Makarov Reloading - Primer Anomaly

[wrangler5]

I wonder if anyone else has had this experience when reloading the 9x18 Makarov. Using a Lee Loadmaster with a 19S shell plate - same as for 9x19 Luger, and what's specified by Lee for the Makarov. Last night I reloaded mixed brass containing Win, S&B and Starline cases - some of the Starline was new, all the others were once fired.

I got high primers in the Win and S&B cases - some were barely above flush, some quite high. ALL of the Starline brass came through with primers seated normally - my machine is set to put them just below flush with the case head. The primer seating depth has not been changed since the press was set up. It has loaded many thousands of rounds of many different calibers with NO primer seating depth issues - EVER.

All of the adjustments are tight - primer lever seating stud, shell plate lockdown screw, and turret locking screw. The handle was fully cycled to the stop in each instance. Cases were mixed in the case feeder tubes - no particular order. EVERY Win and S&B case had a primer that I had to manually seat with a hand priming tool, and with that tool they all went slightly below flush with no signs of crushing, so I don't think there's anything wrong with the primer pockets themselves. EVERY one of the Starline cases was just fine as it came out of the Loadmaster.

The only thing I can think of is that the case rims are just slightly thinner on the Win and S&B cases, letting the case head ride just a smidge higher from the pressure of the primer ram than with the Starline cases. I can't SEE any difference in the rims, but it would be slight in any event.

Anybody else have a similar experience? I bought a bunch of S&B, intending to shoot it up and then reload it, but this is not encouraging.

Thanks for any experience or advice.

 

[BigSlick]

Which flavor of Win brass are you using ?

WINCHESTER, WW, WCC, WIN NT. *WIN* ? Never a problem with WINCHESTER, WW or WCC (after the crimp was removed) I toss WIN NT. *WIN* (sometimes known as double dot) is OK, but I'm not in love with it by a long shot, priming problems are common. It's just crappy brass, not AMERC crappy, but not as easy to load as other Winchester brass (IMO).

S&B is well known to have very snug primer pockets. Lot's of folks just toss 'em. I load them, but segregate them and load them last.

Starline is excellent in every respect in my experience.

Do you have any other headstamp you can try ?

If your machine will load Starline OK, chances are it is working/set up properly.

Sounds like you might have a bit of brass that requires a little extra arm to prime, or needs a pocket uniformer/reamer passed thru it once.

HTH,

BigSlick

 

[wrangler5]

I'd call it Winchester White Box. Headstamp is WIN 9x18 MAK. No dots next to the WIN. Looks like the other white box stuff I shoot except the box says "Metric Calibers" on the end in addition to the 9x18 Makarov and bullet descriptions. It is a 95g FMJ load. It's the only box of Win 9x18 that I've tried. Mostly I have been shooting the disposable Russian stuff, but thought I'd reload at least the Hornady XTP bullets to see what they'd do, and some cast lead plinkers just because I can.

I've reloaded tons of white box 9mm Luger without incident, so was surprised at this difficulty. And I ran a couple of hundred 9x19 loads through the press after my Makarov difficulties and had no problems. So I'm confident the press settings are OK. I have a primer pocket reamer that I'll try next. I've never adjusted the primer seating depth, and will not change it just for this brass - if that's what it would take to reload this brass I'll stick with Starline, or go back to the Russian stuff.