RCBS Rock Chucker Priming Arm Issue?

[bchandler44]

An update on this - turns out my issue was indeed the rifle.

My next round of reloads had it even worse - close to 50% failure rate. I had another factory failure too (Hornady SST). Still had not one single failure on my 25-06 and 7mm loads... so I turned to the gun.

I emailed Bergara and explained what was going on + sent some pictures. The first reply I got, they asked for my shipping address to send a heavier firing pin spring. I received it the other day, installed it and tried firing some of the failed rounds + more factory rounds. So far it hasn't failed.. even shooting rounds with half-hit primers.

So as a PSA, anyone with a Bergara, might want to consider this before using it on a hunt or something.. (like me, good thing I didn't see a buck this season, because every round I had loaded would've failed)

 

[pathfinder]

An update on this - turns out my issue was indeed the rifle.

My next round of reloads had it even worse - close to 50% failure rate. I had another factory failure too (Hornady SST). Still had not one single failure on my 25-06 and 7mm loads... so I turned to the gun.

I emailed Bergara and explained what was going on + sent some pictures. The first reply I got, they asked for my shipping address to send a heavier firing pin spring. I received it the other day, installed it and tried firing some of the failed rounds + more factory rounds. So far it hasn't failed.. even shooting rounds with half-hit primers.

So as a PSA, anyone with a Bergara, might want to consider this before using it on a hunt or something.. (like me, good thing I didn't see a buck this season, because every round I had loaded would've failed)

Like I said prior, Firing pin spring !!!,,,, glad you got it fixed !!!!!!

 

[bchandler44]

Yep a couple people here did mention it - that was next on my list to just buy a heavier one to try until Bergara offered to send me one.

Thanks for the good advice

 

[Lasers]

@mycolt1911 Which hand loader are you liking?

I tried the RCBS and hated it, took way too much force (and I'm not a little guy) and felt slower than using my rock chucker. I really wanted to like it though.

After reading this, maybe my primer pockets weren't clean enough

 

[Ironbar]

I've been reloading a lot of military brass lately for my Garand, and the primer pockets need to be uniformed and cleaned well in order to seat the primers. I've thought many times about using the priming arm on my RCBS, but I think I'm going to stick with the hand primer.

And for the record, every Winchester LRP I've loaded went *bang* without incident.