Bought a couple hundred used Hornady cases online, brass being as hard to find as it presently is. Find myself struggling with seating primers due to primer pocket being so tight.

Primers are Federal small rifle. No problem at all with Sig brass, by the way. Leads me to think the issue is primer pocket and not the primer being oversized.

Have been using primer pocket uniformer and gettin a lot of brass shavings. Seating still hard but not shaving side of primer anymore just to get the dang thing seated! Amazed that it’s this hard. Been reloading over 50 years and this is a first.

Any comments or thoughts?

Federals are softer than other primers so you will crush the primer in a tight primer pocket. Best is to get a Lyman Primer Pocket Reamer, but do not overdo it. If it is still difficult to seat the primer, try getting Remington primers since they are a few thousands smaller in diameter.

Treat them like crimped-in military cases and use a case neck inside chamfering tool to make a very slight bevel at the lip of the primer pocket. Your primers will slide right in.

The best thing to do is get a primer pocket swagger for your press, I did the reaming for years, was never satisfied went to the swagger and haven’t looked back

Yep. Am using both Lyman chamfering tool and primer pocket uniformer in a drill. Helps! Should not be this complex to reload, I would think.

Maybe Hornady crimps the primer pockets on AR oriented cartridges??

quote:

Originally posted by Spooksar:
The best thing to do is get a primer pocket swagger for your press, I did the reaming for years, was never satisfied went to the swagger and haven’t looked back

Do you use the RCBS swager tool for use in a single stage press?