bad primers

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reloader74

New member
Whats the chances of 10 to 15 bad primers in a lot? Been having light primers strikes on a few reloads. Some will fire when stroke the second and some would not. Also I have pulled the bullets from some and tried firing the empty brass, some would fire and some would not.
 
What system are you using to prime the cases? And what primers are you having trouble with? What gun where you using? That sounds like maybe the primers were not set completely into the pockets, but it's hard to diagnose without more information.
 
Using Hornady LNL press. Using WLR primers. Savage 10PT - SR 308. Thought it may have been bumping the shoulder back to much. Ruled that out by just neck sizing.
 
reloader74 said:
Been having light primers strikes on a few reloads. Some will fire when stroke the second and some would not.
Click to expand...
Do the ones that don't fire on restrike still show a light strike or normal strike?
 
higgite, no. The re strike starts mushrooming the primer out. A few of them would fire on second strike, some would not. I've taken bolt, firing pin, spring etc. apart and checked. Nothing is broke or obviously out of place.
 
Firing on the second strike probably means the primer wasn't seated deep enough to begin with. The first hit fully seats the primer and the second hit ignites it.
 
Which brass? Military surplus may mean you aren't quite getting rid of the crimp before priming.

Or possible dirty primer pockets causing a not-quite fully seated primer.
 
Be sure the firing pin sticks out past the bolt face at least .060" in the fired position.

Verify the cartridge head to shoulder reference dimension is no more than .004 inch less than chamber headspace.
 
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I'm using once fire brass Winchester and Remington bought off the shelf. Is there a better way to seat the primer then using progressive press?
 
Yes. I recommend a hand primer, and moving primed brass to your press. I have used a couple of different RCBS hand primers and they work very well. Hand Primers have a lot more tactile feedback - you can tell by feel when seating properly. You squeeze fairly strongly to seat primers. I made shallow imprints on some rifle primers, and decided that was normal.
Primers need to be seated with some force, as the primer legs will contact the bottom of the primer, and you need to squish them a bit. Primers should be below flush with the case.
If they fire on a second strike they are good primers and we're not seated deeply enough.
 
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Getting off topic, but at one point I was thinking the seating depth of the bullet was was not correct and not letting the shoulder make full contact causing the light strikes. I know it sound crazy, but if the bullet is bottomed out on the lands before the shoulder makes contact the transfer of force between the primer and firing pin is lost. I checked oal with hornady ogive gauge. OAL 2.745'' that's with the bullet touching the lands. Books recommend 2.800'', my bolt will not close at that length.
 
Not the primers, I can go thousands and thousands before I get a bad primer.... I would venture to say that you are not fully seated in the case.
 
A few years back I was loading a couple of hundred pistol rounds per week for the wife on a LnL AP and I always gave a little extra "oomph" on the downstroke to ensure the primers were fully seated. Also check to see that the primer seating punch is completely screwed in and that the correct size is installed. If you have the large punch in and seating small primers they would go in but not go below flush
 
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Thanks hounddawg, last night I started checking the primer system of the LNL and found where the primer punch bottoms out on the press body there was a .010'' crater worn in the cast aluminum. Put a shim over the crater and started priming brass. I could tell the difference and hear the primer bottoming out in the pocket. I will be testing my theory today at the range. Will give an update after.
 
call Hornady CS, they will send you a new one. I had excellent experiences with them when I was using their AP, they sent me dozens of springs etc free of charge when the wife was playing with pistols. I bet I loaded 20K or more 9mm on that little press over a course of a couple of years. I wore out some parts lol
 
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