issues with brass shaving seating

[atek3]

I'm loading a bunch of mixed headstamp 40S&W and the effort to seat Winchester Small Pistol Primer on my Dillon 550 is very inconsistant. Some times, it's really easy, and other times, a bit of brass is shaved, any ideas?

atek3

*edited* I think winchester just has tighter primer pockets than federal...

 

[rcmodel]

mixed headstamp

That right there might be your problem!

Figure out which brand is causing problems and ream or swage the primer pockets.

Problem solved!

rcmodel

 

[amlevin]

+1 on the swage or ream. Some brass has no chamfer at all on the primer pocket. Makes for the problem you describe.

 

[Grandpa Shooter]

You do know that some brass has a ring around the primer to keep it in tight, and when you deprime the brass the ring stays in the primer pocket? Those are military or police brass and you will need to shave the edges of the pocket to allow a new primer to press in consistently. You can either sort out the ones with the crimp ring or keep a pocket reamer handy and clean up the ones that give you trouble. With practice you will "feel" the difference in time to stop and ream the pocket.