Thread: Primer seating problems

Hi team. Recently having some frustrations in regards to seating primers. I have Norma, alpha and Hornady brass. All new and unfired. Recently, due to the shortage of federal primers I have changed to white river energetics primers and cannot seat the primers below flush. They are protruding between 5-10 thou on all brass brands. I cannot and don’t want to crank any harder on my press for fear of bending the case rims or the shell holder. It’s obviously throwing my C.O.A.L all over the place. Very frustrating considering Norma and alpha brass is not cheap. Nor is changing primers to another brand. I have tried to seat ginex, WRE primers, Winchester and federal. The federal and Winchester seat quite close to flush but the calipers say that they are protruding by 2 thou. Both the norma and alpha brass pockets are so tight I cannot get a uniformer into them to remove material from the bottom. I am hoping it’s something to do with the press as it’s cheaper to replace than all that brass and my stock of primers. Any tips on trouble shooting?
Cheers.

Sounds like it is probably your primer seater. All primers in all brass you have tired appear to not go flush or below.
Borrow or buy a different primer seating tool and see how that goes...

What are you using to seat the primers?, i.e. type of press and attachement

There was a thread here a while back on this which with my technoretard skills I can't find. From memory it saidWRE primers are slightly longer in the cup than some other brands but 10 though seems excessive. I'd also echo other people's comments on what are you priming with. I've never heard of bending a rim priming. I use a lee ram prime and if you push too hard you crush the primer and shit yourself when it goes off.

MH you must be rough.ive mounted primers terribly but never managed to set one off YET. I see Hornady brass....possibly run your case deburring tool gently around rim of primer pocket..I need to do this on milserp brass to remove crimp groove and all Hornady brass I've used needed it to or primers stick when starting to seat. I've flattened a few primers with excessive push and they all go bang when fired...if they look too bad I fire them in empty case and go again.

I find the primer pocket on Norma brass is always very tight with Federal primers, and you need to ream the primer pocket with primer reamer tool to get them seated flush. Never had this issue with other brass

I’m having the same issue with wre primers in Norma 7-08 brass and was hoping a primer pocket uniformer would solve the problem. A lot of cases are ok but the primer sits just proud on probably 10% of cases. Puts coal out and hinders chambering the cartridge

What calibre? The best on the market is the K&M 3 in 1 uniformer. Just unreal. It does Fed and WRE. All a breeze. In process of getting the larger one for 243. PM if you want a hand.

It was prob me that first mentioned it and it's DEF a fact. Mentioned on an Aussie site too.

I had to use a Sinclair tungsten carbide pocket tool to uniform the pockets and problem solved. I removed the cutter from the manual handle and chucked it in a cordless drill. Did 200 in no time.

Thanks for all the replies. After looking at the variables last night, and your suggestions, I believe the problem is with the press priming system. Highly unlikely it’s the brass. 3 different premium brass have the same issue and with each brand of brass I have tried to seat 4 different brands of primers. Only 1 looked as if it was just at flush. The rest were obviously protruding out of the pocket 5-10 thou. Tight pockets are good I know - but not that tight. So I have ordered a k&m hand priming tool to see if that fixes the problem. It seems that the priming arm on the press is not pushing straight up into the Center of the primer pocket but rather to one side and touching the case rim. Will keep updated. Cheers again

Have you checked primer pocket depth with accurate vernier gauge and compared to primer overall height. Simple to check and gives a hint to solving problem.

If you get yourself a Lee whakamole then it's just a matter of whaking it a bit more

Originally Posted by RuahineReds94

Thanks for all the replies. After looking at the variables last night, and your suggestions, I believe the problem is with the press priming system. Highly unlikely it’s the brass. 3 different premium brass have the same issue and with each brand of brass I have tried to seat 4 different brands of primers. Only 1 looked as if it was just at flush. The rest were obviously protruding out of the pocket 5-10 thou. Tight pockets are good I know - but not that tight. So I have ordered a k&m hand priming tool to see if that fixes the problem. It seems that the priming arm on the press is not pushing straight up into the Center of the primer pocket but rather to one side and touching the case rim. Will keep updated. Cheers again

Have you tried rotating case and giving it a bit more welly? In theory it shouldn't be still touching rim in same place so might just wiggle primer down properly.bit of pain in arse but it might just get it to seat properly with a bit of wiggle lever,wiggle lever.

On a related note, these days I am using a few White River Energetics primers for some handloads, mostly into Norma brass. As correctly stated the WRE primer cups are deeper than Federals and when seated do sit closer to flush with the face of case heads. I use a RCBS bench mounted priming tool and after the initial insertion turn the case for a second push which most of the time finally seats the primers just below the case head faces. I haven't yet needed to look at reaming any primer pockets.
Just recently I primed some Sako 243W brass, also with WRE primers, and noted the primers seated deeper than the Norma into the pockets so for the OP if some Sako brass could be tried it might offer a solution ...?? I'm sure a member here wouldn't mind offering a couple of cases to be tried.
And, I'm not absolutely sure of this but I might also have found the WRE seating deeper in some Remington .270W brass as well. Sorry, I can't remember clearly but it may be worth trying some anyway.

That's the same seater as I have got. Have found if using small rifle primers to give handle a wee jiggle to begin with to get the. Centred somewhat. Seems to help getting them to start easier but definitely need pocket mouth champhered more than if using my Lee seater.