Shallow primer pockets on vintage brass

[corbinace]

I recently acquired some .32 S&W brass. This is the short version and most of the headstamps are very old.

The brass is manufactured slightly differently than current brass.
The head of the case is not solid. The primer pocket is a raised dome in the bottom of the case, not just flat with a hole like the current production. The primer pocket accepts a new primer but The new primer is way too tall to fit in the pocket.

The pockets are about 0.092-0.094" deep vs the new ones at about 0.119" deep.

I have learned that these are Semi-Ballon head cases as in example #4.
https://www.trapshooters.com/cdn-cgi...6-png.1730734/

I guess these need to go in the novelty brass box, since they will not accept a primer. Too bad, as I have nearly 50 of them in all sorts of headstamps.

Unfortunately, I really needed something that I could feed my son's new Iver Johnson break-top.

[Winger Ed.]

Some folks reuse balloon head cases for low power loads.
The calibers I load are modern and common enough I've never felt the urge to reload any.
In your case-- I'd put them in the novelty box.

I'd look into getting new brass for it.
If you can't find any, you should be able to take regular .32s and trim the case down to length.
I've heard of that being done to get fresh .38S&W cases from .38Spec.

[rbuck351]

You can use a primer pocket uniformer to deepen the pockets to normal depth. Sinclair makes a nice one.

[Bent Ramrod]

The primer pockets are somewhat fragile and might have been pushed in slightly on decapping if the body of the depriming punch hit it after the pin pushed the primer out. The pockets might be swaged back to fit again by hard recapping with fired primers, using the press lever, but whether that would fatigue the brass I don’t know.

I have some semi-balloonhead cases in .44-40, and they don’t last very long, even with blackpowder loads, which is all I use them for. Necks crack, and the occasional primer pocket enlarges or blows out and sometimes the rims are hard to fit in the shell holder after firing. No primer pocket has ever gotten too small to fit a primer, though.