Primer seating issue.

IAyoteHNTR

New member
Maybe some of you guys have had this issue in the past as well, but I haven't seen much if any posts about it so I thought I'd share my problem and the way I fixed it.

I have an RCBS hand primer and although I seem to get along just fine with it, and I like the "feel" of it (I've loaded and fired several hundred rounds of ammo using it) I seemed to get a LOT of primers seated in my brass with this look to them .............

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Notice the half moon indentation on the left side of the primer left by the rod in the center of the hand primer pushing the primer in with just a tad too much pressure. I have been seating most of my primers with just a tad bit too much pressure I believe and have been getting the primers "flattened" a little bit to where it leaves that half moon mark in the primer. I could get a lot of the primers not having that mark in them just going by "feel" but I got a lot of them with the slight mark in them that way too.

I finally decided that there must be a way to prevent this from happening and searched in some reloading forums and ran across a few guys that had drilled and tapped the handle of their RCBS hand primer and put a screw through it to build a "stop" at just the right depth and decided I needed to try this.

So I went out to my buddy's place and we drilled and tapped the handle and after getting just the right amount of washers in place, I ended up with the hand primer like this.........

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So now when I seat the primers into the brass (and all my brass have the primer pockets uniformed, other than the Lapua brass I use) they all turn out like this .......

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It took a couple of different tries to get just the exact amount of washers in place, a couple of them are extremely thin that you can't really see by the picture, but I'm very pleased with the results I'm getting now. The primers are seated just below the face of the bottom of the brass w/o any indentation marks in them anymore. I wanted to put this out there just in case someone else was having the same issues and was looking for a way to fix it.
 
Sharp idea...Thanks for posting it...I generally seat primers in my Co-Ax with the same principle until I have a few test loads that require having to change out the primer cups to either larger or smaller and then I revert to my RCBS hand primer...I will have to make a similar modification to keep from crushing them, as I tend to get carried away with the pressure factor..
 
Quote: It took a couple of different tries to get just the exact amount of washers in place, a couple of them are extremely thin that you can't really see by the picture, but I'm very pleased with the results I'm getting now.

Good fix. One thing that would have made adjustment a tad easier would be to "double nut" the sling stud....one nut above and one below the handle so that height is adjustable and when proper setting determined you could lock the 2nd nut.

Regards,
hm
 
Originally Posted By: hm1996 Quote: It took a couple of different tries to get just the exact amount of washers in place, a couple of them are extremely thin that you can't really see by the picture, but I'm very pleased with the results I'm getting now.

Good fix. One thing that would have made adjustment a tad easier would be to "double nut" the sling stud....one nut above and one below the handle so that height is adjustable and when proper setting determined you could lock the 2nd nut.

Regards,
hm

I originally planned on doing that but I couldn't find two nuts that were the right threads, just the one.
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I may end up doing exactly what you're suggesting just so I can "adjust" the depth just right if I switch to different primers that would seat differently.
 
Great solution here for sure. Saves some good money over the other setups with a dial indicator for seating depth. I'm surprised one of the manufacturers of these hasn't built a model like this and charged $20 more for it. if you tell people this will tighten up your groups, you can d@mn near sell them anything. Thanks for sharing this idea for sure.
 
Originally Posted By: IAyoteHNTROriginally Posted By: hm1996 Quote: It took a couple of different tries to get just the exact amount of washers in place, a couple of them are extremely thin that you can't really see by the picture, but I'm very pleased with the results I'm getting now.

Good fix. One thing that would have made adjustment a tad easier would be to "double nut" the sling stud....one nut above and one below the handle so that height is adjustable and when proper setting determined you could lock the 2nd nut.

Regards,
hm

I agree because of the different primers and different loads I load pistols and rifles and some magnum primers and some not so things like the 2 adjusting screws makes things quicker and easier

I originally planned on doing that but I couldn't find two nuts that were the right threads, just the one.
rolleyes.gif
I may end up doing exactly what you're suggesting just so I can "adjust" the depth just right if I switch to different primers that would seat differently.
 
I've gotten marks similar to those but I have found it is from not removing enough of the crimp. I too like a firm feel when seating so I tend to go light on my chamfer and when a primer does not want to seat, I chamfer a bit more and its good 2 go.
 
That seems rather odd to me? I say this because regardless of how hard I seat them, it leaves no marks on the primer.

So to me, it appears your priming stem isn't aligning with the primer, or the brass isn't aligning in the shell holder.

Something to check:

Check to make sure the shell holder doesn't have any derbies or build up in the grove that preventing the case head from completely sliding all the way in. I've had this happen, not only with priming, but when resizing and seating bullets. Shell holders must be free of anything that can cause a misalignment issue.

GS2
 
I notice your first photo is LC brass. Did you remove the crimp prior to priming? If not you would need more pressure to seat it. It also looks like something wasnt lined up properly.
 
Originally Posted By: reb8600I notice your first photo is LC brass. Did you remove the crimp prior to priming? If not you would need more pressure to seat it. It also looks like something wasnt lined up properly.

Yes, the LC brass in the first pic is on it's 2nd firing out of my 20 Practical. I just happened to use a pic of some LC brass that I had primed already a while ago. All my LC brass is swaged well and has had the primer pockets uniformed. No issues there at all.

I have been at my reloading bench the last couple of hours and prepped and primed some more LC brass that I had ready for my 20 Practical and have primed some of them and they turned out just like the Lapua brass I had pictured did, primers are seated well w/o any marks/indentations on the primers at all.
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Originally Posted By: Carolina CoyoteThat is a super nice loading block you have. Did you make it?

Those are made and sold here ..... CNC Shooter

I have a couple so far ............

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and yes, they are SUPER nice!
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Sometimes I turn the brass a little if it's not seating smooth. I'm with midwestpredator on the cause. No harm in shooting those primers right?
 
Originally Posted By: HumpnessSometimes I turn the brass a little if it's not seating smooth. I'm with midwestpredator on the cause. No harm in shooting those primers right?

The cause of the marks was from trying to seat the primer down too far with too much pressure. It would happen on brass other than LC brass as well so the crimp removal has zilch to do with it, on my brass anyway.

No, no harm in shooting them. I've shot many that had those light marks w/o any issues.
 
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We used to do something similar to that on rim fire rifles with a yucky trigger to make a stop for the over travel drill the guard and double nut it both sides and use the screw to adjusted tada.

But awesome fix
Scott
 
Originally Posted By: Carolina CoyoteJust wondering if you Uniform the primer pockets?

I do really like you loading block and will place an order soon.
Thanks.

I uniform ALL my primer pockets, yes. It's a pain to do hundreds of LC brass but I only have to do it once. I just received another 500 pcs of processed LC brass yesterday and I've been uniforming primer pockets on some of those today as a matter of fact. I wouldn't be able to get the primers to seat exactly the same on all of my brass unless I uniform the primer pockets. I also deburr every flash hole on every piece of brass as well. I can tell you from experience that there are a LOT of pieces of my LC brass that sorely needed the flash hole on the inside of the brass deburred.
 
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When uniforming the primer hole I use a Birthday candle to lubricate the uniformer and the primer hole, sure makes the job a lot easier and smoother cut. You may have a better method if so let us know.
 
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