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Remington primer problems
bpost
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I have had half a dozen Remington LR primer fail to ignite over the past couple of weeks. Each one was hit more than once, none fired. The primers were used in three different rifles, all had failures to fire. Primer hits are solid and deeply indented, they should have fired.
Age and storage is not any issue, all the Federal and Winchester primers stored with the Remington's are firing fine. I carefully decapped the dud rounds to inspect the primers. there appears to be paper over the compound under the anvil, I have not tried to pry an anvil out to see if compound was present.
Is anyone else having this type of failure to fire with Remington Primers? I seldom buy Remington primers or ammo, this experience reinforces my hesitancy.
Age and storage is not any issue, all the Federal and Winchester primers stored with the Remington's are firing fine. I carefully decapped the dud rounds to inspect the primers. there appears to be paper over the compound under the anvil, I have not tried to pry an anvil out to see if compound was present.
Is anyone else having this type of failure to fire with Remington Primers? I seldom buy Remington primers or ammo, this experience reinforces my hesitancy.
Comments
I have a friend that started having this problem with Remington primers last year.
The problem was traced to the primers being seated too deep and the primer pellets were being broken or crushed, thus causing the primer not to ignite when struck by the firing pin, no matter how hard or how deeply the indent was.
Believe it or not, primer pellets that are held between the center of the anvil and the cup can be broken without going off. A slow steady pressure, even excess pressure, will not cause the primer to go bang. Instead, what happens, is the pellet is broken first.
This person, for some strange reason, decided the bottom of the primer cup was supposed to be seated firmly against the bottom of the primer pocket instead of the feet of the anvil. That resulted in the primers being seated too deeply and the anvil was breaking the primer pellets.
Remington primers for some reason unknown to me, always have the primer anvil feet protuding more beyond the base of the cup than most other primers. This makes Remington primers more subject to this problem.
I must say, I have used remington primers for more than 45 years and never had this problem. I always seat every primer so the cup surface is either flush with the base of the cartridge case head or .001" recessed, no more. Over 45 years of reloading, I could be missing some fingers on one hand snd still have enough left on that hand to count the number of misfires I have had.
I hope this will help. It was an easy fix for my friend. He hasn't had any more misfires.
You may be right.
I have used the RCBS priming tool for 35 years, seating the primers to touch the pocket bottom and add a touch of pressure to assure the anvil is seated. Misfires from the tens-of-thousands of rounds loaded with W-W, CCI and Federal primers are extremely rare; happening one time every couple of years.
This issue with Remington primers had me pretty upset. It is a lot easier to stop using the Remington primers and stick with the others than it is to try and feel the difference in seating depth. I'll pay careful attention to seating primers on the next batch. I have several hundred to prime Sunday. Remington primers will be used and notes taken on the results. I'll keep ya'all' posted. THANKS!
I love this tool because I added a simple feature that makes the tool prefect. In the center of the bevel at the base in the front where the handle would rest when all the way down, I drill and tap a hole for a fine thread screw, 3/16 to 1/4" will work, slightly more toward vertical than perpedicular to the bevel surface and insert a screw. Then when I am going to prime some brass, I can adjust the screw in or out to a point that the primers are flush or .001" below the case head and the handle can not be pressed any farther down. I would call this an adjustable stop that prevents over seating of the primers.
This eliminates the need to feel each primer to the right depth, which is all but impossible due to the differences in primer pocket tightness and greatly speed up the priming process.
I talked a friend in buying on of these tools on Ebay and he sent it direct to me so I could make the alteration. He fell in love with it immediately.
It doesn't help the ones using a progressive press unless they can or want to primer seperately.
I am using one of the older RCBS bench mounted priming tools. The one before they came out with the primer strips.
I love this tool because I added a simple feature that makes the tool prefect. In the center of the bevel at the base in the front where the handle would rest when all the way down, I drill and tap a hole for a fine thread screw, 3/16 to 1/4" will work, slightly more toward vertical than perpedicular to the bevel surface and insert a screw. Then when I am going to prime some brass, I can adjust the screw in or out to a point that the primers are flush or .001" below the case head and the handle can not be pressed any farther down. I would call this an adjustable stop that prevents over seating of the primers.
This eliminates the need to feel each primer to the right depth, which is all but impossible due to the differences in primer pocket tightness and greatly speed up the priming process.
I talked a friend in buying on of these tools on Ebay and he sent it direct to me so I could make the alteration. He fell in love with it immediately.
It doesn't help the ones using a progressive press unless they can or want to primer seperately.
That sounds like a great modification!
I guess since I know of the potential cause, using great caution when seating the remainder of Remington primers is in order. I loaded several cast bullet loads last evening for testing. Ten each 30-06 using 19 grains of 2400 pushing a 170 cast bullet. Three different primers are used, federal, W-W and of course the Remington in question.
All things considered, it is simply going to be easier to use the Federal for W-W primers that have served me so well for 35 years.
If I get another FTF, I'll break the case down, looking for a crushed pellet in the primer cup.
BTW: 03 lover. My 30-06 is a 1903A3, 2-groove barrel Rem-09-43. The above listed load has shown the potential for 1-1/4 inch ten shot groups at 100 yards, pictures of targets will follow after the weather breaks.