Primer pockets too small

McDAccountant

Bought a new bag of Winchester 30-06 brass and sized up about 20 of them for loading. Went to prime them...primer would not go in the first one...stuck almost half way out of the pocket. Thought it may be press priming tool so I broke out the hand priming tool. Same thing happened on the second one. Using Winchester WLR primers.

Anyone ever have this happen to them? What is the cure to this ill I'm having?

Thanks in advance!

FrancF

Did you chamfer the pocket a little?

McDAccountant

quote:Originally posted by FrancF
Did you chamfer the pocket a little?


No, but I'll give it a try.

Just wondering since this is the first new brass I've purchased...will I have this issue with all new brass?

FrancF

quote:Originally posted by McDAccountant
quote:Originally posted by FrancF
Did you chamfer the pocket a little?


No, but I'll give it a try.

Just wondering since this is the first new brass I've purchased...will I have this issue with all new brass?


Hard to tell. [:o)]I am a brass snob[:o)][:D] and only buy Lapua these days. But to be honest, with other brass I do it anyway. Try a pocket reamer and a chamfer tool on a few and see how it feels to seat the primer.

Bubba Jr.

I recently primed about 6-7 bags of new Winchester .308 without any issues. Maybe you got a bad batch.

charliemeyer007

Last sack of Rem 8mm Mau had 103. The 3 extra had the flash hole so off center it would have broken the decapping pin or rod. Its the new quality control system "you buy it you throw it away". Actually considering how much brass these guys produce a slip up now and then is understandable. If the whole bag is toast write them I'll bet they will swap em out.

Ambrose

I would suggest trying a different brand of primers. I still have some of the old Winchester 8 1/2-120 primers and they are almost impossible to get into new brass. I haven't miked them but they must be larger in dia. than the newer WLR's. The older CCI 200 primers were a little on the "fat" side, too

nononsense

McDAccountant,

"Just wondering since this is the first new brass I've purchased...will I have this issue with all new brass?"

No, you shouldn't be having the problem at all.

I suggest doing some accurate measuring first just to be sure there isn't an error with the primers. If you find no error then call, write or e-mail Winchester to tell them about the problem and seek a solution with them. I suggest calling Monday morning since you'll get immediate feedback and a resolution. They have always been responsive to me in the past with problems similar as this.

Best.

Rocky Raab

It sounds like a tolerance issue. Your new brass may have pockets at the small end of the allowable range, and (just your luck!) the primers are on the large end.

I'd try a different lot or brand of primer first. If you ream the pockets, they may end up too loose after only one or two firings, and then you'd need new brass again. Muuuuch smarter to replace the things you're going to replace every firing anyway!

McDAccountant

I've been using these primers in other Winchester brass without issue, however, those have been once-fired+ brass.

I did try to chamfer the primer pockets...it worked well with 11 of the 20 brass I was using, primers went right in as they should. I did wonder about an "early wear" issue by doing this, as Rocky pointed out. With the other nine, I was able to get the primers in further than with the first attempt, however they were still well above flush.

Others, on another board, have suggested a pocket swager to help resolve this issue...good or bad idea?

bpost

I think it is a bad idea; you buy new brass it should be within spec. Call Winchester and let them know of the problem. If you a good caliper you could measure the pockets to find out if they are too small.

McDAccountant

Just measured the primer pockets of the remaining 30 pieces of brass:

18 measured .208-.209
12 measured .205-.206

Measured second bag of Winchester brass purchased from same place at same time...all measured .209 +/- .001. Also measured a 10-piece random sample of once-fired brass and all measured that same as this second bag of new brass.

rsnyder55

Sounds like worn tooling. Sounds like the reamer or drill bit wore down and was not replaced in time resulting in smaller primer pockets.

FrancF

Hence the suggestion of kissing the primer pocket with a chamfer tool. Burrs and imperfections can and will happen.

Alan Rushing

McDAccountant

I'd also recommend the Monday morning telephone call to those folks.

"Cleaning-up or making brass as uniform as you can makes sense, especially for the accuracy buffs.

When you purchase new brass though, there ought to be more uniformity and to specs.

Give them the opportunity to do what's right by you.

I've had some surprisingly good satisfaction giving the folks the feedback information, and the opportunity to do their end right.

Let us tomorrow how it goes, OK?

Rocky Raab

Alan is right: the folks at WW will want to know about this. Brass is normally produced on more than one production line simultaneously, and if the tooling on one of them is (or was) out of tolerance, any info you can provide will help them prevent such a thing in the future.

In return, you may be surprised at their generosity.

cbyerly

Quality control at WW is the pits. I have had to return brass that was not loadable.
You may try swaging the pockets with an RCBS tool.

jonk

Gee, makes me glad I have a few buckets of USGI 30-06 brass. [:)]

If it were mine I'd see if it would ream/swage to tolerance. Then again I have the tools to do this. I'd not bother sending back just one bag if it did, but if it wouldn't I'd sure call them.

McDAccountant

Bought the RCBS pocket swager die...worked like a charm. Primers go in as they should now. Also bought a Lee ram prime. Took the cases that had the primers "sticking out" and was able to push them into the primer pocket fairly easily.