I think salopian's suggestion has good merit. Aside from potential safety issues, it takes few pierced primers to flame cut the nose of a firing pin & ultimately to damage the standing breech's firing pin hole or disc/bushing.
I am witnessing more FTF incidents recently, so it would seem, w/factory target rounds shot by others. Most of those cartridges did fire upon being rechambered which might indicate the primer mixture wasn't uniformly applied inside the cup or the cartridge rim thickness was on the thin side or a headspace issue w/the gun, but who actually knows? It could just as easily be 'crud' buildup on the backside of the standing breech keeping the firing pin from extending as fully as it should in some gun designs where said gun has seen a lot of use.
I've had pierced primer experiences in year's past [in my case, it was a mechanical gun issue], none recently, but I know of others who are experiencing that issue in the present w/factory new ammunition & to a lesser extent w/reloads in assorted guns. I see it when shooting and on spent cartridges both w/some frequency. I've no doubt that some primer cups are harder/softer ticker/thinner than others & that they have likely changed from time to time due to combinations of cost &/or changes w/vendors supplying cup material.
I've loaded multiple sleeves of Cheddite primers in the last few years w/o an incident of any kind, no FTF's on the first loading & no pierced primers. I have had similar positive experiences w/Fiocchi 616's, WW 209's, Federal 209's [until I ran out], 209A's and some now ancient Federal .410 primers. Excepting those .410 primers, I'll use a minimum of two sleeves a year on target ammunition alone. Oh, I use some CCI 209M's on some hunting loads as well. No issues there either.
I'll also shoot a few flats of 12ga. Remington Premier[STS]target loads, 12ga. Clever Mirage Super Target or Pro Extra, 20ga. Federal Field and 12ga. Fiocchi ammunition in the course of a year & I've experienced no FTF or pierced primers w/any of it. Just my experience.
FWIW; if the 'indention' may be used as an empirical indicator of primer cup hardness, then the no longer made Federal .410 primers would clearly have the hardest cups of any of the primers I listed above.
Its a good and fair topic of discussion w/today's plethora of ammunition and components that are on the market and it is a condition that can and should be rectified .. or avoided, if that may be done by something as simple as making an ammunition or primer change, well worth being aware of. Sorry for the length of the post. I talk even slower;-)
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We might start by asking what ammunition salopian was using and what specific model Browning? I'll begin paying more attention to the ammunition & gun in use when I see a FTF & hulls w/pierced primers and if it looks to have a pattern, I'll post it.
Last edited by tw; 05/02/16 03:34 PM. Reason: addendum
