Primer seating effort - Large vs Small Rifle

[Jerry D]

I seated my first 200 .223 small rifle primers a month or so ago...

Finally picked up a pack of 100 Large rifle primers and seated them in the 30 pieces of brass I have. I'm only working up a load for deer hunting and I got 100 bullets - it took about 3-4 times the effort to seat the primers on my RCBS universal hand priming tool. Is this normal?

The .223 cases were new and the .30-06 cases were once fired. I cleaned the primer pockets in the .30-06 brass.

I was shocked at how hard it was - literally 3-4x more effort and no where near as nice/smooth action compared to the small rifle primers.

 

[jcwit]

Were those 30/06 cases once fired military crimped cases? If so the crimp should be removed, either with a countersink tool or by swedging. Countersink is more common for a person with just a few rounds such as you have.

 

[Jerry D]

no no, they were factory once fired rem .30-06 brass shooting 150 grain core lokts.

 

[buck460XVR]

My .460 uses large rifle primers and I find they take a lot more force using the hand primer than SP in .357 or LP in .44 mag.........I always thought it was the Hornady cases.

 

[redneck2]

Brand? Federals and Winchesters are WAY easier to seat than CCI's.

 

[Jerry D]

I was seating Federal 210's but it seems that its normal that they take that much effort. They did seat nicely. I guess its just some getting used to.