Unsatisfactory performance
Aquila small pistol primers were used in 327 mag loads, 9x19, 38 super and light (under 16k cup) loads in 32-20. In all cases primers appeared soft, flattening out in different guns that never had shown a problem before. In magnum loads primers ruptured about 5% of the time, in lighter loads ruptured at about 2%. Sized at near maximum allowable, hard to seat, and many firing pin indents were flattened, and some ruptures in a variety of guns and calibers.
Unreliable
I've used mostly Federal and CCI primers for almost 40 years, but I ordered 3000 of these Aguila primers because they were available. The primers "looked good" - not that you can tell anything from appearance, but they measured to spec and all that. The packaging was a bit odd. CCI and Federal have 90% of their primers laying nicely in the plastic tray. These were all bounced around, but no big deal...right? This week I loaded 200 rounds of 9mm. Primers seated alright, some a little tight but again, no big deal. Today I went to the range. Terrible disappointment! Using a completely stock Glock 17 and an M&P 2.0 (with an Apex trigger) I had over a 6% failure rate! Granted, most of them went bang when I manually loaded and tried a second time. But I had good striker imprints, and a 6% FTF is totally unacceptable. Personally, I will not buy or use again.
Poor Performance
I ordered 5000 of the #1 small pistol primers. With over 700 rounds now fired in two different handguns, I am suffering a 3% failure rate. I tried to contact Aguila directly but they don't have a phone number listed and they contact page requires a specific format phone number and I've not been able to figure out the specific format.
Very disappointing
Sadly, I ordered 2 boxes of these primers. I’ve used plenty of their ammunition in the past and figured the primers would be fine. These days I mostly reload 9mm and this was the primary reason for the purchase. Unfortunately I found that none of the primers would seat properly into the primer pockets. They all protruded way too far beyond the base of the case. I tried several different brands of brass but, no luck. My son asked me if they’d fit in .40 which hadn’t occurred to me. I reset my press for .40 and found that it worked on most of the brass I tried. The one exception were cases that had originally had the primers sealed or whatever the proper term is for that ridge of brass and lacquer you find on NATO rounds. I measured the height of the primers to compare them to other brands , (CCI & Winchester) and found them to average .002” taller than the others. All this occurred last night and have not had the chance to see how well they fired. Bad deal at 3x the traditional price.
