Primer eject 308

T

towman32

New member
So my friend and I were shooting some test rounds today and had an interesting thing happen, after firing the rounds some of the primers ejected out of the case(essentially de-priming). I assumed the load was to hot but after looking in the Lee reloading manual we didn't even reach the max(do not exceed) load. Any ideas? The load was 44 grains imr 4895
Using 168 amax with winchester primers and brass. We will definitely decrease the load.
 
How did the primers eject? Normally they should flatten on the bolt face.

It sounds like loose primer pockets. How any loads have the cases been through?
 
How did you come by this brass?

Was it new brass, once fired or several times fired?

What rifle? Savage maybe?

How far off the lands was the bullet?
 
That is a stout load of 4895 with a 168 grain bullet. It could very well be over pressure in your rifle. I pierced primers with the slower burning 4064 at 43.8 grains on a 90 plus degree day. I would stop and back off 10 percent.

As a check try to prime them. If the primer pockets are loose then you definitely have too much powder in the case.
 
Only pressure (not headspace flattening) is going to expand primer pockets to where primers "eject" themselves.

Wo was the brass manufacturer please....
Were primers loose going in ?
What powder scale was he using?
 
When you post the specifics (manufacturer, firearm, etc.) please let us know what you mean by "eject"...
 
Only pressure (not headspace flattening) is going to expand primer pockets to where primers "eject" themselves
Click to expand...

Primer flattening is not the only symptom of a head space issue......hence the word "could".
 
44 of IMR4895 is a max load(Lee uses Hodgdon data. They test nothing themselves.) only for a Barnes TTSX 168. Full grain under for a non-solid. So unless you inadvertently loaded a bunch more it's most likely the brass being elderly.
Primers only back all the way out with extreme excess pressures. However, old brass with stretched primer pockets they will come out. That'd be something you'd notice when loading though.
The rifle is irrelevant.
43.8 of IMR4064 is well under max.
 
tell us more

How many times has that brass been fired and re loaded was it maybe military brass that some one reamed out the crimp? Did this happen on one case or more than one?
bb
 
There are certainly many factors that could come into play here. And we really would love to know

What cases?
Primers?
Distance to lands?
COAL?

I think it is better not to wag the dog with using published load data. You can certainly find published data to push the envelope. I always start at average minimums and work up through the average of the published data that I find. IME Lee data has been on the high end and I would work up to 44 grains of 4895 slowly. I run 41 grains of 4895 behind a Hornady 168 gr BTHP and have had good results out to 300 yards punching paper.
 
I've had the same thing happen when I started reloading 308. I used LakeCity brass, and I loaded the rounds really hot to compensate for the rounds that I initially loaded too weak (resulting in a short stroke).

I was loading on a Dillon 1050, which has its own swaging station. I was making too large of a swage opening (if that's the right term). When I shot the hot rounds out of my beltfed, I noticed there were a few rounds that were missing the spent primer.

I backed off the powder charge and made the swage opening smaller, and that solved the problem.
 
sorry it took me so long to reply. I will have to look tomorrow to give more details on the brass. the primers were standard Winchester. my cases are trimmed down to 2.008. They sit roughly .004 of the lands/grooves. This happened to 2 cases out of my savage 10LE and Once in the other rifle(also a 10LE). The primers felt firm when seating. These cases have been taken out of circulation.
 
When you post the specifics (manufacturer, firearm, etc.) please let us know what you mean by "eject
Click to expand...
By eject I mean when the bolt is pulled back to eject the case, the primer is left behind in the magazine. so in better terms it falls out when ejecting the case.
 
They sit roughly .004 of the lands/grooves.
Click to expand...

I would consider .004 Jammed. There is prolly that much or more variation in your OAL.

Jammed will be the point of highest pressure.

How did you determine they are .004 off the lands?
 
I'm using the hornady gauge. It measures the ogive(with calipers). I've heard different opinions on the bullet jump. Some people say .004 or less(touching) is best for long range accuracy and up to .040 for hunting as if it matters? For this particular round my.measurement is 3.018. The gauge reads 3.022 to touch lands.

Back to the brass, its PMC. The other thing I noticed is on the head face of these cases there is a smeared or smashed spot. Haven't found this on any other case. I will try to upload a.picture soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top