Shallow primer seating with Lee Classic Cast

B

birdus

Inactive
I have a Lee Classic Cast press and I believe the primer seater I am using is the Lee priming unit. When I prime Lapua .308 cases, for example (Federal 215M primers), the primers are actually below the case surface. However, when I prime already fired (a variety) 9mm brass (CCI small pistol primers), the primers seem to be about .005" above the surface of the case.

Any ideas on how to solve this problem? Is the Lee priming unit adjustable?

Thanks,
Jay
 
Lee hand held primer?

Is your lee primer one of the hand held things with the disk shaped hopper for the primers? I think it is called the Lee Auto Prime. I used one of those for quite a while and finally got knowledgeable enough to realize that it frequently did not seat the primers flush or below flush. Even at full stroke it left "high" primers. I did some bending of the parts, which given the pot metal casting could cause a break, and made it work correctly. I finally switched over to an RCSB Ram priming unit and couldn't be happier. Mind you I only use a single stage press and generally only load in batches of 50 or 100.

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 
Jay,

Forgive me but I’m confused about which Lee priming unit you have and you sound uncertain if it’s even a Lee unit.
... I believe the primer seater I am using is the Lee priming unit.
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Are you asking about the primer arm that comes with the press or the Ram Prime unit that is a separately purchased accessory? Or something else entirely?

P.S. Welcome to the forum.
 
Shallow primer seating with Lee Classic Cast
I have a Lee Classic Cast press and I believe the primer seater I am using is the Lee priming unit.
Click to expand...

Your post does not have enough specific information to even begin to give an answer. Reloading needs a lot of terminology, very specific info.

First, the above post says Le classic cast,,,--- WHAT? Turret, Single stage?
Second, Lee safety prime, hand held auto prime,(there's 3 different models of lee auto primes), or just the supplied primer arm and the shell holder?
Give us that info, then we can stop guessing, start figuring out what your problem is.

Primer pocket cleaning is NOT required for proper seating depth for ANY center fire shell.
 
You changed from rifle to pistol. Silly question: did you change the ramming pin from large rifle diameter to small pistol diameter?
 
Tuzo said:
You changed from rifle to pistol. Silly question: did you change the ramming pin from large rifle diameter to small pistol diameter?
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The OP seems to have abandoned us. The answer to your question :o may be why. ;)
 
I think I know what you need.
Save your self a lot of head aches in the future. I wrestled with primer pockets for 30+ years.

Go to Midway and order your self a large and small primer pocket reamer.
You ream the pockets one time and they will have uniform sides and bottoms. Primers will seat with more consistent tension and always seat to the proper depth.

It is a cheep and permanent fix.
 
One post wonder comes on here to complain that he isn't doing something correctly and blames the equipment.
 
I finally switched over to an RCSB Ram priming unit and couldn't be happier. Mind you I only use a single stage press and generally only load in batches of 50 or 100.
Click to expand...

RCBS Ram Prime die is nice, but oh so slow.

I have the same problem as the original poster, usiing the Safety Prime system on my classic turret, with large pistol primers. Small seem to be fine. Not sure what the fix is, other than to make sure to bear down adequately.
 
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