Seating primers

[Wheel Gun]

I'm a new reloader and I had a surprising and concerning thing happen the other day. I made up a few sets of test loads for my hunting pistol--a Contender barreled for 7-30 Waters. I've reloaded occasionally for about six months now, but am still a neophyte.

I had made a total of 16 rounds, with four sets of four different measures of Varget over large rifle primers. When I got to the range, I found that 3 out of 4 wouldn't fire. Just a click. I was getting dimples in the unfired primers, but no big bang. I've never experienced this and it worried the crap out of me.

Here's what I think happened, but I'd like to talk it through to get any insight/feedback that you experienced reloaders might give. I have an RCBS hand primer and it's always worked okay. I've always been told that Lee and RCBS shell holders were the same and interchangeable. In this session, I had the Lee shell holder in the priming tool and had problems with the priming tool sticking and not working right. I couldn't figure out why it was being so finicky, but I eventually got the primers in. I think this may have been the problem, but I'm not 100% sure that it's the entire problem.

After my frustrating range experience (when I never knew if the gun would go off or not), I went back to my workshop where I have a bullet trap. I tried to refire all of my "no fires" and actually got two of them to fire. The rest would not. I started fiddling with the priming tool and switched out the Lee holder with an RCBS holder. All the earlier priming tool problems went away. I loaded five new rounds to test it out. The first four went off just fine but the fifth did not. Recocking and refiring did set off number five.

I was quite pleased with my troubleshooting, but #5 needing two strikes keeps nagging me. I expect 100% of my primers to go off when I want them to.

So, when you hear this story, what's your take? Was this a primer depth issue? Could that Lee shell holder have been making the primers sit too deep? I put a ruler across the bottom of the "no fire" rounds and couldn't see any difference between those, factory rounds and good reload rounds. If they were too deep, you couldn't tell from just eyeballing it. What am I missing here?

 

[oneof79]

I am thinking a close look at your firing pin/hammer springs might be in order.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Were the dimples centered pretty good? Did the dimples un dud rounds look just like fired primers? Can you try a new pack of primes?

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Unless primer pockets are out of spec, seating too deep shouldn't be an issue. You can seat with too much force and a ring or half ring mark will sometimes be visible on the primer.

Like mentioned earlier, the gun might need to be looked at. But if primers have good dimples, then I usually suspect a primer issue first.

 

[Wheel Gun]

I am thinking a close look at your firing pin/hammer springs might be in order.

That was my first thought. But then, I grabbed five factory Federal rounds and each fired with no problem. So, I think the problem is with my reloads.

 

[Wheel Gun]

Were the dimples centered pretty good? Did the dimples un dud rounds look just like fired primers? Can you try a new pack of primes?

Just eyeballing it, they all looked the same. Perfectly centered. Some, however, did look deeper than others.

I think I'll toss that box of primers. Just in case. But, I'm still betting that it's something that I'm doing. For this next batch, I think I'll do some test firing in my trap before I head back to the range.

 

[Calamity Jake]

If you truly had high primers then they were keeping the TC from locking the action closed 100%, there is a safty feature
built into the TC that keeps if from firing if not closed and locked 100%
There also could be a head space issue with your reloads if they were not full length sized, or loaded overall length
is to long, eather of these could keep the action from closing 100%.

Try some factory loaded 7-30 waters ammo, if they function ok then I would ? your reloads.

 

[Dalejbrass]

Sounds to me like you simply didn't seat them properly. Did you try running the loads thru your gun again. A lot of times, improperly primed bullets will go bang the second time. The first strike simply seats the primer and the second makes it go bang.

I doubt your primers are bad.

 

[Tim KS]

What brand of primer? Wolf is notorious for being a bit harder than some others. I'd try a different brand to see it that makes a difference.

 

[Pulp]

I use Lee shell holders on my RCBS Hand primer and have never had your problem with any brand of primer. I'm leaning toward light hammer strikes, but I'm not an expert and I've never stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.