BBerguson
Official Pennsyltuckian
I think (I know) my Lee hand primer is worn out. I’ve been having problems with my 308 cast hand loads failing to fire. Well, let me back up.
Last fall I was watching a movie (I’ve seen it before) with my daughter and decided I’ll prime some 308 brass (with the Lee tool) while I’m sitting there. Some of them were military brass that I hadn’t swaged the primer pocket and had some really difficult to impossible to seat primers. Had to take the tool apart a couple of times and finagle the primer out with the brass still in the shell holder. Anyways, I think I must have stretched the Lee tool enough that it won’t seat the primers deep enough now for them to reliable ignite.
My son and I loaded up 50 308’s with 173 gr cast bullets and XX grains of blue dot. Only about half of them that we tried fired. I pulled the bullets and the primers had not ignited. I was thinking that it may be the CCI primers being too hard so I talked to a buddy and traded him some CCI’s for Remington. It’s a new TC Compass and I thought it might be a light firing pin spring or maybe a firing pin out of tolerance and a little short.
When I got home I decided to experiment. I run the brass though my sizer die and de-capped them, saving the primers. I also took a few that had very very light primer strikes and re-seated the primers on my Lyman Ram Prime die. Also put some new primers in the same way. Three of each. I then test fired them in the TC and none of the previously struck primers ignited while all three of the new primers ignited fine. So, the gun is working fine.
So now I have 33 previously loaded rounds that have primers that feel like they are plenty deep enough to fire, 7 that feel like the other ones that failed to fire. I would love to push those primers a little deeper on the Ram Prime but I don’t dare. Even though... I went to the shop with some primers and crushed them in the vise. It’s a fairly large vise and I crushed them sideways and flat, and I really crushed them. I also put a spent primer in the Ram Prime die and pushed it hard (slowly) into an already primed but otherwise empty case. I’m trying to make them explode and I couldn’t get any of them to work. After I was done crushing them I put them on the floor and whacked them with a hammer which exploded all of them.
I think I’m just going to pull the bullets on those 7 loaded rounds and re-seat the primers rather than be tempted to try and seat the primers deeper on loaded rounds. Even though I’m sure I can’t ignite a primer by crushing it. But, I’m just pretty sure, I’m not positive so pulling some bullets it is!
Last fall I was watching a movie (I’ve seen it before) with my daughter and decided I’ll prime some 308 brass (with the Lee tool) while I’m sitting there. Some of them were military brass that I hadn’t swaged the primer pocket and had some really difficult to impossible to seat primers. Had to take the tool apart a couple of times and finagle the primer out with the brass still in the shell holder. Anyways, I think I must have stretched the Lee tool enough that it won’t seat the primers deep enough now for them to reliable ignite.
My son and I loaded up 50 308’s with 173 gr cast bullets and XX grains of blue dot. Only about half of them that we tried fired. I pulled the bullets and the primers had not ignited. I was thinking that it may be the CCI primers being too hard so I talked to a buddy and traded him some CCI’s for Remington. It’s a new TC Compass and I thought it might be a light firing pin spring or maybe a firing pin out of tolerance and a little short.
When I got home I decided to experiment. I run the brass though my sizer die and de-capped them, saving the primers. I also took a few that had very very light primer strikes and re-seated the primers on my Lyman Ram Prime die. Also put some new primers in the same way. Three of each. I then test fired them in the TC and none of the previously struck primers ignited while all three of the new primers ignited fine. So, the gun is working fine.
So now I have 33 previously loaded rounds that have primers that feel like they are plenty deep enough to fire, 7 that feel like the other ones that failed to fire. I would love to push those primers a little deeper on the Ram Prime but I don’t dare. Even though... I went to the shop with some primers and crushed them in the vise. It’s a fairly large vise and I crushed them sideways and flat, and I really crushed them. I also put a spent primer in the Ram Prime die and pushed it hard (slowly) into an already primed but otherwise empty case. I’m trying to make them explode and I couldn’t get any of them to work. After I was done crushing them I put them on the floor and whacked them with a hammer which exploded all of them.
I think I’m just going to pull the bullets on those 7 loaded rounds and re-seat the primers rather than be tempted to try and seat the primers deeper on loaded rounds. Even though I’m sure I can’t ignite a primer by crushing it. But, I’m just pretty sure, I’m not positive so pulling some bullets it is!
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