shallow primer pockets with new Nosler brass

J

jersurf101

New member
I have been loading some .308 win for rifle season and was saving my Nosler brass for this. I am pretty disappointed with the brass. 3 in 30 have been no good so far. The primer pockets are too shallow to properly seat the primers. So far I have had much better luck with Winchester and Hornady new brass. Although with the Hornady the case weights varied as much as 10 grains. Has anyone else experienced this with Nosler brass? Should I let Nosler know? I doubt they want their name on brass of this quality.
 
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I would call Nosler, But get yourself a Primer pocket uniformer, cleans & cuts the pockets to the proper depth, makes priming a breeze. Hope I helped Chris
 
Has anyone else experienced this with Nosler brass?
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Not me, for me it is like another day at the office. I have the RCBS case prep center, one of the 5 stations has a primer pocket uniformer.

F. Guffey
 
Jersurf101,

Did you actually measure the depth of the pockets with a depth micrometer (if you have one) or even just the the probe that sticks out of the back of the beam of your caliper when you open the jaws? If not, I'd check to be sure they are actually shallow pockets or if the primers are just hard to push into them. Large rifle should be 0.125" to 0.132" deep, though old Remington specs I have are 0.126" ±0.001".

What primers are you using? Be aware primers need to be slightly compressed for best function, with Remington and Olin recommending 0.002" to 0.006" of compression beyond the point where the anvil touches down in the bottom of the hole. Federal recommends 0.003" for large rifle primers and 0.002" for small rifle primers.

You should end up with the primer about -0.004" below flush with the case head in most instances.
 
They are definitely shallow. My three micrometers agree:) On the worst case my primer ended up .002 above flush. To get it to flush I wrinkled the primer. Definitely not right, at least I would not fire it. I am priming them off of my lee press and have put more than enough force to get the primers in there. The primers are Federal 210's. I have an RCBS prep station to fix it. Not really the point I was making though. More paying a premium for brass and being disappointed with its quality. Thanks for the replies.
 
I have had the same problem of primer pockets not allowing the primers not to seat. Thanks to this sight it's not a problem any more. I ordered a Redding primer pocket uniformer with the handle. I ran it through all my cases and that's all there is to it. I ordered the small for my small cases. The next time I make a order I will purchase the large size and I will never have that problem again. My cases were WW and R-P. All the cases gave up a little material. The R-P cases were better than the WW but why not do them all when ever you receive new cases then you don't have to be concerned about depth or out of round. Primers seat all with the same tension and depth.
 
I have an RCBS prep station to fix it. Not really the point I was making though.
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Give me liberty or give me death would be an impossible sale to those that missed the point Patrick Henry made about light. It is still a choice, cuss the darkness or light a candle.

I have failed to get money value, a few times I have visited the vendor to make sure I did not misunderstand their response. My responsibility as a consumer is to notify the vendor first.

F. Guffey
 
To get it to flush I wrinkled the primer. Definitely not right, at least I would not fire it. I am priming them off of my lee press and have put more than enough force to get the primers in there.
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Wrinkling primers is not new. A very disciplined reloader had a problem with primers with dents like half moons, he contacted RCBS, they sent him enough parts to build another Auto Hand Primer, they made parts, nothing worked. He called me, I loaned him two Auto Hand Primers, same thing, RCBS sent him a shell holder, it was about that time I decided it was time I called RCBS. I took a liberty and used the very disciplined reloader's name. They remembered him and caught me up, they said they sent him a new shell holder. thinking I had the same problem they offered me a new shell holder. I turned the offer down, I said a new shell holder would add to the old problem.

Every primer with the half moon dent fired, the half moon dent did not bother me. I could load with and or without the half moon dent.

F. Guffey
 
Last year I was in dear camp as I was loading my Super Blackhawk 44 Mag. I found the cylinder would not rotate. After a close look I noticed that a primer was fouling the frame. The primer was not below the head stamp. That is one case of a primer not being seated. For those that shoot targets I understand that consistency of ignition can cause accuracy issues. The uniformer is a good step in case prep. That's my opinion.
 
Just wonderin', did you measure the primer pocket depth like Unclenick asked? Or did you just measure the case length/primer after installation? :confused:
 
Thanks Mr. Guffey. I will let them know.

The pockets are at .125 inches in depth. The problem case is a smidge under .124 so that expains it. Its good to have learned things here:

1. What depth primer pockets for large rifle brass should be. Maybe I ought to know for all of the calibers I load for , huh?

2. Compressing the prime is new to me. Great information!

3. Just uniform the pockets on every piece of brass that is new to you.

Thanks Gentlemen.
 
Hi I am new to this forum. I to have some Nosler 308 Win brass that were recently purchased at the Sportsmans Warehouse that have shallow primer pockets. I found this forum after I contacted Nosler about the problem. They told me they never heard of this problem before, so I did a quick search and low and behold, here it is. I even shared this link on there facebook page so they could see that I am not the only one with this problem and it isn't a new problem. The brass is actually my dads brass, he has handloaded for over 45 years, I have handloaded for over 25 years. I have been using Nosler brass for my 280 Rem for quite awhile and told my dad how nice they were. Well after a lot of convincing him to try it, he bought two boxes for $56 a box instead of the Remington brass he normally buys for $25 a box. The next day he contacted me and told me that the Nosler brass was junk, the primers would not seat and he broke two primer arms in his RCBS rockchucker press trying to seat the primers. He sent some of his brass home with me to try on my Possness Warren press, which has a adjustable primer seater. He was right, the primers could not be seated in his 308 win. brass. I contacted Nosler and they told me the pockets are tight on there brass and not to use a hand priming tool. I told them I don't use a priming tool I use one of the best reloading presses made, a Possness Warren Metalic II press, and I have handloaded for over 25 years, I do know how to seat a primer. They then told me to send them some examples which I did, they got the brass Saturday, yesterday after several messages they told me that customer service was still looking at the problem. I feel that Nosler is trying to give me the run around, so I have a few friends that happened to build ammo for the ATK plant in Lewiston Idaho, I notified Nosler and told them I cant wait to hear there results and compare them to the results that I get back from ATK. I have not heard anymore from Nosler. I have been a long time loyal customer of Nosler and if this is how quality control and customer service has fallen in this once great company, I will no longer spend a dime on anything with the Nosler name on it. I understand the problem is a easy fix with a pocket uniformer, but this is premium brass that is supposedly, "Prepped and ready to load". Like I said I have loaded for over 25 years, my dad has loaded for over 45 years and neither of us have ran in to this with ANY other manufactors brass. When a guy buys premium brass at a premium price, he should not have to go spend another $125 for a RCBS case prep station and another $20 for a pocket uniforming tool to make the brass loadable.
 
When a guy buys premium brass at a premium price, he should not have to go spend another $125 for a RCBS case prep station and another $20 for a pocket uniforming tool to make the brass loadable.
Fritz34 is online now Report Post
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Before I purchased the RCBS case prep center I had a primer pocket uniform-er that was manually operated. Then one day I was looking at 2,200 military 30/06 cases with crimped primers, for anything manually operated, that is a lot of work.

It is assumed the primer pocket is perfect, the depth of the cut is limited, if the primer pockets were perfect there would be no evidence left in the bottom of the primer pocket the cutter touched the bottom of the pocket.

Many years ago there was a Model 70 270 Winchester shooting 10 feet high, the bullet company was contacted, nothing. The gun manufacture was contacted, nothing. The case manufacturer was contacted, again nothing. And then Hodgdon was contacted, Bruce Hodgdon was setting in front of the house the next morning.

F. Guffey
 
These brass are anything but perfect. Here is a picture, the brass will not even sit flat when the primer is fully seated. How this got by the quality control is beyond me. Nosler should have stuck with what the do best, make bullets. They have to many irons in the fire and the quality is going down hill. IMO

I guess I must not have enough posts to submit a picture, it didn't work.
 
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Fritz34, I understand, removing military crimps is a task that must be done, removing corn media is another task involved in reloading, none of these task drive me to the curb or lock me up. If the primer pocket is shallow I use the primer pocket uniforming tool, if It wasn't shallow I would still use the primer pocket unifomring tool.

280 Remington cases, my favorite, manufacturers do mot manufacturer long cases from the shoulder to the head of the case for reloaders like me, my favorite case is a case that is too long from the shoulder to the head of the case, for the 30/06 I have two sources, the 280 Remington and cases that have been fired in trashy old chambers. Then there is case forming, when forming cases my cases shorten as little as .035" and as much as .045". I want to cover the chamber with the case, cases that start out as too long end up just right.

F. Guffey
 
Sorry to hear that Nosler has messed up some brass. I had been holding them in the same high regard that I hold Norma and Lapua. Truth is, however, that I never really held them quite equal to Norma and Lapua, but just close. And what that meant to me was that I didn't need to do any prep work prior to loading and using the new brass.

I quit buying Nosler brass some months ago, when I finally decided that for the same price I could get the really good stuff.

Back when I did do primer pocket uniforming, I'd just chuck the uniformer (the one I have, which is small) in to my drill driver and get after it. I seriously doubt that an RCBS/Lyman/Lee case prep center can do that any faster than I can with my rig. Of course, when you factor in other work, like case chamfer/deburr, I come out in a bad second place.
 
F. Gufey, I understand that a person should check uniformity of the primer pockets but Nosler clearly states on the box fully prepped and ready to load, I should not have to do any prep work to there brass. Like I have stated, between me and my dad, we have a combined 70 years of reloading experience, I have never seen a batch of brass this far out of SAAMI specs. BY ANYONE!! I could have got 200 rounds of Remington brass for the same money and would not have had to touch the primer pockets, until they were fired or tumbled. If I have to prep Nosler cases, they should remove that statement from there box, that is misleading and false advertising.
 
Sorry to hear it Fritz. Nosler gave me the same rhetoric and seems to think their company is infallible. When I measured the depths (using a sharpie, micrometer and a paperclip some were drilled to only half the minimum depth. Its always a bummer to feel like you didn't get what you paid for
 
If there primer pockets is that far out of specs, I had to beat one out of the shell holder to remove it, how far out of specs is the rest of the brass, or bullets for that matter. Go to there facebook page and look at the posts, you will see my complaint and some pictures. They have my some of the brass I sent them, now they are avoiding my messages. I have had great luck with the 280 Nosler brass, I talked my dad into buying the 308 brass, now I feel like a idiot for recommending them to my dad now. I don't know if they just had a bad run in the 308 or not. Do you know the lot # on your 308 brass, I wonder if it is the same lot # as mine?
 
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