I bought some Tula .45 ACP to see if my SA Loaded would work with it, well…
Loaded up magazines with 50 rounds of it, and it was the first ammo I shot during my range session today, out of the 50 rounds, I had four FTF and two FTE. The FTFs were all clearly struck by the firing pin, nice dead-center dimple, but simply did not go boom. I ejected them and set them aside and went on to shot about 200 rounds of commercial brass loads, no problem, no issues. Toward the end of the range session I decided to see what would happen with my second box of Tula, so loaded it all up and … only two FTE, no FTF. So, I thought I’d give the four rounds that failed to fire the first time another go…loaded them up and…they all went bang
What gives? Any ideas why they worked the second time, but not the first time?
The primers weren’t hit hard enough the first time. The second time you tried it the firing pin hit them hard enough to start the primer. This can happen with some ammo manufacturers that use harder primers, which Tula uses.
How many rounds total do you have through your SA?
I can see how that would make sense, but…it was weird that I had four that did not fire off, but after the gun had been used a while, and I had another 200 rounds through it, I loaded up all four and they all went boom.
I wondering if it had something to do with lube either burning off after shooting a while, or distributing more…
?Have you ever pulled the pin and cleaned it, the spring, and the channel that it sits in. If you have gunk in there, you could be getting a lighter strike.
Another possibilty is, and I’m just guessing, here) is that the primers were’nt fully seated and were just above flush, I’ve had this happen to me with my own loads, My WAG (wild ass guess, is) That the primers being not quite seated, were hit by the firing pin, and instead of going off, the firing pin actually pushes the primer deeper into the primer pocket, The firing pin looses momentum, and the round dosen’t fire. When struck again, the primer now seated, fires normally…
Russian primers can be like that. Some of them are much less sensitive. They usually work but can be inconsistent.
Have you done a pencil test with your gun? The pencil should jump well clear of the barrel in a 1911 or you will be likely to have trouble with Russian primers.
(BTW: I’ve forgone using a pencil for this test because I’ve found that a piece of -empty- 5.7FN brass is more consistent than the old #2 pencil; which doesn’t work too well in certain pistols)
A while back during the great primer shortage I bought some Wolf primers because that’s all I could find. Right away I started getting FTF’s with my tuned competition CZ. A fellow competitor suggested I go with a stiffer mainspring. When I did the problem was solved. A shooting buddy of mine bought a case of Wolf .45 for use in his G30. You could have tracked his progress at a match with the trail of ejected live rounds he left in his wake. In my experience the Wolf primers are harder.
I recently experienced a similar FTF with Tula .45 ammo in my Kimber (and RIA compact which has no FP safety which takes that possibility out of the equation). Both had primer strikes but didn’t go bang. I reloaded them and the went bang on the second go round. I have had no problems with other ammo.