very reliable when loaded by the right people.
Now you will say, but what about the obvious hits on the primer?
I had the same thing with one of my race revolvers 3 years ago. Good primer hits (dents), but no BANG! I pulled the round apart and the components seemed all good. I would take the gun to my smith and he said he ran 100 rounds through it and it was fine. I go to a match, and bang, bang, click.
All I ended up doing was putting in a stronger hammer spring and that solved it.
Please read this part carefully: for the primer to blow, it needs a sharp, hard, strike.
What was happening in my race revolver was it was hitting just hard enough to PUSH the primer dent in, NOT sharply STRIKE!
And that is the key.
To prove my point, save those "duds". Sometimes they will fire in another gun. But it depends on how long the firing pin is, since it has to reach past the dent to strike further; or unless it is maxed out. Like I said, "sometimes" they will fire in a different gun.
Now some board member told me when I first joined that, the lps would work itself out. I much prefer that honest advice. That makes sense. Maybe the firing pin springs are a little too stiff and need to settle in. I can accept that. But don't insult my intelligence with kneejerk reaction like "bad ammo".
Come on guys , this board has a great reputation for good reliable, honest information. Don't back off now.
The Elephant in the Living Room is a little bitty four footer we all love.
And the food is not the problem.
Reinz
