slack primer pockets

User00014

Well-Known Member
Morning all ,

While loading 50 rounds yesterday afternoon I was priminng the brass for my normal 270 load , and I noticed some of the primers were seating a little too easily.

And in one case the primer would no seat at all so I chucked it in the scrap sack !

I use norma brass which was once fired and I use a lee autoprime 2 ram priming too , which I can feel exectly how the primer is seated.

I've reoloaded the brass 6 times fully resizing every time and the over all condition of the brass is in good order !

Is this a sign the brass has nearly had it and time for new ?

I've never experienced this before so your thoughts will be aprecated!

Cheers lee
 
lee Be careful if the primers are noticeably slack you could get primers blowing out.
I loaded some a few months ago and had two primers blow out in 20 rounds.
I was given some brass and so I ued full resizeing trimmed to length etc then started working on a new powder load.
I was well within the recommend limits and had blow outs,threw away the rest of the cases.better in the scrap bin than have an accident. luckily I was not doing my usuall trick of loading a full pack of powder.
 
Some cases have slacker pockets than others and different primers can be tried to compensate but six times reloaded cases suddenly going slack may mean you had a high pressure loading last time.
Best discard any slack ones and get some new brass.
With the cost of components going up so much it isn't worth messing about.
Full length resizing will do nothing to reduce the size of a primer pocket.

Ian
 
Sorry to say this but if your getting loose primer pockets with 6 re-loads then your working at too high a pressure and really you are just asking for trouble with pressures that high.

It seems that some people just do not realise that despite the load being safe in one barrel it might not be in another. Saw a chap at Reepham Moor range having to rod out cases from a RPA rifle. I looked at a fired case and it was obvious from the case head and primer that there was an over pressure issue. However the owner wouldn't have it as the rounds had been tested in a pressure barrel and were proved to be in CIP limits. As I pointed out despite the cartridges being within CIP limits they were over-pressure for that particular rifle!

He couldn't or wouldn't understand that each and every barrel is basically a law unto itself. Never did hear the outcome of that one.
 
That's what I thought but that's next to impossible with the load I'm using !

I m loading a minimal load of N160 at 53gns un crimmped with 130gn sierra gamekings producing and aveeage of 2800-2850 fps which is a very light load indeed for the 270 and seated 10 tho off the lands !
 
Lee: It's not "impossible" to have high pressure from that load, just unlikely. It is most likely the brass. I have had some experience with prematurely loose pockets in Norma brass with sane loads and I regrettably scraped the brass when I got a case that offered no perceptible resistance in seating the primer. Keep and eye on them and be careful. (Start shopping for brass) ~Muir
 
Hi Lee

As others have said, personally I'd buy some new brass. Personally I've not had good experience with Norma cases - in 308 anyway (although their loaded ammunition is good). Unfortunately Lapua don't seem to make 270 - have you tried Nosler Custom? Might be a bit more expensive, but in the overall scheme of things???

Andrew
 
it may be just the brass mate try some new brass back the load off 5% and work up if you get a different make of brass i had the same problem when i had a 270 it just seemed hard on brass i was getting around 5-6 reloads as well when i got new brass no problems

kris
 
I don't see what brand of primer you are using. I have found winchester primers to be the slackest in my brass and cci and federal to be tighter.this is in any brand of brass though I have not tried lapua or rws brass.
 
CCI primers right? They should be right. I'd agree and say mildly suspect brass. Even though you load is probably in the region of 40 000psi, remember the first firing from factory brass would have been about 65000. Couple that with maybe a soft batch of brass and 6 loadings is the result.

Can't see anything you or the gun could do to cause it otherwise
 
Throw the brass away! It's knackered & not worth risking either injury or your rifle bolt face. Just chuck it & get new brass. Cheers. :old:
 
Lee drop me a Pm and I can let you have some other .270 brass to try out.. I have .............................. doh let's say I had several thousand .270 cases of various makes including a lot of Sako and Norma but it appears that plod took a liking to it and it's gone along with the other stuff. There was a Quality Street tin full along with loads of factory boxes with empties in.

Sorry cannot be of much help now. Am still discovering what is missing.
 
Christ if he is running too hot then I am screwed!

Same 270 Norma brass
CCI200 primers
56.2gn of N160 over 130gn SP Interlocks
roughly 3000f/s

no pressure signs at all
 
use Norma brass myself..... full length resize use a lyman primer pocket uniforming tool every reload.... trim every reload.... lee hand primer tool .....and federal match primers. Never ever had a slack primer problem or any other problem for that matter!.... and my cases are over the half dozen loading mark! I load 110grain sierra pro-hunters ontop of 54 grains of H414.

It could well be your brass that's the issue.... better to be safe than sorry, but also depends on what primers you use and wether you clean your primer pockets out. Magnum primers have a bit more ferocity than standard and it may be that they have 'eaten' away at the primer pocket...hence the slackness. Just a thought!
 
use Norma brass myself..... full length resize use a lyman primer pocket uniforming tool every reload.... trim every reload.... lee hand primer tool .....and federal match primers. Never ever had a slack primer problem or any other problem for that matter!.... and my cases are over the half dozen loading mark! I load 110grain sierra pro-hunters ontop of 54 grains of H414.

It could well be your brass that's the issue.... better to be safe than sorry, but also depends on what primers you use and wether you clean your primer pockets out. Magnum primers have a bit more ferocity than standard and it may be that they have 'eaten' away at the primer pocket...hence the slackness. Just a thought!

Is the use of the "uniforming" tool recommended at every reloading?? Not that it would do harm, exactly, but it should be a one time treatment... or have they changed the instructions since I bough mine??

Primers not only provide ignition but should act as an complete/effective gasket against the hot gasses of combustion. It's not likely that the pockets are eaten away by the priming unless they were leaking in the first place. It's not a big deal, really. Pitch the brass and start again, reducing the load and working up.

As an aside, when I was working in a gunshop in New Mexico a fellow brought in his rifle for some magazine work and when asked to produce some of his favorite handloads so that we could lengthen the magazine, he produced some reloads that had the primers epoxied in! He said that if he didn't do this the primers would fall out!:rolleyes:~Muir
 
Some of you guys need to get over the idea that reloading manuals are anything more than just a GUIDE: they list the results that the publishing body got with a particular LOT of powder using their rifle, their brass, their bullets during that testing session. Listed max is the load that they shot with no excursions into a pressure range that is above recommended levels for that cartridge. If they fire 20 rounds, and 18 are fine, and two drift over that line, even a small amount, the entire load is reduced until all of the test rounds stay under that level. (This is why some loads listed as "max" have an average pressure less than that specified for "maximum allowable" for that cartridge) And it's not an absolute. Powder makers revise their loads regularly.

In any event, because a load listed at "max" appears to be safe in one person's rifle doesn't mean it will be safe in yours; nor is the "max" load going to be the same regardless of what the manual says. There are too many factors that influence pressure. About the only data you can 99.99% rely on is the starting load -and after that, you're on your own.~Muir

(yeah. my usual rant...:))
 
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