Problem seating primers in LC brass.

M

Mike38

New member
I’ve run into something problematic on primer seating. Wondering if it’s me, or something in the components. Two weeks ago, my son-in-law bought a Savage Axis in .223. It’s his first center fire rifle, so he’s been shooting it a lot. A guy he works with gave him 100 pieces of Lake City ‘10 brass, and my son-in-law asked me to load them for him. I used 55 grain FMJ Privi bullets I had sitting around, Winchester small rifle primers and CFE223 powder. Removed the primer crimp, and loaded as usual. He claimed less than three inch groups at 100 yards. Not bad for a beginner shooter using cheap bullets. Now he wants something a bit more accurate.

So, I loaded 20 rounds of the above brass, same powder and charge, but used 55 grain Hornady V-Max and Remington 7 ½ bench rest primers. Of the 20 rounds, 5 of the primers looked as if they were entering the primer pocket off center, and got crushed badly. Luckily none of them popped, and I was able to carefully deprime them, again, no pops.

So my question is, what’s up with those Remington primers? Are they super soft and not able to center themselves as they enter the primer pocket and get crushed? Remember, I did ream the crimp out of the primer pockets.

I have used these Remington primers in Remington and Winchester .223 brass with no problems. But they don’t seem to work well in Lake City 5.56 brass. Or is it something I’m doing wrong?
 
I've had the same problem with LC brass and CCI primers...I both swage and chamfer the primer crimp and still have a bit of trouble seating them. I think the primer pockets are slightly off center; it seems to help if I move/rotate the brass slightly when starting the primer. I've also used the priming arm for large size primers, they seem to be able to center themselves more easily. I was worried they wouldn't be seated quite enough with the larger size but haven't actually had any problems firing them. I still prefer to use the correct size seating arm, and move the case to find the sweet spot where the primer slides in with normal resistance.
 
How are you processing your primer pockets and then what are you using to prime? I had a lot of problems with crushed and/or mangled primers until I started dealing with the crimp a little better. Now I remove the crimp with an RCBS primer swagging kit and then I go back and chamfer each of the pockets with a chamfering tool of some kind. That's eliminated most of my priming woes, but I've also found that some priming tools just work better than others as well. When I hand prime I've found, after breaking a couple of Lee priming tools, that the RCBS hand tool does a far better job for me. Press mounted or progressive priming hasn't given me as much of a fit as long as I've dealt with the primer pocket crimp first. That's what's worked well for me, but YMMV.
 
I’m using a Lyman hand held crimp removal tool. By the looks of it, it’s supposed to bring the ID of the pocket back to original, and cut a chamfer. Press is a Lee single stage and priming is done with a Lee kit that mounts on top the press.

If I had to guess, it seems that the Remington primers are very soft as compared to the Winchester primers, and it’s entirely possible the primer pockets of the Lake City brass are not centered very well.

Guess I’ll stick with Winchester primers for 5.56 LC brass, and Remington primers for .223 brass.

I really like those Remington 7 ½ bench rest primers combined with CFE223 powder. It gives me the best groups I have ever achieved to date in my .223 rifle.

Thanks for the replies, and anyone else, jump right in here.
 
For the sake of people reading this thread, and any future searches on this topic, I decided to update.

My Son-in-law brought back those original 20 pieces of LC brass that I had a hard time priming with Remington 7 ½ bench rest primers. He wanted them loaded again. This time I didn’t use the Remington primers. I went back to Winchester WSR primers. No problems at all. Same 20 pieces of brass, flawless priming.

The only thing I can come up with is Remington 7 ½ bench rest primers are much softer than the Winchester WSR primers. I would advise against using Remington primers in LC 5.56 brass.

To be fair, these Remington primers work great in standard .223 brass, and helped me get the best groups I have ever achieved in my rifle.
 
The Remington Bench Rest Primers are soft . I have used a lot of them with zero problems . I also use the Lee primer tool you have . Years ago I to use lake City Brass and still had no problems . But I did really reamed out the primer pockets .
 
Primer pockets probably loosened up a little from firing, and some primer brands are a little larger or smaller than others.
 
When ever I load any cases for the first time. I take a Redding uniformer tool to them only the first time I load them. I haven't had any problems since I have used the uniformer tool.
 
Yes, the Dillon Super Swage 600 is the answer to our prayers. I just finished with over two thousand pieces of brass, an I would still be working on the first five hundred if it were not for this device.
 
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