I recently broke open a brick of CCI BR-4 small rifle benchrest primers and loaded them in my 223 and one of my 308's.Both rifles are model 700's.In the first 20 out of the 223,I had 4 that didn't go bang.I immediately took the rifle to the shop and took the bolt apart.It had a little piece of brass and some dirt in the bolt body,but nothing serious,so I went back out and tried it again and had one more FTF.I didn't get around to shooting the 308 because my wife was due to be home after work,and she hates to see me shooting because she knows how much I enjoy it,and because it keeps me away from her honey do list,which has more words than the Bible.
I was running low on large rifle primers and bought a hundred rounds of Remington BR brass with small pockets for my 308.Next trip to the backyard range was a week or so later and during that week I installed a Tubb dual spring aluminum firing pin setup in the 223 because of the FTF's and because I'd been wanting to try one.I had 2 more that didn't go out of that 20,so I began to wonder about the primers,although I've never had a bad primer from any manufacturer in 40 years of reloading,and well over 100,000 rounds.I put the 308 in the bags and the first 3 went click,the next 3 went bang and the next one went click,the next 2 went bang and the last one went click.
That rifle has never failed with BR-2 primers,and it has a little over 1,000 rounds through it.I know I seated the primers properly.I also know there's no headspace problems with either rifle.I installed the barrel on the 223,and I installed with basically no headspace,and the 308 is a production barrel that I've checked the headspace on and it's right.The primers are stored in the same cabinet that I keep all my primers in,and have kept them in since 1987.
I loaded 20 for the 223 with CCI 400 small rifle primers and they all went bang.Is there a difference in the primer cups between the BR-4 and the 400?Has anybody else experienced this?I'm most certain I've narrowed it down to the BR-4 primers,but I still find it hard to believe that 30% of the primers in that brick are bad.If they were readily available it would be one thing,but the way it is now,I can't stand to throw 800 primers away.
I was running low on large rifle primers and bought a hundred rounds of Remington BR brass with small pockets for my 308.Next trip to the backyard range was a week or so later and during that week I installed a Tubb dual spring aluminum firing pin setup in the 223 because of the FTF's and because I'd been wanting to try one.I had 2 more that didn't go out of that 20,so I began to wonder about the primers,although I've never had a bad primer from any manufacturer in 40 years of reloading,and well over 100,000 rounds.I put the 308 in the bags and the first 3 went click,the next 3 went bang and the next one went click,the next 2 went bang and the last one went click.
That rifle has never failed with BR-2 primers,and it has a little over 1,000 rounds through it.I know I seated the primers properly.I also know there's no headspace problems with either rifle.I installed the barrel on the 223,and I installed with basically no headspace,and the 308 is a production barrel that I've checked the headspace on and it's right.The primers are stored in the same cabinet that I keep all my primers in,and have kept them in since 1987.
I loaded 20 for the 223 with CCI 400 small rifle primers and they all went bang.Is there a difference in the primer cups between the BR-4 and the 400?Has anybody else experienced this?I'm most certain I've narrowed it down to the BR-4 primers,but I still find it hard to believe that 30% of the primers in that brick are bad.If they were readily available it would be one thing,but the way it is now,I can't stand to throw 800 primers away.
