Hand Depriming-checking how tight the primer pocket is

ackleyman

New member
A few years ago, I had batches of brass Rockwell tested to check hardness. What lead to this was that some brands of brass would loose primer pockets quickly, while others a few cases at a time.

To solve the mystery, I sent Win, Fed, Rem, and PMC cases to have Rockwell tested in hardness. All brass was brand new. All brass from each maker was from the same lot.

Brass from each brand of brass would vary as much as 6%.

Shocking was how the variation from the softest brand to the hardest brand was 12%...this is huge.

I started de priming by hand after a few firings on the brass checking for loose primer pockets. This resulted in very different train of thought from sorting by cases with a hand priming tool.

When I found what I thought was a loose priming pocket, I would prime that case with a spent primer and try and push the primer out with a straight large paper clip, shocking how easy the primer was pushed out.


http://www.neiljones.com/html/decapping_tool.html

I would not be without the tool above for my calibers that are really intense and shot with really hot loads.

What brought all this about was a blown primer in a 7 mag, and I was lucky that I had on a great pair of shooting glasses. I was shooting 71g of REtumbo with a 162g SST and a federal 215 in a Remington 700 at 3130 fps, accurate son of a gun, but rough on Remington primer pockets. 72g of R#25 with a 154g Hornady at 3250 fps is unreal accurate with the Rem brass and Winchester magnum primers, but two firings on the Rem brass and it is toast. 3/8"-1/2" groups with the 25 load above is great, but primer pockets pay the price.

I consider the tool above to be worth it's weight in gold to a reloader that shoot a lot. With the Rockwell hardness variations in brass, this could save a burnt bolt face, and gasses in your eyes.

Also, as lapua gets many firings on it, you can sure pick up on the loose primer pockets with the Jones de capping tool. I shoot Hart, Shilen, and Jewel 2oz triggers. Hart and Shilen 2oz triggers are broken when a primer blows because the firing pin is blown to the rear with extreme force, breaking the third lever in the trigger.
 
Very interesting.
I have seen a factory 22-250 blow a primer and blow the extractor/ball out of a brand new Savage bolt gun and to Hornady's credit they offered to repair rifle and replaced the ammo as they after receiving the suspect ammo said it was due to soft brass.

My son uses this tool to decap brass and I wonder if it too would give a quick indication of loose pockets if you were paying attention.

http://www.harveydeprimer.com/
 
The Harvey looks like one heck of a tool! No doubt about it that the Harvey tool would give you excellent "feel" for the primer coming out of the case.

What brought me to make this post was my buddy was blowing pockets on 6.5 creed brass, he should not have been reloading them with the loose pockets. Now his bolt face has holes in it, got to send it off and get welded up and machined.

Great post on the Harvey tool.
 
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