primer seating question

[Maltese]

I was using Wolf large pistol primers in my first round of loading for 45 acp and 10mm. I am sure this was the indian and not the arrow situation, but I'm trying to figure out why I had 2 out of 50 45acp rounds that suffered from light primer strikes and 7 on the 10mm.

I think I may have gotten a little to happy with the pocket uni-former and pushing the primers a little too deep, but I wanted to some advice. I didn't have a camera on me at the range and didn't keep the bullets, so shame on me, but any help would be awesome. I was trying to keep the seats within spec from my lyman manual, but again, I could have messed up the measurement.

Any thoughts would be great!

[Solus]

the only time I got failure to fire was when I didnt seat deep enough... hope this helps

[Maltese]

thanks, it just seemed like there was barely a dent compared to the fired rounds which had a nice deep mark. The pistol in question was a g29 for the 10mm and the 45 was a P220 if that helps.

[Bill Steele]

the only time I got failure to fire was when I didnt seat deep enough... hope this helps

I agree.

There is no "primer seated too deep" in reloading. I suppose you could cut a primer pocket too deep, although every uniformer I ever had cuts to spec depth only.

In any case, primers always have to be fully seated, hard stop, or the anvil won't be forced up against the primer material and FTF's result.

Seat them till you can't, if the pockets got cut too deep, chuck those cases.

Good luck, have fun.

[Maltese]

Ok, I guess I'll make sure I plant them deep. Any other reason? I guess I could have contaminated the primers, but a fair mount of them went boom the second time I put them back down the barrel. I'm trying to think of any thing else that may have caused this?

[Bill Steele]

Ok, I guess I'll make sure I plant them deep. Any other reason? I guess I could have contaminated the primers, but a fair mount of them went boom the second time I put them back down the barrel. I'm trying to think of any thing else that may have caused this?

Nope, just needed to be seated deeper. The second strike working makes it definitive as the first strike finished the seating job.

Good luck.

[huckberry668]

Seating a primer deliberately deep is called 'crushing the primer'. It helps with mod revolvers with light hammer springs in my experience. I'm not sure it'd help much with overly hard primer cups. In this case, I think half the reason is Wolf primer. Try different primer and I bet you the problem goes away.

I've used Win, Fed, CCI, Rem, and Wolf primers. Wolf LP has the hardest cup. Wolf LP is the only primer I've ever used that needed the most '2nd strikes' with my stock guns. And it ain't my seating depth.

I've shot about 500 Wolf LPs now and had at least 3 or 4 2nd strikes. compare to 0 from 10k Federal LP and 2 or 3 from over 80k Federal SP (thru mod revolvers) none from 100s of Win and CCI.

Their diameter and height seem to be a couple of thousandths larger too. much harder to seat and crush. Try it with a hard priming tool and you'll see what I mean.

[Cheep]

If the seating depth is correct, it's gonna be Wolf's hard cups.

[fredj338]

Ok, I guess I'll make sure I plant them deep. Any other reason? I guess I could have contaminated the primers, but a fair mount of them went boom the second time I put them back down the barrel. I'm trying to think of any thing else that may have caused this?

If it fires on the 2nd strike, it's almost always not seated deep enough. So the firing pin finishes seating the primer on the strike. Then the 2nd strike fires it. I have to agree, I don't think you can over seat a primer, but it must sit firmly in the bottom of the pocket. I have run Wolf?tual LP in my XD & tuned M625, 100% fire rate. Push in that handle & seat the primer, it is not going to go off during the reloading process.

[ExtremeX]

I never had one not work, and I do get good results using Wolf primers... but I do find the Wolf/Tula brand harder to seat than the CCI or Winchester brands (I use all 3).

[gunhun]

Cleaning the primer pocket helped for me. Probably helps to ensure proper and full primer seating. Went from a 10% rate of light strikes on my first 100 to 0 light strikes on my second 100 rounds. This is wolf SPP.

[milotrain]

I shoot wolf primers in an AR and have to seat them with a hand priming tool to get them fully seated. They are tighter in the primer pocket than winchester SRPs. Sounds like soft seating.

[ExtremeX]

I shoot wolf primers in an AR and have to seat them with a hand priming tool to get them fully seated. They are tighter in the primer pocket than winchester SRPs. Sounds like soft seating.

[bruce381]

wolf and tula are THICKER by a 1/2 thosand which makes them feel tight and BOTTOMED out when they are not. I load on a 650 and they feel fine, anyway the anvil is shorter also which means a deeper seating is needed to pre load the primer vs say a winchester. So push hard and go deep they will be fine.

[bruce381]

Nope, just needed to be seated deeper. The second strike working makes it definitive as the first strike finished the seating job.

Good luck.

Bill I do not know you but we think alike on a lot of things.