Primer piercing and recoil pad

[J. A. EARLY]

Originally Posted by Bruce Day

...A pierced primer is potentially harmful to the gun because the combustion gases can blow back through the plunger hole in the standing breech and then into the stock head and crack it longitudinally...

Bruce,

I thought the same thing as I had a cracked stock head on a top lever after firing RSTs and had pierced primers, but someone pointed out to me that on a hammer gun this cannot happen as the plunger is contained outside of the stock head. So even with pierced primers one should be safe. But I would wear shooting glasses, although the plunger fit is quite tight. From then on I did not worry about the poor thickness on the Cheddite primers in RSTs.