I am using CCI primers on Federal cases. Was informed by an acquaintance that if primers are not seated deeper than a factory primer when hand loading, that there is a possibility of the primer not being armed. This could lead to misfire. He states that the seating depth should be around .004 to .008 inches. Is this information correct??

[ 07-09-2003, 21:08: Message edited by: Rhunu ]

Your aquaintance is blowing smoke. Factory primers are seated to the bottom of the pocket and that is where you want to seat yours at.

PaulS

the primer should be .001" to .003" below(deep) the level of the rounds head surface, (the part that contacts the bolt face)

Speer / CCI reccommends seating .003 - .005 from flush with their anvil legs contacting the bottom of the pocket. Seating deeper can crush the priming compound causeing misfires, and seating shallower can cause misfires due to the striker useing energy to seat the primer that should have been used to ignite it.
Seat your primers just deep enough to feel them hit bottom. If they are below flush with the case head you should be set.

I can only speak from my own experience. What works for me is after priming the case, I stand it on end to make certain there is no wobble. If it sits flush on the table and shows no tendency towards imbalance I'm satisfied. After a while you can actually feel when the primer is all the way home. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

some times when the primer is seated all the way to the bottom of the case, it will still sit to high. The primer being cci small mag. pistol primers,other people have had the same problem at my gun club. On factory loaded ammo, the mix in the primer is not hard when the primer is seated, the mix hardens after the primer is seated. Handloader do not have that advantage.

Primer pockets vary from case to case and lot to lot. Sometimes the pocket is so shallow that a particular primer will not seat deep enough.

I now "qualify" all primer pockets with a cutter that was called the Whitetail. You can get them from Sinclair. I use this tool to clean the pockets also.

It takes quite a bit of effort to turn this tool by hand when there is a quantity of brass so I suggest that you don't pay the extra for one with a handle but instead get a 1/2" drill to spin it.

The CCI primers that I have measured are the shortest of any of the brands that I have. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending upon the specific primer pocket.

Get that Sinclair tool. It's the way to start off right.

[ 07-06-2003, 20:46: Message edited by: Savage99 ]

Ronsguns= soft primer mix/factory loading info from an article in american rifleman. Savage99= when i load 200 to 500 rounds of 38 spec. i am not going to custom size each and every primer pocket, i just change primer brands, 30 years ago we had trouble with cci/38spec. not fitting correctly. The gun shop didnt have win. primers, so i thought i would try cci again,the still dont seat right in 38 spec. The cci/br primer in the 243win work just fine without extra work.

So far I have cleaned every primer pocket on previously fired cases and then seated primers using a hand seating tool that alows me to feel the primer bottom out. After thousands of rounds loaded this way with various primers and actions the only problem I have seen was with a 44 mag. revolver that chain fired due to the primer pocketnot being cleaned causing the primer not to seat deep enough. This problem could have easily been detected though had the guy laid the primed cases on a flat surface as was done with the remaining cases after the chain fire occured.

All the way home.

Deke.

I often use an old Lyman 310 tool for primer seating. With this you can sure feel it when the primer stops going any deeper in the pocket! Of course, this is a slow method, and requires a lot of different primer seater dies if you are loading for a lot of different head sizes.

Rhunu,

There are really only two legitimate concerns about primer seating. 1, the primer is seated to the bottom of the pocket, and 2, the face of the primer is lower than the face of the case. If you have these two taken care of, you're in business. Some of us like to uniform the primer pocket depths at an attempt for uniform ignition. It does seem to help. Still it is necessary for the first two to be done. On the bottom and lower than the case face. I hope that this is of some help. Good luck.

Setup my first loading bench in 1965. Have loaded for so many different calibers I don't remember them all I sure that I have loaded 500K rounds during that time and the two things I have learned anout primers is CLEAN THE PRIMER POCKET and use a hand priming tool (I like the Lee and also use the RCBS and Sinclar). The only time I crush or damage a primer is when I seat primers using the primer are on the press, can't feel them botton out. BTY I had my first mis-fire this past January, .41RemMag using CCI 350s' in a BullBerry 14 inch Contender. Just for the hell of it I tried it in two other .41s' no go there either.

[ 07-15-2003, 12:27: Message edited by: Still Crawfish ]