LC Brass Loose Primer

[castingdonkey]

When I get low on powder and projectiles I prep a lot of brass and put it in bags. Today I decided to get back on the bench with some powder and projectiles and found a loose primer in the bottom of the bag. Checked all of my cases and found an LC brass missing the primer. I tried putting a new one in and it fell right out. Haven't seen this before but I also haven't messed with a lot of LC brass. Seemed odd to me since I always feel the bottom of each case after priming to make sure they are seated. Have any of you run into this with LC brass?

 

[gojuice101]

I have. I converted some LC 223 brass to 300BLK and I noticed when loading last week that some of the primer pockets were so loose that the primers would fall out while handling the brass. Some of these are only on the second loading, and I'm not loading hot at all.

 

[Reefinmike]

It happens. If a case feels to have a loose pocket when priming, I will attempt to push that primer out by hand with a spare lee universal decapping pin. If i cant push it out easily by hand, I will use that case but mark the case head and extractor grove with a red sharpie to indicate to scrap it after firing.

Loose primer pockets are a pretty common thing in federal FC headstamped brass.

 

[castingdonkey]

That's some good info. These are LC 762x51. Been having a good run with them up to this point. I will definitely get a spare decapping pin or rod of some sort and start checking better.

 

[W.E.G.]

OP, you neglected to mention where you got that case; or how many times it has been fired; or whether you know what loads were previously used in it.

I shoot a lot of reloaded 5.56 in AR15 type rifles.

With LC brass I find that the primer pocket on most cases provides noticeably less resistance when seating a primer for the fifth loading. For that reason, I deadline all 5.56 brass after 5 firings.

It is not unusual to encounter a loose primer on cases with fewer firings.

The process of manufacturing cartridge brass amazes me that they achieve the level of consistency that we enjoy. Nonetheless, some primer pockets will loosen prematurely - either by cause of manufacturing/materials, or by cause of how the user uses the case. High pressures shorten case life.

 

[LiveLife]

For loose primer pockets, you can try Tula/Wolf primers with slightly larger diameter cups to extend the life of your brass.

For pistol, Fiocchi primers are also slightly larger than CCI/Winchester/Magtech.

 

[castingdonkey]

Thanks for the over sized primer tip BDS.

WEG I bought a bag of prepped LC 762x51 Brass at Cabelas. I may have reloaded it a couple times. As far as pressures go I have been way down on the powder charges thus far. But with what I have been learning about the Gas guns and powder charges it might not have been as low as I thought.

 

[Nature Boy]

I'm on the 6-7 reloading of ~500 LC 7.62 brass and have not had any loose primers yet. This is all brass fired by me from new

Could the the issue for you be the fact that you're buying processed brass that is claimed to be once fired. Most of it likely is, but unless you fired it, how could you know for sure?

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Most, if not all LC cases use a staked primer when originally loaded. If you or the person who opened up the primer pocket for reloading did so incorrectly the pocket can still be too tight or more rarely too loose. The latter is possible here.

 

[castingdonkey]

I cut the military crimp out but do not run a primer pocket uniforming tool. So the tolerance past the crimp is not affected.

 

[macgrumpy]

Buy a .210" diameter pin gauge and cull your brass for the proper size pocket right after decapping the fired case.

Checking the primer pocket for the proper diameter has one other benefit; if the primer pocket has expanded then that's an indication that the case has been over-worked which means that it's getting closer to having a head separation. Culling out cases with over-sized primer pockets helps cull out cases that are getting close to having a case head separation. Primer pockets expand over multiple reloadings and because of high pressure loads.

I also bought a handle to use with the pin. Sometimes the pin will actually stick inside the pocket and the handle makes it easier to remove the pin, it also helps when you are checking a high number of cases.

 

[Nature Boy]

Good idea Macgrumpy. Thanks for the links

Also, do you know the diameter pin gauge to check .223?

 

[joem1945]

After a unknown number of reloads either the neck splits or the primer pockets get loose. Those go to the scrap bucket.

 

[macgrumpy]

The max diameter for a small rifle primer pocket is .1745". This link gives you the dimensions of both the pocket and the primer.

 

[HOWARD J]

The last batch of Military brass I purchased was marked ""range brass""
After removing the primer ( brass color) I find the crimp is gone.
It saved me a lot of work BUT I have no idea how many times it has been fired.
All new primers fitted tight

 

[macgrumpy]

I reload for my M1A rifles more than anything else, and the reason I started using a pin gauge for the primer pockets is that I started getting bolt face erosion from loose primer pockets. Once I started checking my pockets my bolts stopped having pits burned in to them.