Primer depth question

[340PD]

Maybe a dumb comment but I hand prime and I am sure I get variances in depth. In a lifetime of reloading, I have never spent two seconds worrying about how to seat a primer other than I want them fully seated because many will be fired from my 645 S&W revolver and flush or below is vital to that revolvers functioning.

That said, could the OP problem be, correct me if I am wrong, the fact CCI primers are harder that other brands?

Indents made in primers with a Lee Hardness Tester- the size of the indent from a 5/8" ball with 60 psi of the Lee Tester:
0.32 – CCI 300 LP
0.34 – Remington 9 ½ 6% - softer than CCI
0.40 – Winchester WLP – 25% softer than CCI
0.42 – Federal 150 LP – 31% softer than CCI

 

[Gadawg88]

Dirty pockets did affect primer depth, and some brands were slightly tighter fit for the primers and required a tad more ram pressure.

I don't claim to be an old hand at this, but I think most (not all) will agree that cleaning primer pockets on handgun brass is not necessary. Whatever residue may typically reside there should not be near enough to interfere with proper seating of a primer.

Using a Lee Classic turret press, I have to give several extra pushes on the ram lever to get the proper seating depth...

I also use the LCT and have not found this to be the case. I use one steady stroke to apply consistent upward preasure until it won't go any further without excessive preasure. That is the subjective part, but as other have said you have to really exert a lot of preasure to crush it to a point that it fails. I have had just one FTF in about 2000 rounds of mixed handgun and rifle calibers that I attributed to a high primer. It fired on the second try. I think what happened on that one was i short stroked it because I was on a roll and got just a little ahead of myself.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I don't agree that cleaning primer pockets for handgun brass isn't important. In fact, every single primer pocket I load is cleaned, rifle or pistol, and I'm up over 800,000 rounds of loaded ammunition. I don't have primer problems, except for twice that I can remember. One primer didn't have any priming compound and the other didn't contain an anvil.

Primers seated .004" below flush, in a clean primer pocket, will go off, unless there's a problem with the firearm.

Others won't agree, but since I'm the boss in my shop, and have been for the past 51 years, that's the way they'll leave my shop, clean and seated correctly.......

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[gamestalker]

There is no magical seating depth for primers, as variations in pockets alone will defeat such reliance on a measured depth. The only effective manner in which to seat primers, is to feel when the anvil makes contact with the bottom of the pocket. I've used several different seating tools, they all worked great, but I settled on an RCBS priming die more than 25 yrs. ago.

I do clean primer pockets and inspect flash holes on everything I load, except shot shell.

Although your next run of 100 rounds only produced 3 mis-fires, that's still a very bad average considering, myself and numerous others have had zero or nearly zero mis-fire's in several or more decades of reloading, to which I've had zero in 3+ decades. That said, on the now and then occasion of measuring primer seating depths, I would say .004"-.006" is the average, again, primer pocket depth is the variation here, not the measured seating depth.

GS

 

[345 DeSoto]

See Post #2...THAT'S the reason I wet tumble with SS. The primer pockets come out as clean as Factory new...NO residue whatsoever. Then I seat with a Lee hand primer.

 

[Offfhand]

Quoted from earlier post on this thread:

"No, the hand priming tools do not allow adjustment."

Actually, at least two current hand priming tools are adjustable for seating depth: One is the beautiful hand tool made by Magnum Metal. It are rather pricey but in a class by itself. The hand tool by 21st Century also features depth adjustment.

 

[Blue68f100]

Sorry, not buying it that clean primer pockets effect ignition. Burn residue has no impact on weather a primer will go off or not. It's only function it to support the anvil, and have a opening for the flash to ignite the powder. Once a primer is seated to firm contact it's good to go. The primer compound is contained in the cup surface between the anvil. So the residue is not wear it has any impact.

 

[twofifty]

advantages of clean pockets

When hand priming, clean pockets make it easier to feel what's going on. A primer doesn't push into a gritty pocket with predictable ease.

The extra resistance from grit could also mask a too-large pocket condition, which could lead to gas leakage & boltface erosion.

If there's grit between the cup and the pocket bottom, the primer isn't evenly seated on its circumference. The cup bottom might end up supported in one place and unsupported elsewhere, which makes it harder to feel whether the anvil has been pushed into contact with the cup.

Reliable ignition is so important, the extra care seems worth it to me.

 

[Schwing]

I expected someone else to state this before now.....If you do not seat the primer all the way to the bottom of the primer pocket your fireing pin winds up doing it when you attempt to fire the round and you lose energy that should have been expended fireing the primer....seating the primer.

This is easy to test. Just re-chamber the round and fire again. If it goes bang the second time around, you didn't seat it far enough.

 

[ReloaderFred]

If you ever look at primer residue under a microscope, it looks like glass crystals. I figure enough of those sharp little devils go down my bore as it is, so I don't want to add more.

Clean pockets for me. Makes my ammunition go bang and makes me feel better about the product I'm producing. Like I mentioned before, my shop, my rules.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Walkalong]

Quoted from earlier post on this thread:

"No, the hand priming tools do not allow adjustment."

Actually, at least two current hand priming tools are adjustable for seating depth: One is the beautiful hand tool made by Magnum Metal. It are rather pricey but in a class by itself. The hand tool by 21st Century also features depth adjustment.

The Sinclair is adjustable as well, via shims. I used it on my 6 PPC loads, but everything else is done with my RCBS hand primer. I did make my own small and large primer seater rod for the RCBS, so in a way I "adjusted" it.