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Primer pocket screw up

1K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  jaycocreek 
#1 ·
Good day all, but not so good for myself. I had a batch of Remington 45-70 brass that had shallow primer pockets. I decided to use the Lyman reamer to do the primer pockets, it was real slow going so I put the tool in my drill pess to speed it up. The bad thing is I did not notice that the reamers stop moved, and I ended up removing way to much brass, the primers are now .015" below the case. Are these safe to shoot, or should I just pull the bullets and scrape the brass? Not a good day at all. The worst thing is I have 80 more new pieces that have shallow primer pockets.
Thanks
 
#2 ·
Man, I don't have anything expert to tell you. On the one hand .015 is NOT alot. On the other hand, each time you fire, the primer will blow out .015. Smart money says throw it out for safety. My cheap sniveling, whining, brass wh*re side says maybe for reduced loads....????

Final answer:
Nope, unless somebody definitive with a lot of experience with remington brass specifications comes on, Pull the Bullets, pop the primers in whatever manner pleases you, and use these cases for your dummy rounds for setting bullet seating depth, expander dies etc. It's not worth the "radical dissassembly" if you guess wrong.

I will defer to the experts that are out here. But my answer for my gun would be: I wouldn't shoot this brass. thanks rc
 
#3 ·
Randyralph said:
Good day all, but not so good for myself. I had a batch of Remington 45-70 brass that had shallow primer pockets. I decided to use the Lyman reamer to do the primer pockets, it was real slow going so I put the tool in my drill pess to speed it up. The bad thing is I did not notice that the reamers stop moved, and I ended up removing way to much brass, the primers are now .015" below the case. Are these safe to shoot, or should I just pull the bullets and scrape the brass? Not a good day at all. The worst thing is I have 80 more new pieces that have shallow primer pockets.
Thanks
I bought 4 bags of of Remington .45-70 brass last year. All had primer pockets that were way to shallow (around 0.010" shallower than Sammi specs). I spoke to Remington about them and they said send 'em, back and they'll replace them no questions asked. Unfortunately I live in Canada so that was way easier said than done :).

They advised me not to ream the pockets as they would become dangerously thin. I did however, cross section a few of them and compared them with good cases. Mainly to see if the pockets were thicker and shallower, or just shallower. I was able to "uniform" them enough to seat the primers flush, but only taking out enough that the primer pockets measured the same thickness (not depth) as new WW brass. I now use these cases only for low power loads in my single shot rifles.

BTW, I don't have the SAMMI specs off hand, but the WW primer pockets I'm looking at right now are around 0.025" deep.

If you have any doubt at all, save them for dummy rounds. Brass is expensive but your face is harder to replace. A year from now the brass will just be a bad memory :)

Chris.
 
#4 ·
I would send them all back after you call them. They should replace them. Try to get all of them replaced, even the ones you tried reaming. Explain that they were too shallow to start with.

A pocket too deep will give you a chance of misfire. Bad bad bad.
If you seat the primer flush with the case head, and not all the way to bottom of primer pocket, then there is a gap in front of primer. When you pull trigger, the primer getting shoved forward by firing pin MAY cause it to not go bang. That would be very bad if the big buck were in front of you, and worse if big bear was after you.
Dan
 
#5 ·
I have hesitated on replying to this thread and won't really, other than saying my primers seat about .010 to .011 in Starline cases and everything is Hunky Dory.Great for Cast Bullets and a large Meplat compared to Winchester brass, which is about 1/2 of that.I rea;ize this is a bad time to be able just to run down and get a different primer to use but they all come in a different brilliance(Hottness) and size or thickness(Height) which leads to primer seating depth in a deep pocket or shallow for that matter.



I won't say what to do but I have never been accused of being smart. ;D

Good luck....Jayco
 
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