Federal small rifle primers

[thmpr]

Does anyone have issues loading federal primers? My Dillon is having primer feeding issues. Spoke to Dillon today and they stated that the Federal primers are slightly taller thus it is has a higher jamming probability in the feeding carrier. They also stated to use Winchester or Remington primers ... Did anyone heard about this before?

[bu-bye]

Yup! I stopped using Fed primers because they are a MUCH tighter fit and taller then any of the others. Even their large pistol primers are very tall. I prime mine by hand and after 50 cases my hand is dead. I even broke my priming tool after 200 fed primers. Had to mill a new handle out of aluminum. I only use winchester or CCI primers at this point. Stay away from Fed primers for now. Something changed in the past few years and they are a pain to load

PS
Just remembered, PMC primers are also over sized. Stay away from them too

[gobabygo]

Which Dillon press do you have?

I use Federal small pistols primers for revolver and Glock minor loads because they are much "softer". I use Winchester small rifle primers for my open and limited major loads (because they are very hard).

On my 650 I get at least 5 per 100 Federals where the shell plate isn't exactly lined up with the primer hole and I can feel them go in a little crooked and slightly deform. I get maybe 1 per 200+ with the Winchester small rifles that are bad. Maybe it's the height of the primer, or maybe it has to do with the softness of them, but they certainly have issues.

Also, if you have a 650, make sure that you clean out the primer plate every now and then and keep the shellplate as low as you can. This also helps in the primer department.