A couple of months back I sized 50 .223 Lapua Match brass and primed with 7 ½ Benchrest primers. Today I charged with LT-32 and started seating; the first half of the box the bullets seated too easily until one did not seat at all (fell through the neck). Immediately changed the neck size insert from 0.248” to 0.247”. Then took the other half of the box and resized/decapped and (here it comes) reseated the removed primers. Stopped to ask y’all should I continue? Right, wrong, dumb, dangerous, waste of time? Curiosity is driving me nuts, please help, advise, or whatever.
TNX Mike

It's not clear to me if you are asking about seateing of new or fired primers. I assume ( hope ) you mean new primers. If you are asking about reusing live primers you should be OK. I have never used the type of primer you describe but have reused LR primers numerous times. Never been any issue. I will say I put most reused primers into fouling or practise loads and until recently not used any in hunting loads. But with the current primer drought I did recycle some into varmint loads. Results so far are good.

I have re-seated primers without issue a few times.

But I must admit the removal process always has me a bit tense. I wear heavy gloves and eye protection when doing that.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Michalski:
A couple of months back I sized 50 .223 Lapua Match brass and primed with 7 ½ Benchrest primers. Today I charged with LT-32 and started seating; the first half of the box the bullets seated too easily until one did not seat at all (fell through the neck). Immediately changed the neck size insert from 0.248” to 0.247”. Then took the other half of the box and resized/decapped and (here it comes) reseated the removed primers. Stopped to ask y’all should I continue? Right, wrong, dumb, dangerous, waste of time? Curiosity is driving me nuts, please help, advise, or whatever.
TNX Mike

Just shoot them.

Lots of false information on the Net.

I have run tests on both a 223 and a 308.

Sizing the case where the neck hardly grips the bullet.

To sizing it so tight after seating the bullet you can actually see the bulge it makes on the neck.

Nothing happens.

All shoot well.

Same trial I did with seating depth.

I have loaded ammo so far out, chambering seats it further into the neck.

To bullets seated so far down they were actually sitting on the powder, rather than being held by the neck.

Again, all shot well!!???

Another test I did is with bullet diameter.

I made bullets varying in diameter.

For the 308 Winchester.

0.308

0.307
0.306
0.305
0.304
0.303

0.309
0.310
0.312
0.313
0.314

The surprising thing bullets of up to 0.003 less or more than normal had very little effect.

Depending on the rifle.

Some had tight chambers where the cartridge could not be loaded, rather than the bullets diameter affecting the results.

Appreciate the replies. Loading now. Let you know results. Mike

Next time take out the depriming pin of your sizing die, if that happens again. I have reseated live primers that I have decapped and they all fired with no misfires.

The OP's question was about reseating/reusing primers after they have been decapped live.
The question is why decap the primers in the first place? There are no safety issues involved in resizing primed brass. As ronco suggested, just remove the decapping pin from the sizing die decap rod, unless of course the decap rod does not have a replaceable pin (some don't)?

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:
The OP's question was about reseating/reusing primers after they have been decapped live.
The question is why decap the primers in the first place? There are no safety issues involved in resizing primed brass. As ronco suggested, just remove the decapping pin from the sizing die decap rod, unless of course the decap rod does not have a replaceable pin (some don't)?

Done it both ways.

Resized without removing primers.
Used primers that have be replaced.

All work as usual.

Again thanks for the responses; learned a lot. Tested this box and only one primer failed. Looked ok, anvil and inside clean. Assume damaged when decapping but know better now. No accuracy difference either. TNX Mike

Here is an experiment I did with military 223 ammo.

Took 30 rounds of each type I had.

Shot 3, 5 shot groups using 15 rounds.

Other 15.

Pulled the bullets out.

Put all the powder in one container.

Deprimed all the cases.

Sized them and trimmed them.

Primed them with Federal Gold Medal primers.

Used Sierra 52 grain Match King bullets.

Divided the total amount of powder taken from the 15 cases by 15, in each case.

Shot 3, 5 shot groups.

All shot much better groups than the originals!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Here is an experiment I did with military 223 ammo.

Took 30 rounds of each type I had.

Shot 3, 5 shot groups using 15 rounds.

Other 15.

Pulled the bullets out.

Put all the powder in one container.

Deprimed all the cases.

Sized them and trimmed them.

Primed them with Federal Gold Medal primers.

Used Sierra 52 grain Match King bullets.

Divided the total amount of powder taken from the 15 cases by 15, in each case.

Shot 3, 5 shot groups.

All shot much better groups than the originals!

Us old High Power shooters used to make what we called "Mexican Match" loads.

Pull the GI FMJ bullets from GI ammo.
Pour out all the powder and then divide the total by the number of cartridges.
Refill the cases with the average amount of powder.
Seat a match bullet.