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Got another 50 cases in the other day and prepped the brass like I always do before loading, ie, sizing, trimming and checking/cutting primer cup depth with my primer pocket uniforming tool from Redding. During primer seating I noticed a few cases were very hard to seat the primer to the bottom of the pocket and still stuck up a bit even after putting all the pressure I could on my hand seater. I've never run into this before with Hornady brass. Loaded up test round with a Hornady 350 grain JSP over Reloader 7 powder. 4 rounds failed to fire on the first hit but ignited the second time. I''ve recut the pockets again and will see if this cured the tight primer issue. Anyone else run into this with Hornady brass?

If you already cut them and they are still too tight, mic the primers and flash hole. If you don't have a mic, use a good set of calipers. Sounds like tolerance stacking, but might not be. You could always try different primers or order another cutter and see if it's a hair bigger.

Bmt85 wrote:If you already cut them and they are still too tight, mic the primers and flash hole. If you don't have a mic, use a good set of calipers. Sounds like tolerance stacking, but might not be. You could always try different primers or order another cutter and see if it's a hair bigger.

Appears that Wolf Magnum SRs and CCI 400/450s fit better than the Remington 7 1/2s.

Recut the pockets yet again and Wolf Mag S.R. are still a bit tight seating to the bottom of the pocket but is doable with a hard squeeze with both hands on the Hornady primer seater to get them flush.

My guess is that you got a bum lot of brass. It happens. I uniform all new brass primer pockets and debur their flash holes. Its something you only have to do once. Years ago, I bought one of these Primer Pocket Uniformers sets. The workmanship on these are Top Shelf and I consider them one of the better values (like Ross brakes) that I ever bought. Mine have not lost their sharpness in countless procket normalizings and if they ever do, the seller will resharpen them for free! The price has slowly gone up since I got my set for $25 but so has everything else. If I used a lot of mil-surp brass which have their primers crimped in, I would definitely get one of these Primer Pocket gauges. For the few Lake City cases that I pick up at te range, my RCBS Primer Pocket Swage Tool has proven to be a reliable tool as well, not requiring a subsequent check after processing. You should not have to verify your 450b primer pockets with a gauge. There is something wrong with them if they won't seat Rem 7 1/2 primers and fight seating all primers in general.

Hoot

After three time cutting the primer pockets, it's finally easier to seat primers now. I have an old double ended tool for L/S primers (can't recall the manufacturer it's been soooo many years) that works much better than the Redding tool that doesn't work well at all. It doesn't cut deep enough and is a sloppy fit in the primer pocket. I wasted my money on the Redding tool.