Primer seating question

[lim10]

I have a couple of questions about seating primers. I recently had a fantastic trigger job done on my 625. With the lighter trigger pull, I knew I needed to seat my primers deeper (I had heard 0.008” below flush). As I tried to figure out the best way to do this on my Dillon 650, I decided to put a shim under the punch support bracket (black L-shaped piece of metal which the primer seater assembly pushes on to seat the primer). The shim was actually a 0.011” thick coupon cut from a .40 casing. The shim causes the primer seater assembly to push higher and makes it easy to seat primers at approximately 0.010” below flush. I put some primers into brass (without powder and bullets), loaded them into moonclips, and fired the primers. When I fired, the primers popped out of the primer pocket and jammed the gun.

My real questions are:

• When powder and bullets are added to the mix, will this keep the primers in the primer pockets?

• Can you seat primers too deep (maybe affecting the anvil and causing the primers to pop out of the primer pocket)? The primers did not appear to be crushed; they were just seated deeper than normal.

Pic - Primer seater assembly

Pic - 23 is the punch support bracket

[D. Manley]

I have a couple of questions about seating primers. I recently had a fantastic trigger job done on my 625. With the lighter trigger pull, I knew I needed to seat my primers deeper (I had heard 0.008” below flush). As I tried to figure out the best way to do this on my Dillon 650, I decided to put a shim under the punch support bracket (black L-shaped piece of metal which the primer seater assembly pushes on to seat the primer). The shim was actually a 0.011” thick coupon cut from a .40 casing. The shim causes the primer seater assembly to push higher and makes it easy to seat primers at approximately 0.010” below flush. I put some primers into brass (without powder and bullets), loaded them into moonclips, and fired the primers. When I fired, the primers popped out of the primer pocket and jammed the gun.

My real questions are:

• When powder and bullets are added to the mix, will this keep the primers in the primer pockets?

• Can you seat primers too deep (maybe affecting the anvil and causing the primers to pop out of the primer pocket)? The primers did not appear to be crushed; they were just seated deeper than normal.

Pic - Primer seater assembly

Pic - 23 is the punch support bracket

I suspect you'll be fine with loaded rounds. I know when the (primer-only fired) rubber practice bullets are used in revolvers the primer's flash hole needs to be opened up to avoid the scenario you encountered. As for seating deeper, I would have thought that if the primer was properly "bottomed out" in the pocket when seated nothing additional would be required to light 'em.

Edited February 6, 2008 by D. Manley

[yoshidaex]

+1 to what D. Manley said.

The XL650 should be more than capable of seating the primer to the correct depth. If you're worried about light primer strikes, I suggest you pick up some Federal primers (softest of the primers out there).