Fired primers looking strange on 5.56 x 45 ammo

[Jo.rademeyer]

Good day

Advice needed from fundis please. My fired primers are looking strange. These are Nobleteq factory reloads, fired from a Dashprod. On the photo, the far left doppie is from a different batch of ammo, and the rest from a recent batch. On some primers I am able to remove the protruding bit of primer with pliers, without much effort, as per last photo. I would like to know if this is normal, acceptable, or a problem.

[Paul]

The ammo is dangerously over-pressure and is flowing the primer cup back into the firing pin hole in the bolt.

This has been known to lead to firing pins becoming trapped in the hole, and out of chamber detonations.

Nobelteq told me they were pulling all the ammo to download. I suggest you contact them directly.

[Jo.rademeyer]

Thanks Paul, appreciated, I will.

[PistolBoy]

Listen to Paul. I wouldn't shoot any more of that ammo.

[M43]

The headstamps all appear the same on the problem cases, is it perhaps Indian mil-surp? I have seen an AR or two stop because of the same problem, and if I remember correctly, those cases had the same headstamps. In another thread there was mention of a few AR's that stopped working because those disks that popped out of the primer clogged up the firing pin channel.

[Yeti]

Paul is quite right.

What I find quite odd though is that the primers are not flattened, which I admit would be more prone in a Bolt gun than in a semi, but with that level of flow, I would have expected the primers to be far flatter than that.

[Jo.rademeyer]

Yes M43, the headstamps on the problem ammo are all the same "JH 5.56", i don't know if it is Indian, but all bought as Nobleteq factory reloads in a box of 50 rounds.

I inspected my bolt, but have not taken apart the firing pin assembly. Not sure how to do that.

Found a proper camera (sorry, I like photos):

[M43]

The fact that all those cases still have the green oil-proofing visible around the primer means one of two things. Either its factory new ammo that was repackaged by Nobletec, or it was de-milled by pulling the bullets and loading different bullets or with different propellant. But they are not reloads. (NGA used to buy Mil-surp, de-mill it and reload the cases. sometimes it worked and sometimes guns blew up)

Either way, the primers are kak or the amount of powder is kak or the type of powder is kak, or a combination of all three. If you have the patience to pull all the bullets and then de-prime the cases you will at least have new cases and bullets to load yourself.

[FantomBadger]

I have shot 100 of those through my AR. I have noticed that the primers fell out of the spent brass in my range bag afterwards.

I have had no issues with that batch, but I will be cautious buying from them again. Thanks for the warning.

[Peter Wells]

I would suggest the firing pin hole is probably over-large too! Either like that ex factory or eroded by hot ammo/pierced primers