Shell holders

[Collo Rosso]

How loose should a case be in a shell holder?
I started priming on the press about a year ago. Redding T-7 with their on press priming system. Recently with 9mm I've been having FTF's with a primer strike and almost always the round fires the second strike. Looking closely at my primed cases the primers are not seated square, but cocked in the seat. While priming and running my finger over the primer when I do find one high it's always cocked in the hole. Playing with the press I noticed when priming the case always cocks towards the closed side of the shell holder. No matter how I rotate the shell holder the case rim cocks up on the open side and the mouth towards the closed side. The primer ram is not bent and comes up square through the center hole.
Has my shell holder worn out? Recently been using S&B primers and the FTF's are more common. Finished up some Winchesters and while they didn't seat square either, they seemed to be less sensitive to not being square.
Poor priming system?

[arjay]

Sounds like something is a little off.I just use an RCBS hand primer.Works great unless you have arthritis

[muddocktor]

What brand shell holder are you using? I usually use either Hornady or RCBS and have had no real problems with them. I've also had Lyman in 9 mm that was ok and have one in 223 that I've had problems with bending the rim when trying to swage primer pockets. Bought a RCBS shell holder and that seemed to work better. I also have an old Pacific shell holder which works well, but has a flat floor that won't let a case with a protruding primer be inserted. And Pacific hasn't been around since the early 80's (Hornady bought them out).

With that said, I usually prime off press with my bench mounted RCBS Automatic bench priming tool. That really saves my wrists and hands compared to a hand priming tool and I can prime up hundreds of cases in a short amount of time (if needed).

[Alk8944]

If the case cocks significantly you either are using the wrong shellholder or it is worn out. What brand are you using? Lee shellholders tend to be somewhat generic, which is why they have so many fewer styles than other makers who make theirs to closer tolerances so they are usually specific to a single basic case.

Another thing you can do, and this used to be recommended in the manuals, is when seating primers turn the case 1/2 turn and press on the primer again to square it up.

[H Richard]

For rifle and low volume pistol loads I still use a Lee Auto-Prime. Everything else is done on the Dillon 550 which seems to be flawless. I've never had a problem seating primers, but have never used a bench mounted primer seater.

[Collo Rosso]

I'm using a RCBS shell holder.

Originally Posted by Alk8944

Another thing you can do, and this used to be recommended in the manuals, is when seating primers turn the case 1/2 turn and press on the primer again to square it up.

When I do catch a high primer that's what I do. Noticed that more often than not it gets the primer below the rim but doesn't straighten it out.

[moxie]

Try the Lee Autoprime and 20 years from now you'll think it was one of the best decisions you ever made.

[bwpaterson]

Something to look at is the primer ram set up for small trimmers? If your primer arm isa for larges primers such as you had loaded 44 mag or 45 act then you need to change the primer arm. I ram into this as the primers go into the cup but flop around letting the primer to be off center. Just something to look at.

[Collo Rosso]

Originally Posted by bwpaterson

Something to look at is the primer ram set up for small trimmers? If your primer arm isa for larges primers such as you had loaded 44 mag or 45 act then you need to change the primer arm. I ram into this as the primers go into the cup but flop around letting the primer to be off center. Just something to look at.

I have 2 complete setups for LP's and SP's.

[AveragEd]

I've never had that problem but I can tell you that any two shell holders of a given number may not be identical. For rifle ammo, I use RCBS shell holders exclusively and have two of a few numbers. I learned the hard way that they differ enough in thickness to affect the sizing die setting so I have them marked accordingly.

I prime my rifle cases with an RCBS hand priming tool with the universal shell holder system and use my Dillon 650 for priming handgun cases as I load them.

Ed

[Rule3]

Some brands of brass will fit a shell holder snug, some loose. Some 9mm and 223 would not even slide in.
I use LEE shellholders on the press and for 9mm and 223/556, sent some brass with the shell holder back to LEE and they sent me another shell holder (same number) but it fit the brass better.

Unless you have loaded a gazillion rounds in one year I doubt a steel shell holder is worn out from brass. Probably just the way they were cut or machined.

Pay the money for Redding shell holders or try the LEE, they work fine, call RCBS or whatever.

Lee Universal Shellholders Pack of 11

[Ivan the Butcher]

The only other possible problem I can think of is, Maybe some of the cases have slight crimp on the primer. Before I understood the need to swage primer crimps, I had 9mm primers seated in all manor of deformity. Some of the cases are using a minor crimp on the primer, it is not visible to the unaided eye. My routine now is to decap and swage the primer pockets before cleaning, the size and the rest of the reloading. I do this on all military caliber brass that has never been reloaded before.

Ivan