CCI primers

[BillBro]

OK, I have about every brand of primers as I really have no preference except for my 5.56 and 6.8SPC loads, which coincidentally happens to be CCI, and over the past few days I've been trying to find any brand and caliber of brass that this box of CCI 300s will fit into the pocket without absolutely destroying them. I've not run into this before. Sure, I'll run into tight pockets every now and then but I've tried these in 45acp new and VERY used cases, 10mm again both new and ones with multiple hot loads fired in them, and 44mag, again new and fired and I cant get them to seat into any case without crushing. Crushing to the point that if I turn the case over and tap it I can see little flakes of what I assume to be the priming compound coming out.

With the availability of primers being what it is now days after about 20 or 30 wasted primers I've given up trying to waste more.

I'm using an RCBS hand primer. Can anyone give me wisdom? There are no crimped primer pockets on any of the ones I tried and even if there were they would have been removed when I swaged a few. I swayed the pockets, reamed a little, something I never do, the pockets for all intents and purposes are spotless. I'm bumfuzzled.

 

[jjrr]

Do you have the large pusher in your rcbs tool?

 

[Scharfschuetzer]

Measure the diameter with calipers or a dial indicator and let us know what it is.

Large rifle and pistol primers should be .210."

 

[mikld]

Military primer crimps not removed?

 

[alwslate]

I will no longer buy any CCI primers because I have found them to be almost impossible to fully seat.

 

[SMSgt]

I've never had a problem seating CCI primers or any other brand. The few times I've had seating problems, it has been tool or primer-pocket issues.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Have you tried the priming attachment on your press? There is sometimes an angle that I cannot figure out, and maximum tolerance primers will only go in with the leverage provided by a press. Why? Who knows, but it is worth a try!

Ivan

 

[mckenney99]

Several years ago I decided to start another run of 9mm on my Dillon 550. I was using a mixture of once fired and unknown brass that had been cleaned and sorted by brand. It was obvious that some of the brass had been reloaded several times by the chewed up case rims and flattened head stamps. I usually use Winchester primers in my 550 but was low on those so I started using the CCI SPP I had on hand. I started running into issues with certain cases being extremely difficult to prime. I removed the troublesome cases and worked my way through until I got tired of messing with the problem. In examining the troublesome cases I found that most primer pockets had indeed been crimped at one time, but the crimp had obviously removed enough that the cases had obviously been successfully reloaded again. I re-swagged the primer pockets and proceeded to seat the CCI primers.
I brought this incident up to a friend of mine who is much older and much more experienced than I and he had run into the same problem before and when he contacted Dillon customer service the tech told him that CCI primers vary more in size than any other primer.
I will still utilize my supply of CCI primers but I will try to pay more attention to the cases as I sort them and try to pull out the ones showing signs of a previous crimp. I have plenty of brass to choose from and I'll eventually just set up the primer pocket swagger and just run them through to help eliminate the issue.

 

[max]

I got about a thousand CCI SP primers this Summer after the death of a friend. I have been loading mixed 9mm brass without too many problems.

I forgot to mention, these primers could be 40 years old.

 

[rockquarry]

In fifty-five years of handloading, I guess I have used all or at least most of the American-made rifle and pistol primers, but far more CCI than anything else. I often buy in cartons of 5,000. Never experienced a problem.

I don't know what RCBS priming tool the original poster is using, but I bought two of the RCBS Universal hand priming tools several years ago. Neither would fully seat primers 100% of the time and the effort required to seat them was considerably more than with other such tools. I returned both.

There are exceptions always; perhaps the primers used by the original poster are out of spec but I would guess that would be unlikely.

 

[Sevens]

My experience is close to rockquarry, loading for three decades plus and kept a log on round count production over the last dozen years.

Remington and Cheddite are the only primers that I can recall NOT having used at least a couple thousand of. And more CCI than any other single brand. CCI made from the late 1970’s to the present and every era and package style in between and I have NEVER experienced the problems being detailed here.

Some are quick to point out that my experience is anecdotal evidence, but let us add that we’re talking in excess of 200,000 anecdotes.

 

[GypsmJim]

CCI primers are the ONLY ones I will buy. If I can't get them but others are available, I'll do without.

I suspect the problem is equipment related.

 

[Trooper224]

There's nothing wrong with CCI primers, check your tools and your processes.

 

[WR Moore]

Having been loading for 50+ years, I have to go along with the thought that CCI primers are, well, just different than all the others. However, I've gotta qualify that with the fact that majority of my loading is in former military brass, both large and small primers, rifle and pistol.

During the Obama primer shortage I was forced to buy a slew of CCi 400 primers. I found that even with primer pocket swaging with top of the line tooling and occasional beveling of the result AND primer pocket uniforming, I still got the occasional primer that needed an extra grunt to seat fully. Even with in the press priming. I should note that late runs of military brass seems to have kinda shallow primer pockets by SAAMI specs.

I experienced much the same thing waaay back when (but I wasn't uniforming pockets) and when I had to buy other than CCI primers, I was amazed at how easy primer seating was in all sizes and types of primers.

FWIW, I think the trend toward seating primers by "feel" is male bovine excrement.

 

[Sevens]

FWIW, I think the trend toward seating primers by "feel" is male bovine excrement.

Well, you managed to word THAT in a manner that dictates a response.

I’ll posit that if you have a priming tool with decent leverage AND you aren’t using mixed brass, you are the lone nut out in the world that cannot feel a serious difference in feedback from the lever when something is different (even slightly) than all the others.

If that is something that you term differently than “priming by feel” then you may also have developed an entire vernacular that is all your own. And at that venture I will wish you well.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep chunking out phenomenal handgun ammo that beats anything I’d be willing to purchase. And I’ll continue to “prime by feel” as part of that process.

 

[SMSgt]

Well, I, for one, can definitely tell a difference in primer seating "feel" between my press and my RCBS hand primer. No male bovine excrement required.

 

[rockquarry]

Its hard to understand someone doubting the benefit of priming by feel unless they lack experience. That's no criticism; it just takes a while. The primer should bottom out in the pocket but not be crushed or distorted. "By feel" is the best way to do this. Some priming tools aren't sensitive enough to prime by feel and others may not be well made. The best I've found so far is the 21st Century tool. Sinclair is also a good one. The cheap, original Lee Auto Prime with the round tray was good for this too, as long as it was not badly worn.

 

[Exmilcop]

I have CCI200 and CCI300 as well as some Federal lrg. rifle. I too have the RCBS hand primer and the only time I ran into problems was with some of 7.62X39 brass. I junked those and threw 'em into my scrap brass bin.

 

[stansdds]

I have only used CCI and Winchester primers. I do find the CCI primers to be a little harder to seat. Make sure the primer pockets in your brass meet SAAMI specs and are clean. Undersized primer pockets do happen, S&B brass is notorious for tight primer pockets.

 

[Alton]

My only issue is with imported 9mm brass. CCI works fine in everything else