Priming Difficulties

Tyee

Tyee

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This is my first post on here, great forum by the way.

I have been reloading for nearly a year now and the other day I was having problems getting primers to seat properly. I was using Federal 210 primers and a RCBS rockchucher press with the priming arm. Some of the primers would seat normally while others would not, even with a good amount of force from the press.

I had just purchused the primers and was wondering if they was something haywire with them or something I was doing wrong? I had measured some of the primer diameters that were not going in and didn't see much difference between another brand I had around. It seemed like the primers were too large to fit, but from measuring them they seemed alright. My reloading set up isn't here or I would make sure the diameters were consistent and it wasn't a primer problem.

The cases I was priming were .308 win and .22-250 and I made sure the primer pockets were clean. Could this be caused by the priming arm on the press or is it possible to get primers which are not consistent (which I've never seen or heard of)?

This could be something simple I'm overlooking but I've primed many other cases the same way and never had a problem. Thanks for the help guys.
 
Priming Probs

Tyee said:
The cases I was priming were .308 win and .22-250
Click to expand...
I had some problems with .308/7.62x51 priming, that in retrospect were due to using old military brass - the fit was too tight for some reason (perhaps former Berdan primers?) and that wasn't a problem with "proper" civvy once-fired .308.
 
If there is nothing wrong with the cases/primers/shellholder(tolerance)...it may be that you just have to feel the primer into case. If you have already bent(even sightly) the priming arm parts, maybe you should get some spare parts as the press has a lot of leverage and if something is off, you'll do damage
quickly.
 
There is a possibility that the priming arm could be sightly bent which could cause the primers to be just enough off center or on a bit of an angle. I was teaching my father how to reload when it first happened and he may have been doing something wrong and putting too much force on it when it wasn't lining up right or something along those lines.

I couldn't see any problems with the priming arm but ben is right it would only take a slight bent (not easily visible) to cause a problem like that.

If this turns out to be the problem (i will try some other primers and cases when I have a chance) would it be better to replace the part or to look into something like a hand primer? What would be recommended for a hand primer or are there other priming systems?
 
The primer arms on most die presses are realy only for back up. Get yourself a decent manual primer tool such as a Lee auto prime or any other reputable reloading tool manufacturer' priming tool. They are faster and much better and are relatively inexpensive.
 
Personnaly, I use RCBS universal priming tool, it work great and can eider be use for large or small primer. The amount time you save by using one of those make reloading really worth it.

Take care

Pat
 
If you metion your location, or better yet have it display in your profile, you might get an offer to borrow some equipment or have someone more experienced diagnose the problem in person.

(If you live in the Kelowna-Kamloops-Salmon Arm area, I'll loan you my autoprime to try)
 
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