CCI large pistol primers

[poacherjo]

I have a problem with these primers not fitting in the pocket about 5 per cent non fit. I took my primer pocket uniform tool and went through the brass and they still won't go in. It's got to be the OD of the primer not being consistent . I am using a dillon 550B to set the primers in 45 ACP. This batch of primers is 20 years old! Was there a problem with CCI that I don't know about?

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I use CCI almost exclusively and problems are rare. When I do have a primer that doesn't fit it's almost always the brass.

[earlmck]

Always possible to have a batch where something went wrong but I have never heard of any particular year giving "fit" problems. I've been using CCI primers (not exclusively but they would be the majority of my primers) for close to 50 years and they have been remarkably consistent so far as I could tell.

[rototerrier]

Maybe you have some military or crimped brass. Primers are so soft that they usually will crush in if the pocket is even close to size. Sounds like the brass is the issue.

[TNsailorman]

You wouldn't be trying to load S&B brass would you? I quit using it because of undersized primer pockets. james

[Lloyd Smale]

ive had problems like that with rem and wolf primers but never cci or fed.

[alamogunr]

When I first started reloading, I bought a bunch of .45ACP brass that was described as military match brass. The brass came with inert primers. I don't know how they were made inert but they would not fire and I had to deprime each case. It was way old at that time and supposedly nickle plated. Long story short, the nickle plating was worn and the brass brittle. The primers were very hard to seat. I found out later that these particular cases had undersized primer pockets. None of the primers ever went off in seating and always fired. The biggest problem was necks splitting at first firing. The whole batch now resides in my scrap brass bucket.

[Bookworm]

Back when I started reloading, in the 80's, CCI had a reputation for being slightly oversize. CCI strenuously denied the allegations.

I bought a bunch from a friend who was having the same trouble as you. He switched to another brand, and his problem went away.

I had no problem with them, I think I used them in 9mm range brass.

Perhaps your batch is older than you think ?

[WJP]

Take a set of calipers to the primers and brass. I'd bet that it's the brass. I run across problematic brass time to time. I quit using S&B as well for the same reason.

[TexasGrunt]

They're not small primer brass are they? There's getting to be more and more of that carp out there.

[Bookworm]

....I took my primer pocket uniform tool and went through the brass and they still won't go in. It's got to be the OD of the primer not being consistent . .. This batch of primers is 20 years old! Was there a problem with CCI that I don't know about?

It's not the brass, read the text. He uniformed the pockets.

It's the primers.

[lotech]

I usually buy primers by the carton of 5,000. I've used all the American-made primers in all sizes since 1965, but more CCI than the others. Sometimes, slightly more or less effort is required to seat primers. Whether that can be attributed to primer dimensions, primer pocket dimensions, or a combination of both, I don't know. It's part of the process and I'm sure most long-time handloaders have experienced the same. I've never used foreign-made primers but would guess results would be similar.

[poacherjo]

Good Read @Bookworm !! I am going to try and hand prime the rest. It seems more of a problem with the Federal brass. I didn't want to go through each piece and Mic it , I thought maybe others had the same problem. After I noticed the frequency of the nonfit I took out the uniforming tool and set the depth at.120 and I got quite a few shavings out of 250 cases. But after reaming them I thought it was fixed so it has to be a variance with the primers. I have 700 more of these old primers to use up. I ran 100 federal primers without any problem!!!!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've noticed CCI primers to be a tad difficult to insert, when others brands fit perfectly. I generally keep some CCI primers on the shelf, even though I don't regularly use them...when I stumble onto a batch of brass that seemingly have slightly enlarged primer pockets, CCI will tend to still fit nicely.

During the primer shortage, I bought some Herters (Japan made) primers that were a minimum of 45 years old. They are oversized for sure...I've used them a few times, enough to know they are mostly too large for appropriate sized primer pockets, but again, I'll save them for brass with problematic primer pockets. It's good to have options.

[mdi]

For as many primers that are produced, the amount of failures/bad primers is infinitesimal, almost non-existent. I have been reloading for over 30 years (yeah, big deal ) and I can count the number of actually bad, for any reason, primers on one hand, the one with three fingers. Even including manufacturing tolerances, the only problems I ever had were with S&B cases which had no taper/break in the primer pocket mouth. I use a counter sink or a chamfer tool to remove primer crimps and after several thousand different make cases, no problems of any sort. IMO, using any "reforming" tool just add to the chance of screwing something up, and countersink, even if used by a tyro, will not damage primer pockets beyond use (one would have try to cut too much out of the pocket).

If I had this problem I would first get out my micrometers and measure (anytime there is a fit problem, with anything, measure!) I'd use pin gauges to verify primer pocket dimensions (or check a drill chart and find a drill that's the same size as the minimum dimension of the pocket ID, if it enters the pocket is too small).

Then I'd check the nut behind the handle to see if the problem was me...

Correction.; if the drill doesn't enter the pocket, it's prolly too small.

Corre

[Char-Gar]

Take another look at those primers and make dead certain they are not Large Rifle Primers.

[jsizemore]

CCI primers have been known to use thicker cup material. Less yield when trying to use them in tight primer pockets. Great to use when your hotroding though. I use them when loading 107's in my 6br to 3000fps.

[David2011]

I recently used the last of my CCI primers in the green and black packaging and still have some in the tan and red packages. They have lasted a long time because they do not run well in my Dillon presses so I only use them when hand priming in small batches. The later CCIs seat very smoothly in the Dillons and any other seating method I've tried. I don't know what is different about the later ones but they seat better than Federal and as well as Remington or Winchester.

[salpal48]

I Only use CCI. Flawless all the time

[44magLeo]

My primer pocket uniformer only deepens pockets. It does not change pocket diameter. It could still be the brass.poacherjo says it's worse with Federal brass. I might suggest measuring a few of the Federal cases that are hard to prime. Leo