WEIRD PRIMER PROBLEM

[J. R. WEEMS]

Well, that is what I call it. Have used an RCBS hand primer for longer than I can remember. Do they wear out?? Or, is it the brass?? Where is 'AMERC' made?? Seems I had these high primers in my 30 Carbine Ruger. Not much, but enough where the cylinder would not turn- Ok, back from the range, attempted to seat them a tad more on the press. This seem to work, but I don't know why they would of been high in the first place. Hand primer worn or what?? Brass could be suspect. Tried to uniform onr of the shells-- NOT the answer as they would not fire. No problems with anything else which leads me to suspect the brass. Thankfully, I have only less than two boxes of it. Next I will be trying some other brass trying to narrow down the problem. I DID clean the primer pockets. Strange this would only be a problem with the 30 Carbine- again, which leads me to suspect the brass. ??????

[albiek22]

I have primer pocket reamers from Sinclair Int'l. they true up the primer pocket to the correct depth. I noticed over repeated reloadings of brass some tend to extend the primer pocket out.

Larry

[ArchAngelCD]

Look no further than that A-Merc brass you mentioned in your OP. A-Merc brass is only good for one think, throwing it in the scrap bucket! No reloader I know uses that brass because it's the worst brass on the face of the planet. It's only good for melting at the recyclers.

[David Sinko]

Yes, A-Merc is junk and not fit to reload. None of it is worth reloading, even as a last resort.

Re-seating primers below flush is very hard on priming tools. Back when I had the "Federal primer only action job" on my match revolvers I broke two Autoprimes and fractured the crank on a Dillon 550 by re-seating primers.

Dave Sinko

[Pisgah]

To answer one question, my conclusion is that AMERC is made in He**.

Worthless stuff, loaded rounds or brass.

[Rule3]

Tiz the brass.

I actually found some 45 ACP once and tested it. It worked OK. But that was the only time I every saw any. It must be bad if a brass scrounge like me never finds it in the weeds.

Do a search on the brass and all will be revealed.

[gregintenn]

A-Merc brass goes in the garbage...no exceptions.

[mikld]

Originally Posted by ArchAngelCD

Look no further than that A-Merc brass you mentioned in your OP. A-Merc brass is only good for one think, throwing it in the scrap bucket! No reloader I know uses that brass because it's the worst brass on the face of the planet. It's only good for melting at the recyclers.

Yep! Nosogoodbrass...

[SMSgt]

A-Merc . . . problem solved.

[tlay]

I am sure you are aware of the danger of trying to seat the primers lower on loaded ammo. If you are not, DON'T.

[webfarmer]

Looks like most are pointing to the brass. But I can answer your original question - sort of. YES, the hand primers can wear out. I use a Lee Autoprime (not RCBS though) and it finally wore out after countless years of pushing primers to where I had the high primer condition. I happened to have an older one and swapped out the trigger part and voila!

I dislike the new & improved (what?) Lee Autoprime I bought last summer so have been buying the old ones on fleabay. So it is possible yours did wear out. Good luck.

[S&WIowegan]

It's definitely the A-merc brass, JR! You're just lucky it took so long for you to find it out. I don't think I ever tried new A-merc ammo but the brass is useless after one firing. Many times the reload primer will just fall back out.

[J. R. WEEMS]

Well, you all sure answered the question. By the way, I didn't try to seat the primer lower than level, just level. Not the greatest idea in the world, but I was looking for answers. The brass was free, so I am going to chuck the other 20 or so pieces. In addition, I think some of the primers were backing out after 3 or 4 shots. Reason being, cylinder rotated just fine but became stiff after the 3 or 4th shot. RCBS makes a universal primer that does not need different shell holders. I think I will pick the next one I can up. Midway has none. What else. THANKS ALL!! I may just go with Sinclair and be done with it.

[Streaker]

I had a similar high primer problem with Remington 2 1/2 LP primers. After discussing it here and doing some measurements it turned out that they we actually large rifle primers mis-packaged as large pistol primers.

For those that wanted to know what Remington's response was, they didn't.

[Maximumbob54]

My thoughts on A-Merc brass from a while back haven't changed one bit:

A-Merc brass is the devil!!!

[J. R. WEEMS]

Originally Posted by Streaker

I had a similar high primer problem with Remington 2 1/2 LP primers. After discussing it here and doing some measurements it turned out that they we actually large rifle primers mis-packaged as large pistol primers.

For those that wanted to know what Remington's response was, they didn't.

Well I have never been a great fan of them, just because. Of what, I am not sure. However, I use just two brands of primers, CCI & Winchester. Maybe my mistake, but so be it. I just cannot see having 6 brands or more of primers aboard. Does it matter? Well it hasn't mattered in 35 or so years so I quit thinking about it long ago. I have never seen any other brands of primers for sale around here anyway.