Primers Sitting High in 30-06 Brass

Fox

Fox

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I was given a bunch of 30-06 Brass, most of it is primed. I am not going to use the primers because they are unknown to me but they do not look right.

The primer is dished out a bit and sitting proud of the base, I thought LR primers sat almost flush and LP primers were suck in a bit. Unless these were just not fully seated would there be any other reason for this?

This is all pretty modern brass, Winchester, Remington and Federal.
 
Snider shooter said:
Primers should be seated just below flush. You should be able to run your finger over the case head and feel the primer slightly below the case head. Either dirt in primer pockets or not seated deep enough.
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That is how I always check mine, hence why this was so odd.

I think I am going to have to pop a bunch of primers, would not want to toss them in the garbage like this and I have no idea what they are to use them safely.
 
Using a universal decapping die is safer to use when removing live primers, any pressure will be vented around the outside of the case.

That being said I have been reloading over 47 years and never had a live primer go off during removal.

I also uniform my primer pockets to make sure the primers are below flush.

Primers should be seated with a slight primer crush to preload the anvil. This also insures the firing pin does not finish seating the primer even if the primer is below flush.

oiIRxun.jpg


Below you can see due to manufacturing tolerances in primers and primer pockets a primer may not be seated below flush.

BlerqTB.png
 
I use a Sinclair pocket reamer on a hand drill on all my rifle brass. It make them uniform and cure the high primer situation.Ypu will be surprised how much a difference it make.
T
 
bigedp51 said:
Using a universal decapping die is safer to use when removing live primers, any pressure will be vented around the outside of the case.

That being said I have been reloading over 47 years and never had a live primer go off during removal.

I also uniform my primer pockets to make sure the primers are below flush.

Primers should be seated with a slight primer crush to preload the anvil. This also insures the firing pin does not finish seating the primer even if the primer is below flush.

Below you can see due to manufacturing tolerances in primers and primer pockets a primer may not be seated below flush.
Click to expand...

I have not had one pop either, go slow, you need a hit to set off a primer.

I am fully aware of how they are supposed to fit, ha ha, I use WLR primers as a general with some CCI Large Pistol and WSR as the case may be.

I looked at all 3 brands of brass and the primer seating depth is off for all of them, the dome I guess makes me feel the weirdest, to me it is just someone not having enough pressure on a automatic rig or not pushing properly with a hand primer. The cases are very clean, they have to have been tumbled, dirty is not what I would think, just have not been able to check yet.

I have a bunch of Winchester and Remington Brass for loading 2 different loads so I am going to break them down, the FC brass may be used for plinkers but I cannot trust the primer as they look now so need to break them all down anyway.
 
I would try seating them deeper. They are tough little buggers, I just pushed some out that a guy had crushed into place sideways, can't comment on why these came to me in a package buy.
 
Fox

I buy bulk once fired Lake City 7.62 brass and after removing the primer crimps I got lazy after doing 300 cases and did not uniform the primer pockets. I seated three Rem 9 1/2 primers and all of them were protruding, so I removed the primers and uniformed 300 primer pockets. I'm glad I'm retired with nothing to do and all day to do it, but doing 300 cases is very boring but it had to be done.

Moral of story, primer pocket depth varies and primer height also varies.
 
I bought and fired two boxes of Hornady FTX .30-30 and kept the brass. When I tried reloading it I found all the primers sat very high but consistent. For fun I tried a large-pistol primer and it seated to the perfect depth. I ran my primer pocket uniforming tool on some and it removed significant material.

I don't know what was up but they were definitely pistol-depth primer pockets. I suppose pistol primers would still work as the .30-30 is only a 42k psi cartridge but I still found it odd. I just scrapped all the brass since it wasn't worth dealing with for 40pcs of common brass.

I doubt that's the case with the .30-06 brass in question but figured I'd throw it out there that some new factory brass is just weird.
 
LUTNIT said:
I doubt that's the case with the .30-06 brass in question but figured I'd throw it out there that some new factory brass is just weird.
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My once fired Lake City 7.62 cases were loaded originally with CCI #34 military primers and the anvils are shorter and require a harder firing pin hit to reduce the chance of a slam fires.

Meaning the CCI #34 primers are shorter and the primer pocket does not need to be a deep as a commercial .308 case and why my Rem 9 1/2 primers were not flush.

Just measure the height of the different brands of primers and see the difference.

QJM65zp.png
 
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bigedp51 said:
Fox

I buy bulk once fired Lake City 7.62 brass and after removing the primer crimps I got lazy after doing 300 cases and did not uniform the primer pockets. I seated three Rem 9 1/2 primers and all of them were protruding, so I removed the primers and uniformed 300 primer pockets. I'm glad I'm retired with nothing to do and all day to do it, but doing 300 cases is very boring but it had to be done.

Moral of story, primer pocket depth varies and primer height also varies.
Click to expand...

I ran into a similar issue with some .223 brass. I think a residual burr from the crimp can shear off when priming and sit between the edge of the primer and the bottom of the the primer pocket causing the issue. I just use a hand reamer to clean out the burr; but am thinking about something powered as well as it is hard on the hands and wrists.
 
I do not think it is the brass, 3 different manufacturers and all the same problem.

I will pull the primers with safety glasses on this weekend.

They should still be fine for random start load plinkers eh.
 
Fox said:
I do not think it is the brass, 3 different manufacturers and all the same problem.

I will pull the primers with safety glasses on this weekend.

They should still be fine for random start load plinkers eh.
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Worst case, you can pull the bullets, dump the powder, then try to re-seat the primers to proper depth. I wouldn't try to re-seat the primer on an assembled round. The last thing you want is for the primer to go off in a loaded round in your hand......
 
OldDude said:
Worst case, you can pull the bullets, dump the powder, then try to re-seat the primers to proper depth. I wouldn't try to re-seat the primer on an assembled round. The last thing you want is for the primer to go off in a loaded round in your hand......
Click to expand...

It is just primed brass, nothing loaded, just going to push out the primers, inspect, trim and into the mix for loading.
 
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