Thread: F**ck'n CCI Primers !

@Thar and @Jaco Goosen
A follow up to my thread erroneously maligning CCI primers.
You guys are onto it and my thanks to you for a lesson relearnt.
Some of my brass was too new, even after two firings and wasn't right up to chamber dimension. Also, my FL Die was slightly oversizing so I reset it to give me firmness on bolt closure. I deprimed the case above in the pic and reprimed with the same primer into a case that definitely felt firm on chambering. That very primer which had not ignited after three attempts was perfect today at the range and ignited the charge most emphatically.
I'm picking I'll have no further issues after this little educational exercise.

Thanks for the feedback 30.06king. Glad you managed

I had a failure last night, which I cant recall ever previously happening.
Long stalk / approach on a couple of young stags an hour before dark. Closed to 100 mtrs, lined up 'click' checked safety etc re-cock bolt 'click'. Deer trotted off ( my six year old made a noise)
Anyway, checked the case and there was a solid indent in the primer. The cases are a firm fit - fire-formed 2506 AI

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

I had a failure last night, which I cant recall ever previously happening.
Long stalk / approach on a couple of young stags an hour before dark. Closed to 100 mtrs, lined up 'click' checked safety etc re-cock bolt 'click'. Deer trotted off ( my six year old made a noise)
Anyway, checked the case and there was a solid indent in the primer. The cases are a firm fit - fire-formed 2506 AI

Thankfully, when it happened to me it was only ever on the range, never while hunting. It's said that "click" is the loudest sound in hunting
If it ever happens to me I hope I have the presence of mind to immediately crank in another round before the deer bolts ...

Would be interesting to know why your primer failed.

Moa

Do me a huge favour?

If you haven’t fired or pulled that cartridge that did not fire.

Do you have the tools to measure by how much the shoulders have been pushed back during sizing?

Can you measure and compare this cartridge and some cases that did fire?

I could be wrong(usuallyare) . But didn't Nick Harvey say in his reloading book that primers should be sensitized when seating , buy slightly compressing them. Think he did say by how much. Probably would also help with excess head space giving poor ignition?

Sent from my SM-A145F using Tapatalk

I'm not saying at all that the example above has the cause that I'll describe but more of a generalisation - incorrect advise has floated around for ever that primers must be seated flush with the cartridge's base. This is totally wrong (except in the case maybe of the White River primers which may be deaper in dimension than the primer pocket).
Primers must be seated with the anvil in contact with bottom of the primer pocket. In most cases this will mean that the primer is below face. If seated flush and there is a gap between the anvil and the PP's base the force of the firing pin is mostly expended trying to push the anvil to contact the PP base.
Some primers IIRC early Murons needed a degree of crush to make the contact. I seat my LRPs (CCI BR-2s) with 2 thou crush and my SRPs at around 1.5 thou crush. However, working to these dimensions is beyond the average reloader's capability.

As already covered, excess shoulder bump is a potential cause of failed, or poor ignition.
Another cause, but these days shouldn't be common, is incorrect firing pin protrusion. This combined with excess shoulder bump is sure to give problems.

Originally Posted by 30.06king

Thankfully, when it happened to me it was only ever on the range, never while hunting. It's said that "click" is the loudest sound in hunting
If it ever happens to me I hope I have the presence of mind to immediately crank in another round before the deer bolts ...

Would be interesting to know why your primer failed.

Id say let the deer bolt mate.
If you just happen to be lucky enough to experience a 'hang fire' and open that bolt too soon.....
Kiss your hand and probably your eyesight goodbye.

Its highly unlikely, but there is plenty of deer about.

Originally Posted by 40mm

Id say let the deer bolt mate.
If you just happen to be lucky enough to experience a 'hang fire' and open that bolt too soon.....
Kiss your hand and probably your eyesight goodbye.

Its highly unlikely, but there is plenty of deer about.

Good point. Only got one eye anyway and without it I wouldn't be much of a hunter.

Originally Posted by Jaco Goosen

Moa

Do me a huge favour?

If you haven’t fired or pulled that cartridge that did not fire.

Do you have the tools to measure by how much the shoulders have been pushed back during sizing?

Can you measure and compare this cartridge and some cases that did fire?

I left it in the rifle for a minute then ejected it, had a look at the primer and chucked it away. A bloke I used to know had a hangfire blowup in midair with scrapnel in the face - eyes ok.

The cases are fire-formed from 270 brass. Necked down leaving a donut ring on the neck to firmly chamber against. After that the fire-formed cases are sized only enough to chamber firmly, and AI cases dont stretch anyway.
The primer looked just like a primer looks when a fired case has been used in-leu of a 'snap cap' for dry firing the rifle, so a heavy strike

+1 above.
NRANZ in their rules stipulate at least 30 seconds, and then open bolt with face well clear and none of your mates close behind.

Originally Posted by 30.06king

Thankfully, when it happened to me it was only ever on the range, never while hunting. It's said that "click" is the loudest sound in hunting
If it ever happens to me I hope I have the presence of mind to immediately crank in another round before the deer bolts ...

Would be interesting to know why your primer failed.

LOL...CLICK!

I used a rifle with a set trigger to shoot my first cape buffalo. The PH almost schidt his shorts when he heard the set "click".

This is an interesting thread with some excellent information.

When new to the great old 9,3X62 I loaded 50 rounds to play with. I'm fortunate to have a private range on my small property here in our wide open spaces, and I have a rest on top of the master bedroom dresser with a 150 yard range out the window and the reloading bench in the adjacent laundry room.

I started popping off five shot groups on multiple targets I set up and had shot #6 go "click". I waited a minute and wrapped a quilt against my head as a barrier, then opened the bolt. I found a faint dent in the primer.

You guessed it; I sized the brass down too much. I was able to pull the bullets, dump powder, drop a dab of oil inside the cases onto the primers and de-prime.

I ran a .375 expander into the necks and neck sized with enough second shoulder to headspace with a firm bolt closure, loaded the pulled bullets over pistol powder and filler and fire formed the brass to the chamber. I have only one 9,3X62, so I neck size only now. The 9,3X62 is finicky about proper headspace.

Nice lookin Kudu Navada. Fixed a 9.3x62 a while ago, he now has several. Absolutely loves the old girls.

So you want to see what a case looks like when the primer goes off outside the chamber?

This was done in the approved manner and now you know why

A learned forum member has suggested that I had contaminated the primer compound with oil off my hands when loading. This is the most likely scenario