Help! Raised Ridge Around Firing Pin Hole

.223Savage

.223Savage

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On virtually all my reloads of .223 I am finding a raised ridge around the firing pin indentation on my CCI small rifle primers. I don't believe hot loads are the problem as I am at least .5 to 2 grains below the Sierra max for Varget. I weigh each load and verify my scale with two others so weight should be good.

When looking at a fired primer there is a raised ridge around the circumference of the firing pin indentation. The radius at the edge of the CCI primer is still present as opposed to the primer being squashed flat from an "over pressure" load.

Yesterday while shooting another gentleman at the range had an identical Savage 12VLP and was kind enough to share his brass, none of his factory loaded Winchester primers had a raised ridge around the indentation like mine.

The ridge is present on primers with several different loads using different bullets and brass types.

The gun shoots great, yesterday I had all 5 groups well under 1 MOA and even a sub MOA 10 shot group at 100 yards. This using several different loads and 3 different bullets. (PS: Hornady 55g and 68g are fantastic and cheaper than Sierra too)

Sorry for rambling but I am concerned by these raised ridges, eliminating over pressure the only thing I can thing of is loose primer pockets but that would flatten the whole primer including the radius on the rim which is still good.

Help please!!! What is your experience, thoughts and theories on my problem!!!???
 
Look at the front of your bolt, did they chamfer the firing pin hole?
I just got a new Remington, and the same thing happened with a "starting load" Looked at the front of the bolt and saw they chamfered the firing pin hole.....no matter what load I use I get the little ring/ridge.
 
Firing pin might be slightly undersize, or the FP hole slightly oversize. Nothing to worry about, you could get smith to install and fit a new pin that matches the hole better if you wanted to.
 
From what I understand, like joe said, it's likely there's a gap between the firing pin and the hole in the breech face.

If the Winchester primers were unaffected, it's probably because they're not as soft as CCI primers.
 
My 6BR does this regularily (Rem XR-100 Action/Bolt) even at lowest powder amounts. Nothing to worry about. Sloppy tolerances in either firing pin and/or firing pin hole.
 
Does it look like this?

DSCF0027.jpg
 
That's a shell fired from my Rem 7600 .308. It has a recess around the firing pin in the bolt. Been like that forever and its never caused a problem, with handloads or factory, so I'll keep shooting it.:)
 
Adding to the as mentioned hole size and chamfer, a firing pin tip with too small a radius will promote this.

If your handy, you can re-radius that tip and set the protrusion to .040" - .045". It will reduce the cratering because it changes the shape of the dent in the primer. When the 50-70,000 psi pushes the dent in the primer back out, it doesn't peel back and thin out over the firing pin tip as much and as a result there is much less "extra" primer cup material displaced. Remember that as the tip went in it also thinned out the primer cup, with a rounder tip you get a more even thinning/stretching.
 
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