Primer Question

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shotcup

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I have a box of HSM 350 Remington Magnum 200 grain Barnes bullets that are too hot for my Remington Model 673 rifle - bolt lift and extraction is extremely tight after firing and produce greater than 2 inch groups at a 100 yards.
After I have pulled bullets and dumped powder can I just load the empty casings in the rifle, fire the factory primers off, and then deprime and reload? Or is there a proven way experienced reloaders use to deprime live primers with no safety issues?
 
Leave them in if you are just going to put new ones in anyway. They weren't causing the issue.

Or just deprimed as usual. I've done hundreds without ever having one go off.

Or do as you mentioned and pop them off in the rifle. Be warned that it's lots louder than you expect.
 
Use those primers with your powder load you plan to use, no need to replace.

Or you can deprime them as if they were already fired. No issues at all.

Or fire them in your rifle if you want a pop sound for fun.

When i use S&B 6.5x55 in my rifle i get stiff bolt lift so now pull the bulllets remove 2gr of powder and reseat the bullet. Works fine. You could have just reduced the charge a gr or two opposed to wasting the powder
 
Primers are a lot less sensitive than discussions and warning labels will have you believe. I had one go in canted and was partially crushed by the ram of my press, this partially crushed primer didn’t even go off, that’s not to say don’t treat them with respect but they need good whack to go off

But as above unless you plan on replacing them with something else just leave them in.
 
I've fired primed cases, it's like a 22LR going off. Surprising how much fire comes out the muzzle

I've deprimed live cases. Wear eye pro

I've removed the decapping pin from the rod and resized pulled factory ammo brass, kept the factory primer in place
 
You can re-use the primers.

BUT, if you are developing a load, you would want to test with the same primer you would load with. If it was me, I would pop out those primers, neck size and seat my favourite primer.

Neck size and pop the live primers exactly the same way you pop dead primers. I have done it thousands of times. Never set one off yet. I doubt I could hit it hard enough to do it.
 
Lots of good options here. I already have a load developed with IMR 4198 using RP brass that was not fire formed to this rifle, and have had issues with some of those casings. I bought factory ammo to source new brass, but thought factory primers would change point of impact using the same load of 4198. I never thought of pulling bullets and reducing a few grains of powder. But if it is simple as neck sizing and popping live primers same as dead ones I'll do that for most of them, and reduce a few grains of powder in a few others just for fun. Thanks guys.
 
shotcup said:
Lots of good options here. I already have a load developed with IMR 4198 using RP brass that was not fire formed to this rifle, and have had issues with some of those casings. I bought factory ammo to source new brass, but thought factory primers would change point of impact using the same load of 4198. I never thought of pulling bullets and reducing a few grains of powder. But if it is simple as neck sizing and popping live primers same as dead ones I'll do that for most of them, and reduce a few grains of powder in a few others just for fun. Thanks guys.
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Make sure wherever your decapped primers normally go isn’t allowed to accumulate a large number of live primers. If an accident does occur and one goes off you don’t want it sitting on 30 or 40 others.
 
The chair at my loading bench is an old office chair on wheels. When the wheels run over a live Federal primer - they fire. A bit of a shock each time.

Only Federal are that sensitive.

I keep the floor well-swept, but when decapping live primers, they gather around my chair.
 
Unless you know exactly what primers are in the ammunition get rid of them rather than work up a load with an unknown primer. If you are going to work up a load make it a load that you can duplicate.
 
Yeah i wouldnt work a load up using the factory primers, but i figured since you bought factory ammo to shoot, you just planned to shoot them. So in that case a small reduction in powder would help the stiff bolt lift and allow you to fire them.. but if you real plan is to work up a nice accurate load, change the primers and powder.
 
Is it possible the chamber needs a cleaning? Or are there other signs of pressure?

Reason I ask is that I would be surprised if factory ammo is high pressure. Could the stiff bolt lift be due to the fire formed case griping grime in the chamber?
 
I was surprised at stiff loads from factory also, blamed it partially on the history of the 673 being clunky and tight. Chamber has been cleaned real good. My IMR reloads do not stick at all, they were worked all the way up to Max load, and get fair hunting accuracy. I pulled one bullet to weigh the factory powder charge last night. It is 7.5 grains heavier than my reloads. Going to pull all of them, dump 3 grains, re-seat bullets and fire form cases in the 673 - at $96.00 a box I should get some fun out of them.
 
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