Barnes 308 Brass - Huge Primer Pocket

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RC20

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Barnes 308 Brass - Primer Pockets Huge

I picked some what looks to be once fire Barnes up at the range.

Cleaned it and went to put primers in and they fell in.

Tried a CCI primer and its still on the reject side of loose.

One FC also the same. Someone reamed them? Barnes is supposed to be RP and the RPs I have are fine.
 
Alternative explanation: Previous shooter with overly hot loads?
Click to expand...

It would have to be shot a lot to do that and they look brand new.


Wendy: Not familiar with CCI BR-2 but I do have some old CCI and as they tend to be larger tried those. Still a bit loose for my feelings but may try a few.
 
This should probably be moved up a forum, into the main reloading forum.
As for the subject...

Hot loads.
Ignorant or negligent shooter.

At the very least, you have a little bit of value added to the recycling bucket.



One of my uncles does it all the time:
"Hmmm. These loads feel pretty snappy."
"Oh, they're blowing primers, too."
"That's probably not good. ...But I loaded 400 rounds of it. I don't want to pull all of those bullets, so I think I'll just shoot it all up...."

That's how he:
Blew up two Glocks.
Blew up a Beretta 92.
Broke two Beretta 96s.
Cracked the slide on a Wilson 1911.
Cracked the slide and twisted the frame on an EAA Witness.
Broke the metal guide rod and later cracked the frame on a Colt Mustang+II.
Cracked the slide on a Colt Pocketlite (Mustang variant).
Blew the barrel off of a S&W .357. (Or, maybe that one was the 3 squibs followed by an overcharge. :rolleyes:)
Blew the barrel off of a Taurus Model 60.
Bulged the chamber of a CZ-75.
...And who knows what else he has destroyed with hot loads, that he hasn't told us about....
He's just lucky that he hasn't had it happen in a rifle, yet.
 
The BR-2 and BR-4 are match primers. They just fit tighter to me. Can really tell the difference with a hand primer so I just prime them off the press. Guy at the range last week was shooting a new Sako and he tried 4 factory Barnes and federal bullets. His rifle looked like it tickled the primer but it wouldn't go off. I gave him 4 of my reloads and whatever it was mine worked. I tried his Barnes in my savage and got a good crater. His started working after my reloads shot through his. That's strange. Anyway I got 20 each of federal and Barnes brass from him. I usually put the Barnes brass aside for my 189 ttsx Barnes bullets. I've never had a oversized primer pocket and I'm running 42.5 grains of Varget under the load.
 
Yep. When I have loaded given cases the number of times when I deem it is time to discard them, I typically leave them behind at the range.

I do not use range brass. I reckon that others who have used up their brass' useful life also leave them behind.

If shooting a bottom feeder which shucks the cases far afield, I do not pick up the wasted brass, as it isn't worth the effort, and know that scroungers will be along shortly to police the area.

One man gathers what another man spills, or one man's trash is another man's treasure.
 
"Quote:
Alternative explanation: Previous shooter with overly hot loads?
It would have to be shot a lot to do that and they look brand new. "

Actually, no it would only have to be fired ONCE with an overload to expand the primer pocket.
 
MoBuck would be right on that and Barnes loads pretty hot factory ammo anyway. More than I load for myself. I still don't have issues using BR-2 primers when I reload them.
 
A number of folks have also complained about primer pockets getting loose and spent primers falling out after firing Federal factory loads of 300 WM. Sometimes the factory loads are warm. Federal brass is also soft. It doesn't like full house loads much. If Federal is making brass for Barnes, that would explain it.
 
You learn new things sometimes. Never heard of a single round taking out a primer pocket. The primers looked ok on these but.....

I think Barnes is RP, I have weight the cases and they are identical.

sort of a hobby of mine to see who has what.

FC are always the heaviest, 308 anyway Lapua is next down (close) then the Barnes and or RP

in 06, its FC (will have to ask my brother on Lapua for that one) then RP, Nossler, Winchester Hornady fall back in line someplace.
 
"FC are always the heaviest, 308 anyway Lapua is next down (close) then the Barnes and or RP

in 06, its FC (will have to ask my brother on Lapua for that one) then RP, Nossler, Winchester Hornady fall back in line someplace."

Consider that brass is an alloy and the heaviest component is copper. Copper is soft so a mix that's higher in copper content will most likely be softer(and heavier).
Norma(and Weatherby brass made by Norma) brass is/was softer than somje other brands. I used Winchester 264 brass to form 257 Wby cases with good results but Norma cases don't handle the same loads(sticky extraction).
 
I don't think the metal mix is that much different.

Pretty much 75% (plus or minus a few percent) copper, 25% zinc plus or minus and then some have other miner metals.

Lapua was different with the older stuff with 62 and 36% copper zinc but new stuff is in the same ballpark as above

Either thicker base and or case thickness I think.
 
FC are always the heaviest, 308 anyway Lapua is next down (close) then the Barnes and or RP

in 06, its FC (will have to ask my brother on Lapua for that one) then RP, Nossler, Winchester Hornady fall back in line someplace.
Click to expand...
The current Lapua .30-06 that I use averages 196.5 gr. (No alterations. It's good to go, out of the box.)

Most other brands in my stash are 'round about 186-190 gr, minus 5 tenths to a full grain for trimming and/or flash hole uniforming.
 
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