CCI primers never seat deep enough

damndirtyape

damndirtyape

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I can never get CCI primers to seat the 0.003 to 0.005 inches that every reloading manual reccomends. They're either flush with the head, or if I push hard enough to tilt my bench I can get them to 0.001, which I don't like doing for obvious reasons. I'm using large pistol and small rifle. Winchester and Federal primers are very easily seated to the correct depth, so I'm pretty sure my press is set up correctly. I'm using a Dillon 550.

Do any of you have trouble getting CCIs seated deep enough? Is there some trick with CCIs I don't know about?
 
Hey dirty ape. When you tighten the bolt to secure your case holder (or whatever you call the black thing that holds cases in place), tighten it all the way down and only loosen it back just enough so that you can index it. I've noticed if you ease it back too much, it won't quite seat the primer as deep. Also allows more slop which results in variation in your ammo.

I always use CCI primers with my Dillon 550 and I've heard lots of people complain about them but I've never had problems. They definitely fit tighter but you should be able to seat them.
 
Levi Garrett said:
I always use a hand priming tool, and yes CCI can be a pain, de burr the primer pocket , it helps .
Click to expand...
Are my pockets burred? They're not crimped and I'm not reaming them or anything, do you mean the flash hole? Or should I put a bevel on the edge of the pocket with my debur/chamfer tool? :confused:
 
I found with CCI and some brands of cases , the primers fit was very tight , reamer would help a bit. The pocket will stretch a bit after 1 or 2 times fired.
So you don't want to remove much material, you just want to make sure its not out of round, which may be the problem.
 
damndirtyape said:
I can never get CCI primers to seat the 0.003 to 0.005 inches that every reloading manual reccomends. They're either flush with the head, or if I push hard enough to tilt my bench I can get them to 0.001, which I don't like doing for obvious reasons. I'm using large pistol and small rifle. Winchester and Federal primers are very easily seated to the correct depth, so I'm pretty sure my press is set up correctly. I'm using a Dillon 550.

Do any of you have trouble getting CCIs seated deep enough? Is there some trick with CCIs I don't know about?
Click to expand...


Do you use a tool to cut your pockets to a uniform depth? Otherwise won't necessarily get a uniform seating. Especially after couple reloads.
 
Dmay said:
Do you use a tool to cut your pockets to a uniform depth? Otherwise won't necessarily get a uniform seating. Especially after couple reloads.
Click to expand...

I haven't been doing any primer pocket prep other than removing stuck cleaning media. I guess I'll start uniforming them to get the CCIs to fit. Thanks.
 
damndirtyape said:
I haven't been doing any primer pocket prep other than removing stuck cleaning media. I guess I'll start uniforming them to get the CCIs to fit. Thanks.
Click to expand...
I found with CCI and dirty primer pockets it was a tight fit. I started cleaning them with a Lee primer pocket cleaner and no more problem.
 
JohnnyMac said:
Hey dirty ape. When you tighten the bolt to secure your case holder (or whatever you call the black thing that holds cases in place), tighten it all the way down and only loosen it back just enough so that you can index it.
Click to expand...

I have loaded thousands of 40 SW & 9mm using CCI small pistol primer with no problem in my Dillon RL550. You just need to do a little adjustment on your shell plate.

I agree with JohnnyMac.
Take out the snag between the shell plate and the shell platform by tightening the shellplate bolt until you only have a room to conviniently rotate your index star. If you leave too much slack in between the shell plate and shellplate platform, the shell plate will tilt away from the primer seating cup when loading a primer, which will result to problem you are experiencing right now.

Try adjusting the shell plate.

Good luck.
Load SAFELY:)
 
CCI primers

Over ten years back, I had trouble with priming on my Dillon 550.
I calles Dillon customer service about it, and the fellow asked what kind of primers I used. When I told him that they were CCI, he said
"Switch to Winchester or Federal. CCI primers aren't round. Call me back if you still have a problem."
I've switched to Winchester and had no problems since.
 
nognog said:
I have loaded thousands of 40 SW & 9mm using CCI small pistol primer with no problem in my Dillon RL550. You just need to do a little adjustment on your shell plate.

I agree with JohnnyMac.
Take out the snag between the shell plate and the shell platform by tightening the shellplate bolt until you only have a room to conviniently rotate your index star. If you leave too much slack in between the shell plate and shellplate platform, the shell plate will tilt away from the primer seating cup when loading a primer, which will result to problem you are experiencing right now.

Try adjusting the shell plate.

Good luck.
Load SAFELY:)
Click to expand...

That's how I set up my shellplate now, I back off the center bolt until I can just barely index smoothly without snags. Since the Win and Fed primers seat to the correct depth, I can only assume that the shellplate is tight enough and the primer ram thing moves up far enough. Only CCIs cause the problem.

What kind of brass do you use? I use Winchester/WinNT almost exclusively, and now that I think about it, the few Rem cases that have snuck in /seemed/ to seat deeper, but I didn't measure. The problem may be the combination of un-uniformed Winchester brass and CCI primers.
 
I am using mixed brass and I even use that crappy Brazilian CB & A brass for match reloads (these CB & A brass are tight/hard to prime primer holes). I dont clean the flash holes either - after tumbling, I deprime the brass and prime it then load it.

You have to remember that CCI primers are really hard compare to WIN & Fed primers. I found it out the hard way the first time I used CCI. I got so use to WIN primers that you barely give it an effort to flush the primer when reloading. Back when I started using CCI, I was cranking my press like I use to do with WIN primers without checking if the new CCI primers were flushed in the brass and found out after a batch of 100-rds that they are sticking out. I have to redo all 100-rouds by running it carefully in the priming stage, but with extra effort. YES! to the point that my damn reloading bench is tilting backwards (that was back then when my damn reloading table was not bolted on the floor).
It wont hurt to try pushing the press lever harder backwards to load the primer........ push it hard, but GENTLY..... think of it like you are de-virginizing a broad......:D (damn...now that sounds interesting eh?):D :D

If I was able to use CCI primer in my 550, I dont see a reason why you cant on your press.

Last resort... avoid CCI primers:)
 
Another funny thing with CCI primers is that they are extremely difficult to seat in.... CCI brass.

I'd say that 90% of all stoppages I've had on my 650 due to primer seating failure were because of the CCI Primer/Brass combo. (the remaining stoppages were 5% because of this damned Win NT 45 brass, 5% because of crimped military brass)
 
I have difficulty seating CCI in my 550 as well, even with the shell plate adjusted properly. I also have had problems lately with light primer strikes on pistol primers, in the neighborhood of 3-5 per hundred.
 
I have had a hard time getting my CCI primers to seat properly in my Winchester 40SW brass. I can never get them to sit to the recommended depth, however, I load and shoot them anyways and have loaded thousands of them without 1 single FTF. Now to find some wood to knock on.
 
I just ran into this problem last night. I was having no problems seating Federal Large Pistol primers. When i switched to CCI small pistol primers I had to clean primer pockets before they would seat properly. I am using a Redding boss w/ primer arm. If i needed to use a bit of force to seat them i would check the primer and if it looked to be flattened/bent, its back to start. Do not pass go do not collect $200
 
I use mainly CCI but, I clean my primer pockets and hand prime. Sometimes one wont quite go flush but, it doesnt seam to make a difference. My newest 9mm load will shoot a ten shot ragged hole at 15 yards with the right shooter (not me lol) and thats with AIM plated 124gr. not even jacketed. Not quite as good with the .40 but, I just havent found the right load yet.
 
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