.357 mag cases ... hard to prime ??!

[JJE]

Last month I loaded about 350 rounds of 357 magnum into new Magtech and Remington cases and used a Lee hand priming tool for all of them. I believe I had about a half dozen (can't remember which of the two brass types) that were VERY tight. The first two times I got a tight pocket, I just thought the little ram on the priming tool wasn't centered, so I bore down on them and managed to squish two magnum primers. The others I was more careful to just apply steadily-increasing hand pressure and they seated without being damaged.

I don't remember ever having that happen before, but I almost always load previously-fired brass. It was a luxury to load brass that I didn't have to clean or size. Life's too short to prep handgun brass, so even though I have a primer pocket tool, I'll probably never use it. I can live with a couple of squashed primers out of 350.

On the other hand, if I ever set one off - - I may change my mind!

[tonyjr]

I always size , ream primer and flash pockets and check the length [ OAL ]
I retired from construction and maintance , while not to common it is not
uncommon foe bad pieces .
The last ones I /we bought were for the 25 and 32 acp . Not much range
brass for those .