Question,on bt sniper expander die

[Dennis Eugene]

Lately while expanding used .40 cal brass in order to make .45 cal bullets I have had primers popping out of the brass. I am assuming that the reason may be that the brass has been fired many times over and primer pockets may have expanded. Any one else ever run into this problem and if so am I correct in my assumption? Thanks Dennis.

[Pipefitter]

I do not know as if it makes a difference, but I deprime my 40 brass before I seat the cores. It seems to me that having a bit of lead extrude into the primer pocket helps with keeping the core and "jacket" together on impact.

BTW I use full length 40's to make 300gn for a couple of 45LC firearms.

[leeggen]

send an email to BT Sniper and see what he has to say abou it. My bet is he will have an answer.
CD

[PAT303]

The air in the cases compresses popping the primers out. Pat

[runfiverun]

I'm with Pat.
everything is fitting tight.

the other thing that will do it is a titch of moisture in the case, just the hole above the primer being damp will pop them right out.

[ncbearman]

Are you annealing long enough/correctly?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I had the same problem with expanding my 9mm cases (for 40 cal projectiles), using a hornady 380 expander die(solid expander)...or maybe it was when I was seating a core? I used the same die for both functions...I guess it really doesn't matter. Anyway, I plugged the hole in the Shell holder, so the Primer is supported and can't be pushed out. It only happened some of the time.

Of course, shortly after I did that, I got a large lot of 9mm brass from a FL source that was extra cheap due to it having a small flash hole and 'sealed' primer, making them virtually impossible to reload as ammo. If you try to remove a primer and are successful, generally the decap pin would get stuck in the primer hole using my Lee decap die. But they work great for making projectiles.

[Dennis Eugene]

Thanks guys, yeah Pat I knew it was the air popping them out, and Lamar, I suppected moisture might play a part as it does not compress as easily as air. I guess I'll see what happens on this next bunch of brass as this batch is the only one I run into this with. DC.

[runfiverun]

the only time I have had primers pop out of my 40S&W cases was when I was inserting cores into them after wet cleaning them.
I just didn't let them sit long enough to dry and I could see minute amounts of moisture in the hole.

[BT Sniper]

Yep... just the trapped air pressure pushing them out, nothing to worry about, happens sometimes.

Swage on!

Brian

[Dennis Eugene]

Thanks Brian, say do you ever use them once primers are out? DC

[BT Sniper]

Thanks Brian, say do you ever use them once primers are out? DC

Yep!

Bt

[runfiverun]

I couldn't tell them apart by shooting them either.

[DukeInFlorida]

The only time I worry about the primers popping out is when I am making .308 sized bullets from 5.7x28fn brass. I get so fussy about exact weights (150 grain for 300 blackout, and 168 grain for 308 Win) that I relegate those cases where the primer pops out to the practice bullet pile. The ones with the retained primers are able to do less than 1 MOA easily.
However, with the pistol bullets, I have seen no difference between point of aim with or without primers in place when I load them. I produce .40 from 9mm, .44 from .40, 45 LC and 45 acp bullets from .40, and lastly .500 S&W mag from 45 acp small primer brass. All of those work amazingly well, with or without primers in place.

[Dennis Eugene]

Very helpful, Thanks everyone. DC