9mm fail to fire.

[CorpsmanRN]

Noob to reloading. Would appreciate input. I loaded my first 9 mm bullets today. As I lack experience, I only loaded 10 rounds. First round fired and ejected. Next round just clicked. Pulled mag, ejected misfired round, inserted mag, pulled the slide, bullet fired and ejected, next round clicked. Repeated the above with same result. When firing after manually chambering a round it fired, but failed when chambering automatically.
I thought my primer may have been seated too shallow. Reloaded 5 more making sure to seat primer flush or just indented. Returned to range with same results. Failed rounds had a slight dent in the primer. They all fired when shot a second time, if I manually chambered the round.
As components are hard to come by, I am using what I can find to load. My combination is this; hornady 90gr xtp,hp, new Winchester brass, rem # 5 1/2 small pistol primer, accurate #7 powder charged to 8.6, which is min. COAL about 1.12 with variance of a couple of hundredths.
Loading on a hornady LnL with hornady 3 die set.
Information is hard to find find on this bullet weight and powder so I assume
it isn't the best recipe, but it's what I can find given the current political
climate.
Any input would be appreciated. Was thinking I would increase the powder charge slowly and try less crimp. ???
Sorry for the length of post, just trying to be specific. Thanks again.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Firing on the second try is an almost sure sign that the primers are not seated deep enough and your description of your seating verifies it. Primers should ALWAYS be below flush. Usually 0.003-0.005.

As for your crimp, measure the case mouth diameter. It should be 0.380, no less than 0.373.

Your load should be fine, based on extrapolating Accurate's other data you'd be right at starting load.

[hoodlum]

Did they headspace correctly? I had that problem when I first started 357sig...Turned out that they were such a tight fit that they would space correctly when chambered by dropping the slide, but wouldn't when chambered from the action when fired.... I would check the rounds by plunk testing in the barrel first... It could be a low charge, but they will usually result in a fte.....
Hoodlum

[rlc323]

I believe Brian has your answer. When you are denting the primer on the first firing attempt you are actually finishing the job of seating the primer to the needed depth.

You don't have to crush them in there, but good and firm works best.

You did not mention the model of gun you are using, but each gun has its own certain demensions that make the plunk test an important part of your learning curve. You can search plunk test on Youtube for more insight and actually see how it works.

[chiefr]

I have been reloading 9mm for many years and have fired my reloads thru many different pistols.
If anything was learned about reloading for the 9mm is many 9mm handguns require near max loads to cycle reliably in some semi autos. I know there is a central tendency to avoid max loads when getting started, but working up to 100% reliability has always been a challenge when developing a load for a particular 9mm pistol.
Of course there are some 9mm pistols that I owned which would function reliably with less powerful reloads; 92 Beretta & CZ 75.

[CorpsmanRN]

Thanks for the responses. I will look up "plunk test" and put that to use. I will also measure the case mouth.
I am shooting a sig p250. It seems to be sensitive to what it fires even with store bought ammo. One box of 100 will run flawlessly while the next will have a few ftf (fire) and fte.
I'm gonna get back out there today and try to correct the problem. Will post how it goes. Thanks again.

[boondocker385]

As a newbie(less than five years) failure to seat primers is a common mistake.... seems we are too concerned about the pin not reaching when in fact the biggest problem is the primer not being in far enough to cause a reliable detonation. Don't have time to link the threads but this comes up regularly here and other forums.

[CorpsmanRN]

Loaded 5 more rounds a touch hotter. Same primer, a rem 5 1/2, and 90gr hornady hp. Checked all measurements, etc... First one shot. Rest did not.
I had also loaded 5 of those same rounds with a federal small pistol primer. Lastly I loaded 5 rounds of 124 gr fmj hornady, Federal primer, 7.6 gr aa#7. Went to the range. All 10 rounds built with federal primers fired flawlessly.
Just read that maybe rem 5 1/2 was a magnum primer. Any truth to that?
I was glad to see the other rounds fire. Now I can get on with the reloading. Thanks again for input.

[Gster]

Rem 5 1/2 primers are small pistol mag primers and have a harder cup. I'd say you are getting light strikes.

[mjes92]

I may of missed something, Why wouldn't you try a different gun?
It would verify if the Sig was a soft striker.

I know you need a load to work for what you have. Then at least you would know what you are dealing with.

[CorpsmanRN]

I had considered trying another gun with the same recipe. My buddy that is learning with me didn't bring his 9mm and I only have the sig. It may be that it strikes light. I also have an xd-m compact 40 that I'm gonna load for. Maybe the 5 1/2 primers will work for that one.

[CorpsmanRN]

My next learning experience will be to load 223 for the AR. i will, more than likely, need input with that load.
This was my first forum post. It's nice to be able to get input and advice from people who know what I want to learn. Thanks.

[snuffy]

The Hornady LNL has had some problems with NOT seating primers deep enough. Also, you DO have the small primer ram installed,,-- don't you?

If you have a caliper, try measuring the depth of your primer seating. As mentioned, they should be seated at least 2 to 4 thousandths below flush with the case head.

A buddy of mine loves his sig S-autos. But he only shoots factory rounds, 100% reliability. My CZ-75B eats anything I throw at it. Including many different handloads. I shoot almost no factory loads, since it's a full sized pistol, I don't carry it. I tend to carry only factory rounds in my Ruger LC-9. It too shoots my reloads as well as any of the zombie rounds I've tried in it. The Ruger has a tiny hammer, so it's not a striker fired gun.

[mikld]

Disregard any "dimensions" on primer seating depth. Seat them all the way to the bottom of the primer pocket. Handgun brass is mass produced to specific tolerances, and sometime the pockets are a bit deeper than usual and some guns don't shoot them reliably. I've been reloading for nearly 30 years and don't often have a primer seating problem, can't remember any in the last 10 years or so. But, on a new FMK 9mm, I was getting failures to fire about 10% of the time, even though they would shoot in my Tokerev. When I reloaded the next batch I purposely seated the primers with a bit of extra force, and all fired. Some primers (Winchester) looked to be about .005"+ below surface of the CBC brass but they were all the way to the bottom...

[floydster]

The anvil on the primer has to be seated tight against the primer pocket in the case.mikld has it right--seat the primers with authority