Winchester Primer Pockets and Seating Issues

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Geppetto

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Has anyone noticed what seem to be particularly shallow primer pockets with Winchester .223 Remington cartridges?

The details: I set out to prime some once-fired Winchester .223 brass that I had that I've cleaned, FL resized and cleaned the primer pockets (the cases are probably 15 years old at this point, mixed firings from a semi and a bolt gun). CCI 400 primers with a Frankfurt Arsenal hand primer. The best I could get them seated was about 0.003" proud of the face, and that's on the max depth setting of the primer before they bottom out (in a caliper enough to very easily see light on either side when held up to visually inspect).

I pulled out the calipers to check, and I'm getting a primer thickness of 0.123" on the primers with no variation across a bunch from the same package. Checking the depth on the brass though, and some of the primer pockets are as shallow as 0.111" at the shallowest point, with an average of around 0.114.

So, should I take this to mean I'm now into primer pocket uniforming territory to make these cases reloadable and get the primers seated to an acceptable depth?

Thanks all.
 
YES
unless you have other SR primers to measure the cup height.

The primer needs to be .003" below flush w/ the case head.

A slam fire will prevail sooner or later if run thru a semi auto.
 
DANS40X said:
YES
unless you have other SR primers to measure the cup height.

The primer needs to be .003" below flush w/ the case head.

A slam fire will prevail sooner or later if run thru a semi auto.
Click to expand...

Thank you - as I suspected. This batch isn't for semi-auto, but given how they were at least 0.003 higher than the base, I figured even in a bolt I'd be pushing my luck eventually.

Bad Bob said:
I had the same issue with Winchester .243 brass. Used a Sinclair primer pocket uniformer and all was good.
Click to expand...

Good to know, thanks - looks like I'll have to pick one up. I measured some other brass that was lying around from different manufacturers and it seemed to only effect the Winchesters.

I'm guessing it could just be a matter of an unlucky combo between brass with the primer pockets at one end of spec for depth, and a batch of primers at the opposite end of spec for thickness.

The CCI BR4s did seat fine though, right at 0.003 below flush, so I'm curious to see after they're fired a second time if there might be a tiny bit of case stretch and deepening of the pocket...
 
Geppetto said:
Thank you - as I suspected. This batch isn't for semi-auto, but given how they were at least 0.003 higher than the base, I figured even in a bolt I'd be pushing my luck eventually.



Good to know, thanks - looks like I'll have to pick one up. I measured some other brass that was lying around from different manufacturers and it seemed to only effect the Winchesters.

I'm guessing it could just be a matter of an unlucky combo between brass with the primer pockets at one end of spec for depth, and a batch of primers at the opposite end of spec for thickness.

The CCI BR4s did seat fine though, right at 0.003 below flush, so I'm curious to see after they're fired a second time if there might be a tiny bit of case stretch and deepening of the pocket...
Click to expand...

Can't say I ever saw primer pockets get deeper. They will get wider with hot loads.
 
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