Seating primers

[kaseyfied]

What im saying though is my hand held primer tool is botteming out when i seat the primer.. so i cant seat rhe primer in any farther.. so is this a prob with my tool maybe??

 

[Trickymissfit]

What im saying though is my hand held primer tool is botteming out when i seat the primer.. so i cant seat rhe primer in any farther.. so is this a prob with my tool maybe??

depends on where the primers ends up at when seated. Ideally it should be in the .005" area below the face. Perhaps a check with a depth micrometer would be needed to see if they are shallow.
gary

 

[Kevin Thomas]

If the priming tool is bottoming out on its stroke, and the primer still isn't contacting the bottom of the primer pocket, then yes, there's a problem with the tool itself. Something out of adjustment, no set up correctly, whatever. Try seating these primers (the ones you've already got seated, but are still protruding) on another tool. Benchmounted, the press itself or another hand tool, just try another tool and see if you can't seat them the rest of the way down. I'm betting you can.

 

[lever-hed]

I'd say the priming tool is at fault..

I use a Lee hand prime and havent looked back yet.

One thing that hasnt been mentioned is the feel of the primer when it seats 'lightly' into the pocket. You DEFINITELY want to know how 'light' is TOO 'light' so you can discard the case for an over-enlarged pocket.

ps. Also, I 've had WLR primers seat as much as .012" UNDER flush with LC brass. Crimped primers will have an issue too, I would definitely (by my standards) not want to prime without a hand tool in that case.

Lever.

 

[25.06]

This may sound strange but, I have several Lee Hand Primers. When I got them over the years, I took a measurement of how much of the seating pin comes through the shell holder. I trimmed the pin for lg. rifle,small,and pistols.
Through the years all primers are seated correctly and haven't had any issues.

 

[huge29]

This is the same way that I was taught by my dad . He has always used the RCBS press and taught me to feel the cup as well . Another way is set them down on a flat surface and if the primer is high the case will rock around a bit before settling down but I prefer to feel the top pf the cup like you are doing .

So, what do you do if they are rocking a little bit? I am newish to reloading (but, have read the Barnes and Lyman manuals cover to cover) and this only happens on the magnums. I have a 7mag and 300 WSM and I see the same issue on both, but no issue on 243, 30-06 or 223. I know they should sit in and not flush, but these are above flush to rock like they do. I use the RCBS hand priming tool and press it all of the way in. I tried the Remington magnum and the regular CCI primers and same result on both. A friend suggested that I make sure the rod seating the primer had the flat end against the primer and the round end down, which has always been the case, but does not seem to improve, I can appreciate a potential safety issue, not to mention some possible accuracy issues. What else is there to fix? Thanks for any input guys!

 

[Bullet bumper]

So, what do you do if they are rocking a little bit? I am newish to reloading (but, have read the Barnes and Lyman manuals cover to cover) and this only happens on the magnums. I have a 7mag and 300 WSM and I see the same issue on both, but no issue on 243, 30-06 or 223. I know they should sit in and not flush, but these are above flush to rock like they do. I use the RCBS hand priming tool and press it all of the way in. I tried the Remington magnum and the regular CCI primers and same result on both. A friend suggested that I make sure the rod seating the primer had the flat end against the primer and the round end down, which has always been the case, but does not seem to improve, I can appreciate a potential safety issue, not to mention some possible accuracy issues. What else is there to fix? Thanks for any input guys!

You will not get consistancy or good feel until you uniform the primer pocket first
Precision pocket = better seating feel .
Get this tool and a small electric screw driver , Read " screw driver " NOT drill .
Sinclair Uniformer Kit with screwdriver adaptor | Sinclair Intl

 

[kaseyfied]

I uniform all my primer.pockets.. yet i am still getting this in my 338 lapua mag.. they do not seat flush anymore.so i have to see whats going on

 

[Bullet bumper]

Check the depth of the setting on the uniformer cutter. Check the depth of the skirt on the primer cups. Even sitting a primer on the uniformer can give you an idea if it's not cutting deep enough.
Measure the depth of a primer pocket that your are not having trouble with , that uses the same primer and compare.

 

[huge29]

Great, thanks, but the problem isn't consistency, these are all very consistently protruding too far with new brass, once fired, etc. Is this one any better/worse than the rcbs/hornady case preppers that have the same shape tool?

 

[huge29]

So I pick up some Federal large rifle magnum primers as I have read how many people really like them and sure enough, they do seat in at least flush to where the brass does sit level and not rock like the CCI's and Remingtons both did.

 

[Bullet bumper]

So I pick up some Federal large rifle magnum primers as I have read how many people really like them and sure enough, they do seat in at least flush to where the brass does sit level and not rock like the CCI's and Remingtons both did.

I have a feeling that your primer pocket uniforming techique could be poor or the cutter is not square enough on it's cutting points and is leaving a radius in the bottom edge of the pocket . A good pocket is dead square to a sharp corner in the bottom of the pocket. A mistake many make is not stopping frequently to brush away the swarf .
If you do that you get to the full depth of the cutter .
I have never used anything except Sinclair and had no troubles.
Primers brands do vary in skirt ( cup) length by as much as .004 across the range . I don't see how a primer could rock even if it's not all the way down.

 

[Trickymissfit]

I have a feeling that your primer pocket uniforming techique could be poor or the cutter is not square enough on it's cutting points and is leaving a radius in the bottom edge of the pocket . A good pocket is dead square to a sharp corner in the bottom of the pocket. A mistake many make is not stopping frequently to brush away the swarf .
If you do that you get to the full depth of the cutter .
I have never used anything except Sinclair and had no troubles.
Primers brands do vary in skirt ( cup) length by as much as .004 across the range . I don't see how a primer could rock even if it's not all the way down.

I use the K&M pocket uniformer chucked in an electric screw driver. With a Federal primer seated into crush the distance below the face always shows at about .004" to .005". Now I do the same test with the priming device mounted on my Forster press, and I get exactly the samething.

Now another poster here has commented about the hight of the primer verses the depth of the counterbore. I see his point, and plan on doing some serious checking to see if I'm all wet or actually getting it right.
gary

 

[Bullet bumper]

I use the K&M pocket uniformer chucked in an electric screw driver. With a Federal primer seated into crush the distance below the face always shows at about .004" to .005". Now I do the same test with the priming device mounted on my Forster press, and I get exactly the samething.

Now another poster here has commented about the hight of the primer verses the depth of the counterbore. I see his point, and plan on doing some serious checking to see if I'm all wet or actually getting it right.
gary

It sounds ok to me. The main thing is getting the primer to bottom in the pocket. This way the anvil is on solid ground. It does not matter much where the face of the primer is after that as long as it's below or even flush with the head of the case.
If the anvil has to move a few thou to contact the base of the primer pocket it's a slow ignition and also potentially a miss fire .
I would not describe the correct feel as a crush. It is more of a sudden stop to the feel of the movement seating and pressure. It's the softly seated primers that give most of the trouble.