Seating primers too deep???

[hangnoose]

PRIMERS

A correctly seated primer should be slightly BELOW flush and flatten the bottom of the primer so the cup is closer to the anvil and more easily ignited by the firing pin strike. your primers all still look rounded on the bottom. I like to seat primers with the ram from the press. I feel it is more consistent, and has a lot more torque. YES it is slower. give it a try.

 

[dickttx]

Don't know if I can say this like I think it, but two things happen when you seat a primer. The edges of the cup go to the bottom of the primer hole and the legs of the anvil are pushed up into the primer cup.
If they did not get seated deep enough, when you punch out the unfired primer the depriming pin will probably push the anvil all the way into the cup, so you really won't be able to tell anything from looking at the removed primer.
Looking at bigedp51's drawing, it hard to see how you could push the primer in too far. The top of the primer would have to crush, not the edges of the cup.

 

[Maximumbob54]

A correctly seated primer should be slightly BELOW flush and flatten the bottom of the primer so the cup is closer to the anvil and more easily ignited by the firing pin strike. your primers all still look rounded on the bottom. I like to seat primers with the ram from the press. I feel it is more consistent, and has a lot more torque. YES it is slower. give it a try.

Are you talking one of the ram prime tools for a single stage press? I've thought of trying one just for grins. If so is any brand better than the other? So far I've found Lee, Lyman, and RCBS make one.

 

[fredj338]

It's almost impossible to seat primers too deep. The primer & pocket design are pretty close tolerance. SO unless you are crushing htem into the pocket, just seat until they bottom, done. Trying to measure or worry about over seating is just not needed.
IF the problem is the gun not firing, that easy to check. If the round fires on the 2nd try, your primers are not seated to the bottom. I have NEVER seen any pistol fail to fire a primer that was seated properly, as long as the gun is set up correctly. I alos think it would be nearly impossible to crush the inside of the primer w/o damagiung the outside. Change rpimers, see if that isn't your problem. I personnal sun Wolf/Tula SP primers, nothing but problems over the years.

 

[Maximumbob54]

I did switch primers. I loaded both Tula and Winchester.

 

[fredj338]

I did switch primers. I loaded both Tula and Winchester.

I would start looking at the gun. If it's tuned for a light pull, you may have to accept a slightly heavier pull. Check the firing pin. I am just not sure it's primer seating if they will fire fine in another gun. If I had any gun doing no better than 80%, I would be looking to fix it or sell it.

 

[blujax01]

If you're watching TV while you're priming, maybe the news has you thinking "negative political thoughts" and you're gripping.

Put on the Yanni 8 track tape and un-lax a little.

Ooommmm...

 

[Maximumbob54]

If you're watching TV while you're priming, maybe the news has you thinking "negative political thoughts" and you're gripping.

Put on the Yanni 8 track tape and un-lax a little.

Ooommmm...

Can't do that, it would be too hard to not punch the TV.

 

[Nemo288]

a) I gave up on priming with the press as I WAS using too much force
and flattening the primer faces sometimes. There was very little "feel".
I was probably using too fast a stroke and not patient enough to learn
the right motion with the press handle.
This is a Redding Ultramag and has quite a long handle.

b) The only failures to fire I have had in almost 30 years of reloading
were due to a mainspring screw that was backing itself out in a 624.
They did go bang on the second try.
Some locktite cured that.

---
Nemo

 

[smith17]

I personnal sun Wolf/Tula SP primers, nothing but problems over the years.

Fred:
What does this mean?
Ed

 

[buck460XVR]

Looking at your picture, it's hard to believe the third cartridge from the left in the middle row didn't fire. The impression left by the firing pin looks to be more than enough to set the primer off. While the fired cases show a deeper imprint, I'd guess that's because the round slammed up against the recoil shield and firing pin hole when it went off. Could you have contaminated the primers somehow? Otherwise, I with the others as too being hard to seat primers too deep without crushing them or flattening the edges. I seat my primers so hard with my RCBS hand primer, that there is an imprint left on the primer from the priming rod. Still everyone goes bang.

 

[jepp2]

uniform the primer pockets ONCE when new and never again

My experience doesn't support that. I uniform the primer pockets the first time and all subsequent firings I use the primer pocket uniformer to clean them. Rarely is any metal removed on subsequent uniforming. Never had a misfire due to the primer being too deep. I do hand prime everything and stop when I feel the anvil seat properly.

I do find that with the pockets uniformed, the feel of when the primer is properly seated is much more noticeable.

[URL=http://s860.photobucket.com/user/jepp2/media/PPUniformedEdited2.jpg.html] [/URL]

 

[Nemo288]

"I do find that with the pockets uniformed, the feel of when the primer is properly seated is much more noticeable."

That makes a lot of sense. A close inspection of the pistol pockets (that I have never uniformed)
reveals a somewhat rounded bottom from the punch that formed them.
I have not yet loaded the ones I am deepening to take rifle primers but expect to confirm your experience.

You did a real nice job with that picture. I have a hard time getting
anything that close in focus with my old Olympus E-20.

---
Nemo

 

[rwsmith]

Exactly

a) I gave up on priming with the press as I WAS using too much force
and flattening the primer faces sometimes. There was very little "feel".

That's exactly why I like the Auto Prime hand tool for primers.

 

[blujax01]

...
I do find that with the pockets uniformed, the feel of when the primer is properly seated is much more noticeable.

So that's what a clean primer pocket is supposed to like like!

 

[SMSgt]

Uniforming primer pockets? Heck, I don't even clean them anymore. Other than crimped pockets, I've never had a problem with them. Sometimes things are best left alone.

 

[Rule3]

Uniforming primer pockets? Heck, I don't even clean them anymore. Other than crimped pockets, I've never had a problem with them. Sometimes things are best left alone.

You do not shoot 9mm and 357Mag bench rest??

What a waste. I suppose for long distance competiitve shooters every little detail matters but for handgun range shooting???

I never cleaned them let alone uniformed them. My whole life would be "prepping" brass.

 

[Jellybean]

From the picture it looks like they may be a little too deep, but it's hard to tell. You can't compare them to the two cases that fired because their primers would have been pushed out then back in pretty flush with the case head.

I've never used the RCBS hand primer, but I do use their APS bench mounted set-up. You must follow the directions for initial assembly and for punch changes/ cleaning. It is possible to altar the seating depth by not following their proper procedure.

For proper seating the primer cup should not be bottomed out, only the anvil legs. This is to prevent the primer compound from being crushed.

 

[fredj338]

Fred:
What does this mean?
Ed

]

SOrry, shun. I tried Wolf sp back in the last Obama shortage, nothing but problems. Maybe Tula fixed them, maybe not, just not worth me buying another 5K to find out.

 

[Maximumbob54]

I could have sworn I posted these but I don't see them.

This is a primer pushed back out after being seated by the RCBS hand primer:



And this is the case that it was seated into and then pushed back out:



I don't see a bit of "crush" to the primer. Can anyone tell me how deep a small primer pocket is supposed to be?