First problem with PPU brass

[Wayne Smith]

I have used a lot of PPU brass in a lot of calibers with no problems. I recently received new PPU 8mm Mauser brass. I necked it up to 9.3 and loaded for my new to me Husky. I had several failures to fire so I brought it home and cleaned the bolt inside and out. Found a tiny piece of steel loose in there, maybe the problem. Took it to the range Saturday and experienced the same, but many of these fired the second or third time. Primers not seated correctly? These are Tula, I have used them in the thousands without a problem.

I just pulled the bullets (yes, condoms!) and reformed the primer pockets with my Lyman reforming tool. I found highly inconsistent primer pockets - some the tool sat and spun without cutting anything, some it took out a lot. I think from now on I'll treat these like S&B brass and automatically reform pockets.

Oh, they were primed on my Hollywood Sr. No problem with not having enough leverage.

Anyone else found anything similar or did I just get a bad batch?

[runfiverun]

well.
I'm thinking you might be fighting a couple of problems at once.
if the shoulders on the brass are pushed down your hitting the case and it's jumping forward absorbing the firing pins blow.
or you might be pushing the primer deeper into the pocket also absorbing the blow.
another thing I wonder about is if the anvil in the primer is seated down against the base of the pocket.
I went through an issue with some 30-30 cases and mag-tech primers a while back it seemed as if I would have 3-4 mis-fires in a batch of 100.
now this really had me worried since I had also loaded ammo for my deer hunt in my 257 roberts from this same carton of primers.
so I went and shot the first box of 50 rounds with no issues, then I really started thinking.
I maybe had all 4 of the duds in the other box.
nope they all fired fine and I had to start all over to have ammo for the hunt.

[Wayne Smith]

I also wondered about that because I am essentially fireforming these cases as I shoot them. The inconsistencies I experienced with my Lyman uniforming tool pretty much put paid to these issues. S&B brass is always tight but is consistently tight. These pockets were all over the place, relatively speaking.

[runfiverun]

it sucks to hear too.
I have been looking at some PPU brass to fill in some gaps, at least I know what to look at.

[Wayne Smith]

Over the years I must have used hundreds if not thousands of PPU brass in pistol and rifle. This is the first I've had problems with. It will not stop me from using more of it.

[leadhead]

I've had problems in the past with Wolf primers not firing...
I don't know if this could be part of the problem or not.
I've never had a problem with PPU brass.
Denny

[opos]

I use PPU brass in all of the rifle calibers I load...never had one issue at all....I use Winchester and CCI primers only and all works fine and dandy.

[flint45]

Never had any problems withg PPU i uuse .303 brit, 8mm,.308,7mm.45 auto and .22 hornet I like thier hornut brass better then all the others keep us posted on what you find .

[Expat74]

Funny when using the search one might just fall onto the right thread, a recent one in addition.

I had the chance to buy 1k PPU 10mm Auto for a reasonable price, so I did. From my personal experience (as to now) I feel it's good for one bang and that's it.
Why you ask? Recently, I have been swaging some bullets and wanted to load said bullets into once fired brass.

Each and every round I loaded I was able to push the bullet down by finger pressure. Now, I hope I did all the checks, let me know if I missed something. Here goes:

- measured the bullet, all good at .401
- measured the expander (RCBS) which worked fine with other J-words

to remedy I

- replaced RCBS expander die with Lee universal expander die and backed off quite a bit
- tried a heavy crimp

All of the above to no avail, even then, I can push them down by finger pressure, even magled a bullet during the crimping. No, I'm not 6' 8, and I don't have pancake-sized hands..

Anybody got an idea what else I could do?

[RustyReel]

There is another forum around here somewhere that talks about loading the 9.3x57. Seems a long chamber is not uncommon. I am currently tinkering with three of the Huskys and all three initially backed out primers. They all fired but it was obvious something wasn't right. Have been working on sizing/fire forming the brass to fit each individual chamber. I'm not using PPU but am using resized 8x57. Headspace could be part of your issue as well.

[leadhead]

Sounds like you might be "Over" crimping.....That will loosen bullets every time.
Denny

[chutesnreloads]

Could try flaring a case with something like the Lee Universal die or something like it that only flares the case mouth without expanding.If you can still seat a bullet with your finger that's some really thin brass

[opos]

I have not experienced "thin" ppu brass...in fact it seems to have a little more "beef" to it than many others I've loaded...however I've never loaded the .40 or 10 with any equipment or components but I had "thin brass" with some 38 specials and Lee dies..it was R/P brass and it was on the "low" side of the spec and the resizing die was on the high side of the spec and the cumulative error caused the projectiles to do what was described...crimp made no difference.

I've had crimp issues with 45 Colt and a Lee Crimp die...it was over compressing the lead projectile. If I use a crimp die for either a roll or taper depending on the caliber it's just a very light setting.

[Fishman]

Expat74, you can measure the outside diameter of your resized brass before expanding and see if your sizer die is returning it to factory specs.

Wayne, my 9.3x62 #1 is back at ruger again for intermittent FTF problems. I thought it was me, or the brass I was using, but factory ammo did the same thing. It sounds like you found the problem, but I'd confirm that with some different brass.

[Wayne Smith]

There is another forum around here somewhere that talks about loading the 9.3x57. Seems a long chamber is not uncommon. I am currently tinkering with three of the Huskys and all three initially backed out primers. They all fired but it was obvious something wasn't right. Have been working on sizing/fire forming the brass to fit each individual chamber. I'm not using PPU but am using resized 8x57. Headspace could be part of your issue as well.

This one is the same, if that was not my post too. I can't load a cartridge in the magazine that will fill the throat. But I think that is a long throat, not long chamber. I'm not setting the shoulder back significantly when full length resizing after firing.

[Expat74]

Expat74, you can measure the outside diameter of your resized brass before expanding and see if your sizer die is returning it to factory specs.

Sorry, I didn't mention but I sized the brass before expanding. Will have a look at the dimensions.. thx!


Edit: dimensions are good as far as SAAMI spec goes, using RCBS Carbide dies. Wall around the mouth is .009 to .010

[dudel]

I sure hope it's a bad batch. PPU brass has worked well for me in the past, and is available in hard to find calibers (like 22Hornet), when there was no other brass available.

Might be worth bring up to PPU.

[Wayne Smith]

I sure hope it's a bad batch. PPU brass has worked well for me in the past, and is available in hard to find calibers (like 22Hornet), when there was no other brass available.

Might be worth bring up to PPU.

I've had this brass for a while. I figured I'd raise it here because of all the milsurps folks are shooting here there is a huge experience with PPU brass. If nobody has a similar experience I figure it was a bad patch that they already caught and fixed. If others have had similar problems they ought to be told. So far it looks like the former.