Question on seating primers

T

tedbeau

New member
I have just started reloading a few months ago. I purchase a Hornady AP Progressive press. So far I have been loading 40S&W using Winchester primers. About two or three times every hundred or so rounds I get a primer that will not seat completely flush. It sticks out the face of the case and will not allow the press to index to the next position. I have been manually rotating the press back to the previous position and reapplyling pressure to the handle to try and seat the primer fully. Sometimes this works, sometimes it takes a lot more force than I think it should and several attempts. Sometimes I can not get the primer flush no matter what.

Should I even be attempting to seat these primers, or should I just toss the case and primer and consider it a loss?

I think I read in the hornady setup that excessive force can on the handle can make the indexing pawls go out of adjustment. As it is now the shell plate does tend to reverse direction slightly (about 1/16th of and inch) when I push the handle backwards to prime a round. Is this normal.

I was wondering if I should consider investing in a hand priming tool to seat these primers off the press? Would that be ok to do and if so what brand or hand primer works well?
 
As it is now the shell plate does tend to reverse direction slightly (about 1/16th of and inch) when I push the handle backwards to prime a round. Is this normal.
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There is no one home on this one. No one in the bump and cam over world of reloading has a clue what you are talking about.

EXCEPT one.

I believe standing on the handle when seating primers is a very bad habit. Somewhere in the linkage you are loosing travel. Before I would allow the press to partially seat primers I would send the press back to the manufacture or I would seat primers first and then remove the de-priming pin on the sizing die in the press.

F. Guffey
 
. About two or three times every hundred or so rounds I get a primer that will not seat completely flush.
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Carbon build up in the primer pockets is the most likely cause of that.
As to the question,if additional pressure does not seat them then you can try to
remove them or simply discard the case your choice.Many folks will tell you that
hand priming is the way to go,clean the pockets and you get 0% high primers.
 
I just recently bought some Winchester primers. The small primers seat ok. The large ones are hard to seat, I don't have any problems with Federal primers no matter what size. I measured the diameter and height of the Win.vsFed. No difference. I like to seat just below flush, not happening with Win. primers. My solution is to buy Fed. Dillon 550.
 
I can't begin to explain why (outside of a too dirty primer pocket) but I clean the pockets, and yet, I have seen this happen (high primer) from time to time with every press mounted priming system I have used (single stage and progressive) in over 45 years of reloading.

And it always takes a tremendous amount of force, comparatively speaking to fully seat that high primer, if you even can. (and that's not a good thing, even if the primer does finally seat right.)

Ironically, I have NEVER had this happen using one of the hand priming tools (not bench mounted). Same cases, same primers, but different results, for me. (the uncommon/rare high primer seat just doesn't seem to happen at all)

Can't say why, but it is my observed results.
 
First the press should prime your brass that is why you bought it ?
also if you prime off the press other things need to be done to the dies .
You can remove the decapping pin but you also to need disconnect the primer seating post on your press . It is not the best idea to just let it try to reseat the primer over and over. Something is not working like it should fix it .
 
I also have a LNL AP, and I have run into the same problem with certain pieces of brass in .40 and Winchester primers. I don't remember which brands of brass gave me trouble. I have buckets of .40 brass, so if a case gives me problems, I chuck it and move on to the next one.

I see the same problem with .380 ACP S&B brass. Primers will not seat easily in them. I have to give it a lot of force.
 
About two or three times every hundred or so rounds I get a primer that will not seat completely flush.
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What works? The machine works,it's doing its job 99% of the cycles.
If it works then don't fixit.
Something doesn't,look at the brass.
1 or 2% high primer incidence is not normal or acceptable.
You should be able to do your priming on press without trouble if you get the odd one say one in thousands that's not abnormal,check your brass and possibly your leveraging technique,if the press were primer brand specific then
you would have seen some kind of warning,absent that all are suitable to use.
 
Sorry guys, but there is NO WAY that this problem is cause by ash, residue, or dirty primer pockets and will not be rectified by cleaning primer pockets.

I've got WELL over a hundred thousand rounds as proof that cleaning primer pockets matters not at all.

Federal small pistol, CCI large pistol and large pistol magnum, CCI-Win-Wolf small rifle, CCI large rifle... but more CCI small pistol than anything, across 20 calibers (or more?) the bulk of which have been primed progressively on a Lee Pro-1000 or with the Lee press mount Safety Prime.

Successfully.

The OP has some kind of a hardware problem related to his press that will not be fixed by cleaning primer pockets.
 
I agree with Sevens. I don't clean primer pockets, ever, on pistol brass and have never had a high primer because of it in many thousands of rounds made on a Lee Classic Turret. I use CCI primers exclusively for what that's worth.
 
I've got WELL over a hundred thousand rounds as proof that cleaning primer pockets matters not at all.
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Hmm, maybe you should try 100,000 more - just to make sure :D

I agree with Sevens - cleaning primer pockets is hardly ever necessary. It would probably be a good idea to clean them in the case of range dirt/mud/etc. But that's really about it.
 
100,000
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Naturally I too did not clean pockets,what a pain! and then the high primers
showed up.On my book high primers equal scrap and I don't like making scrap.
So now I find it expedient to clean them and I no longer make scrap.
 
It's maybe caused by variances in the primer pocket.
There might be some differences, depending on manufacturer.
There are in other case dimensions.
And, of course, some have crimps that need to be removed.
Being way to lazy to clean primer pockets, the ones that give difficulty go into the trash.
That'll teach 'em.
 
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Tedbeau,

It sounds like the behavior you get from a crimped or overtight primer pocket that needs to be swaged or reamed or chamfered open. One time I bought 1000 pieces of IMI .45 Auto bulk brass that all had tight pockets. They were new and never loaded, so they had no crimp, but every primer made was hard to seat in them. I ran them all through my Dillon Super Swage 600 just to make them usable. Commercial primer pockets normally have a ±0.0004-0.0005" ID tolerance, but that particular lot may have been a victim of a metric conversion error in toolmaking. I've had other IMI brass that didn't have this issue.

It's also possible the primers are starting in slightly cocked and not straightening out. This is more likely to happen on a progressive press because of vibration from everything else going on in them. But to see if that's the issue you'll have to put on your safety glasses and hearing protection and decap the offending cases and examine the pocket for signs of shaving off brass along the sides.

At any rate, if you do decap the cures for all the above issues are the same: Treat them as if they were crimped military primer pockets. Swage them, ream them, or run a countersink against their mouths to loosen them a little. Otherwise, toss them.
 
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Being way to lazy to clean primer pockets, the ones that give difficulty go into the trash.
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Exactly! You either repair scrap or you chuck it.
OP could try disassembling and reassembling his machine,send it back or try
the simple solution.Occam's razor, clean shave.
 
Don't ever think that primers are always perfect. Power , dimension s can be wrong . A couple of primers in a batch - dump the rest of them.
The design of the primer requires , when seating , that the anvil is pushed in which sensitizes the primer !!! Being flush with the case head means nothing .The primer must seat against the primer pocket bottom , otherwise the firing pin will do that and you'll get poor or no ignition ! Most primers in my experience will be slightly below case head. If they are above the case head accidental firing can be a problem.
 
Check in front of the primer slide on your press a few grains of powder can cause the seater to be missaligned and make the seating difficult. Raise the ram slightly and pull the primer slide back, clean in front of the slide with a qtip. S&B brass can have tighter pockets than other brass.
 
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I agrre with the S&B, I just loaded a few hundred rounds on a single stage, and every dozen rounds or so, I would get a tight one, and everytime I checked it to see if flush it was an S&B.
 
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