At the last Reno FCSA 1000 yrd .50 BMG match we had four incidents of blown CCI-35 primers. The primers failed at the outer edge of the primer cup( not pierced firing pin holes) The blown primers occured in Mcmillan action guns and in one case blew out the Sako extractor and took the gun out of action as the bolt could not be opened.The loads were very mild 215 gr of H50BMG with 750gr A-maxes. Since we DNR'd we kept the unfired loads and disassembled them yesterday. We found 6% of the primers that showed clear CRACKS on the outside of the primer cups. Since this lot of primers came from a box of 500, we examined about 200 virgin primers and found 6% with discernable cracks in the primer cups. This is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.Your dealing with major power rifles inches from your eyes and face! The bolts in both guns were Plasma torched and deeply pitted by the primer burn throughs. The gas was vented well by the action although the extractors were both severly damaged. There are no discernable lot numbers on the box although they are bar coded. These primers were purchased new less than 2 years ago. If you use CCI-35 primers please inspect each and every one extremely carefully if you use them at all. I contacted Blount today with this information as well as the FCSA and they said they will get back to me tomorrow. They said they had no other reports of this happening!I doubt I will ever use CCI primers again.-Rob

thanks for the PSA Rob!!

jeffe