Reloading 223 Primer seating issues

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1bigtime379

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SOLVED: I replaced the hornady shell holder for a Lee one and the primers are seating correctly now. Thanks everyone who was kind enough to provide their input.

I am pretty new to reloading, I have loaded some 30-06 and 6.5 PRC with good success and now I am attempting at reloading .223, but I am having some problems seating the primers. The case length before I load a primer is around 1.7535" and after I seat a primer in there it's around 1.7580" (so about a .0045" difference). I am reading online you want the primer sitting flush or even below, and when I loaded 30-06 and 6.5 PRC cartridges I didn't have that issue. I am using a Lyman hand primer with a Hornady Shell holder.. CCI Magnum Small Rifle primers No. 450, and I have tried PMC, PPU, and Federal cases (all fired once, cleaned with a wet tumbler and stainless steel media). The primer pockets are very clean, I also attempted at slightly deburring them (even though I don't think that was necessary) with the same results. Are these cartridges fine to shoot or not? and what could I possibly to do fix this issue?

edit: I should mention the brass doesn't have a crimp or anything on it like 5.56 cases
 
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Some she'll holders are different thicknesses, if you have another one it's worth trying. On my rcbs hand primer I can fully stroke the handle and have the same issue with proud primers with certain shell holders.
 
You want the primers about .004 below the bottom of the case. If they are sticking out, then you have a problem with your brass or your priming tool.
 
For reliable ignition you want to seat your primers bottomed out in the primer pocket.

If not bottomed out they can move upon impact and that would dampen the impact potentially causing a failure to ignite.

Depending on the primer pocket depth it means deeper or less deep seated unless you uniform the primer pockets to the same depth.

A decent hand primer should give you a good feel that you hit the bottom of the pocket when priming.
 
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300_savage said:
Some she'll holders are different thicknesses, if you have another one it's worth trying. On my rcbs hand primer I can fully stroke the handle and have the same issue with proud primers with certain shell holders.
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I will try another shell holder. This is a brand new rcbs one. What brand do you recommend I go with?
 
bertn said:
For reliable ignition you want to seat your primers bottomed out in the primer pocket.

If not bottomed out they can move upon impact and that would dampen the impact potentially causing a failure to ignite.

Depending on the primer pocket depth it means deeper or less deep seated unless you uniform the primer pockets to the same depth.

A decent hand primer should give you a good feel that you hot the bottom of the pocket when priming.
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I am using the hand primer, it goes in fine and the handle bottoms out.
 
I doubt it has to do with the shell holder but that it has to do with shallower primer pockets.

Solution use a primer pocket uniformer.

 
I can't say that I know anything about Lyman hand primers.

However, I've had RCBS hand primers in the past... whenever I had issues with seating depth using those for 223, it was because I forgot to change out from the large to small rods.... I did that more than once !

If Lyman tools have one for large and one for small, be sure to check that you didn't forget to switch to small after your last batch of 30-06 ?
 
mmcintyre1220 said:
This ^^^^ Always uniform your pockets.
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You think that’s the problem?
I’ve used all the same type brass he mentioned and the some.
I’ve never uniformed the pockets and never had the seating issuue because of it.

I also have the Lyman hand primer.
 
45C said:
You think that’s the problem?
I’ve used all the same type brass he mentioned and the some.
I’ve never uniformed the pockets and never had the seating issuue because of it.

I also have the Lyman hand primer.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can't say that I've ever uniformed a primer pocket in my life. Outside of decrimping when needed and cleaning, that's all she wrote.
 
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