Bad primers

L

Lhigginsqrb

New member
I just ordered some large rifle primers off of GunBroker. 30 to 40% of them are visibly damaged. I think the ones that look good or even suspect.

I contacted the seller and if they don’t help I have to wait 30 days to get a refund.

Has anyone gotten primers that were visibly damage before? I remember seeing some that looked exactly like this in my uncle Ted’s reloading room 25 years ago. I’m going to attach a picture as soon as possible I’m just having issues uploading.
 
Oh GunBroker... I won't touch them with a 50 foot pole and hazmat suit. Did once, had an issue (my bank had the guy on a fraud list of sorts, and blocked payment and the guy threw a fit), brought my issue up with them and the buyer, they both told me to screw off, I left a negative review of the guy, to which he responded. A few weeks later, my review was gone. A company that removes negative reviews can go stuff themselves and can't be trusted. If they let him remove mine, who knows how many others have been removed

Reloading is kind of those things where I refuse to push my luck

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk
 
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Lhigginsqrb,

When you've been a member in good standing for about a month and have over 25 relevant posts (you already do), the label under your username will automatically change from "Member" to "Senior Member". At that point, you are going to be able to post images and files and participate in the Gun Show and so on. In other words, full privileges. You're almost there. Less than two weeks to go.

Damaged primers may be ones someone messed up trying to load them, may have been swept up off the floor of a loading room. Occasionally they are damaged in transport, but the box shows clear signs of that when it happens.

I've never used Gunbroker, but the more I hear about it, the less likely I am to do so.
 
Thanks. I will keep you guys updated. I did a full count and out of 1000 107 are missing the brass/metal cover at the base. I’m going to try to return them. If I can’t I’ll use them for low powered rounds. It’s looking like I will not be using them again unless they resolve this to my satisfaction.
 
If the anvils, the little metal bits in the primer, did not arrive in the packaging they were damaged before shipping and you should bring that up in the discussion.

If they are loose inside the packaging then it may be time to look at the shipper.
 
This may clarify the terms a little.

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The image is a no go. So the seller says they are made that way and just got flipped In The box. All of them have a sort of open end with a little wagon wheel shape with 3 spokes. My shotgun primers don’t look like this hence my confusion.
 
Ahh! The "wagon wheel" spokes, as you can see from the image, are the legs of the anvil and are normal for metallic cartridge primers. The 209 shotgun shell primer looks different because it has the extra metal cup with a wide base flange and flash hole in the bottom that a part similar to what you see above is inserted into. That extra metal piece is necessary for shotgun shells to add support to resist the blow of the firing pin. Anvil feet in the metallic cartridge primer are what the priming compound is squashed against it to achieve ignition. A metallic cartridge case has thick solid brass surrounding it's primer pocket to support it's floor and handle that function. A shotgun shell is much more flimsy in that area, requiring the extra part and the extra length to reach through the thicker base.
 
Oh no, all 34,000 are bad. I was ripped off!!!! Funny I've never seen a cup on both sides of a pistol primer. As for senior status, still not there yet........:rolleyes:

Bill
 

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Lhiggins....If you haven't done so already, I urge you to get one or more loading manuals
(Lyman 47th, 48th, 49th, or 50th ed, maybe Sierra eds as well).
They would have set your mind at rest.

If by your posting history you're working with 308/30-06, you're dealing with
pressures at least 5 times that of shotguns, ...and want to do it right the 1st time.


.
 
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Inline with Unclenick's image of a primer a finished large rifle primer looks like this:

Anvil%20Position.png


If you look carefully you can see the anvil sits just above the rim of the cup. When a primer is seated the anvil will press against the priming compound.

Ron
 
Trivia:
Once upon a time, if you wanted to load shotshells at minimum cost, you could get tools to recap the battery cup primers.
The caps were about the same diameter as a Large Pistol primer, but had no anvil. There is a separate anvil in the battery cup and the tooling saved and reused it. It looks like a tedious operation but saves a few cents.
 
Lhigginsqrb said:
I just ordered some large rifle primers off of GunBroker. 30 to 40% of them are visibly damaged. I think the ones that look good or even suspect.

I contacted the seller and if they don’t help I have to wait 30 days to get a refund.

Has anyone gotten primers that were visibly damage before? I remember seeing some that looked exactly like this in my uncle Ted’s reloading room 25 years ago. I’m going to attach a picture as soon as possible I’m just having issues uploading.
Click to expand...
I think you should stick to factory ammo, there nothing wrong with the primers, I think you don't have a firm grasp on reloading, and may hurt yourself.....
 
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion but I will definitely continue reloading despite not knowing everything right out of the gate. I came to the forum to learn and I got some great info above which I appreciate.

I had similar comments when I started foraging mushrooms. If you do a lot of research, use the edibility test, and initially stick to safer/easier to identify types of mushroom there’s very little chance of dieing. I also do my own gunsmithing, blacksmithing, casting, electronics repair, etc. I had no one to teach me, just barreled into these things using the tools at hand. Packing a random amount of powder in a cartridge at a random seating depth wouldn’t be wise but that’s hardly what I’m doing.
 
Lhigginsqrb, hang in there and keep your attention as wide as your eyes as you proceed. I knew far less 44 years ago when I started than I do now. How about loading 77 grain cast .270 bullets that someone gave me with H4985 and the first (and last) shot went to the extreme left 15 feet in front of the gun? Read a lot, proceed with caution, but every now and then you're gonna run into a situation that, hopefully, in reflection, teaches you what you should not have done.
 
Unclenick--your images are phenomenal, what program do you use and how long does it take you to generate something like the image above?
 
Stagpanther,

Thanks. I used Turbocad for that and most drawings I do. I can't tell you the total time because I just copied a primer drawing I did a few years back and rearranged it. I can recall the anvil took the longest to do, but don't recall how long. Maybe a couple of hours altogether and after playing with the lighting. I find illustrations a more effective way to communicate some things than explaining them with words.


Lhigginsqrb,

Tumbling can cause pretty rapid hooking of a trajectory. Given he was shooting lead in a cartridge that normally produces pretty high velocities with that powder at such a light bullet weight, there is a good chance the bullets stripped in the bore and not only were unbalanced by being scraped down by the rifling but weren't spinning when they cleared the muzzle.
 
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