Hand priming tool mushed some of my primers. Now what?

[zippygaloo]

To remove the primer crimp I reamed some Lake City 5.56mm brass and then primed it with my hand priming tool. Some of the primers were difficult to seat. A few were mushed flat and a few have what I would call a "ripple" toward one side.

So, what do you do when your hand priming tool makes mush of your primers?

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[2506]

Sounds like crimped primer pockets.

 

[RVTECH]

What tool/procedure did you use to ream your brass?

 

[zippygaloo]

I reamed the primer pockets to remove the crimp with Hornady's Primer Pocket Reamer Tool. A lot of people have given it good reviews so I gave it a try. I would say it worked well for 80% of the cases I used it on. The other 20% were still a bit of a challenge to seat. Of that 20% roughly 5% got mushed.

The Hornady Primer Pocket Reamer Tool go the job done with the American Eagle Lake City 5.56mm brass. But, I think from now on I will try to buy more Remington brass to use with CCI 400 primers. For me, the CCI 400 primers seat smoothly 100% of the time with Remington brass.

 

[RVTECH]

Try one more thing. Give your remaining, unprimed cases a light twist in the primer pocket with your standard RCBS De-burring Tool. Your primers should now seat with no mushing or rippling.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Also measure your primer pockets. I imagine most gun shops that do smithing would do a few for you, especially if you are a regular customer.

 

[RVTECH]

Also measure your primer pockets.

Yep - they can vary in size. I was given a bunch of old S & B .38 Special brass recently and even after tumbling the primer pockets are the tightest I have ever experienced. I am hoping after a few firings they 'soften' up a little.

 

[jquirit]

S&B (I assume Sellier & Belloit) seems to, by popular opinion, run their primer pockets on the small end of the spec.

Swaging/reaming them sometimes helps, sometimes doesn't (knock down that lip on the primer pocket and hopefully not crush/deform the primer cup). They also seal their primers so you have that material floating around the primer pocket mouth that needs to be cleaned off.

Others recommend using a softer primer (like Winchester) to prime them as they tend to go in easier.

I got a whole load of .45 ACP head stamped cases that I am going to eventually reload. Those I'll take my time on, but they're suppose to be some of the most durable brass cases out there..

 

[deadshot2]

For this reason alone I prefer to swage. It isn't always the little "edge" on the crimped primer pocket that causes one grief. It can also be the fact that the walls of the primer pocket can be "hour-glassed" by the crimping process. Only Swaging does a proper job on that condition. Remember, the military has no interest in that piece of brass once it's fired, certainly not it being salvageable for reloading.

 

[deadshot2]

S&B (I assume Sellier & Belloit) seems to, by popular opinion, run their primer pockets on the small end of the spec.

Swaging/reaming them sometimes helps, sometimes doesn't (knock down that lip on the primer pocket and hopefully not crush/deform the primer cup). They also seal their primers so you have that material floating around the primer pocket mouth that needs to be cleaned off.

Others recommend using a softer primer (like Winchester) to prime them as they tend to go in easier.

I got a whole load of .45 ACP head stamped cases that I am going to eventually reload. Those I'll take my time on, but they're suppose to be some of the most durable brass cases out there..

My experience with S&B brass has all been in 9mm. The cases I've examined show little or no radius or chamfer on the opening of the primer pocket. If I have a large enough quantity of them I just use the Dillon Super Swage and put some "roll" on the edge. From there on they take their primers just like the rest.

 

[RVTECH]

(I assume Sellier & Belloit)

Yep - they seat - but only with a heavy squeeze on the Lee tool. I might try the pocket swager tool on them.

 

[mjbskwim]

Also measure your primer pockets. I imagine most gun shops that do smithing would do a few for you, especially if you are a regular customer.

I hope you have your own calipers if you are reloading.