Primer not seating deep enough.

[bravo2]

I have a 550B and I am having primer depth issues using fed primers with blazer and winchester 9mm once fired brass. I am getting a lot of .0005 and couple .001 to .0015, and finally I got 3 at .002. Most stayed flush to .0005. The shell plate is tight as I can go and turn it comfortably. I guess the goal is .003. What other things can I do to adjust the seating depth of the primers other than tightening the shell plate to the point were you can't turn it hardly? I had this setup before years ago and only loaded 45 acp then and had no issues. I do push the lever forward fars it will go and i know the issue is with this press setup. I pressed the same primed brass 3 to 4 times each and still got the same readings afterwards. I guess the couple .002 is by luck as they were not that in the beginning first few tries. Its not deep enough for my liking even by touch. Other options?

[dillon]

Make sure the two screws that attach the roller bracket to the underside of the platform are tight. If the LH screw backs out at all, it stops against the top of the primer slide, preventing full primer seating. I assume you inspected the cases for crimped primers?

[oldtrooper]

How old is your 550? Check for cracks in the bell housing (?) located at the very bottom of the press. This is where the hinge rotates to push up when functioning the press to raise the platform up to de-prime, drop powder, seat, and crimp etc. Slight stress cracks here will effect the seating depth of the primers among other problems.

I have had this happen and the fix is not that difficult. If you find cracks there call Dillon and they will send out a replacement with instructions.

[bravo2]

No crimped primers. Its a new RL550B. I am only getting blazer, some RP remington,some pmc seatting right. Winchester I have yet to get anything really past .0015 most are just flush 0.000 to 0.0005. I am throughing the crimped stuff in another bin as all my brass is all mixed up but the win that looks like its not crimped is seating the same as the crimped ones and just as easy either way. I did not find any cracks right off in the bell of the press. With nobrass and primer the lever goes to the bin maxed out point and there is a little feeling of catching in there half way to max point. I only had couple go that far and it was real scratchy non smooth feeling when they did go that far. They seat at .005 to .006. The blazer is staying in the .004 to .006 range. I have kept couple .0025 primed brass abd abything below is seperated. I am trying to get enough to setup my powder station. Is there any win brass that has had seating issues like this? How many of you would use the flush primed brass?

Edited January 6, 2009 by bravo2

[kevin c]

Probably not your case, given that your press is new, but, each of the last two or three times I started getting really high primers and/or inconsistent OAL's, it was because the link arm or the handle itself was cracked.

[bravo2]

It seems speer is consistant .oo4 to .oo5, blazer .003 to .005, pmc fine,r&p fine,most federal but not all,most win not working and are .000 to .001. S&B was ok I think. Most winchester non crimped seat like the crimped pnes I did by accident and couple I tried for comparison. I got crimped FC and winchester and nato versions. I have to go through like 4000-5000 brass now as i know 1 bucket of two buckets is a lot of crimped ones and I know i got to by a dillon swager to fix those. I found a speer also that must have had a crimp it it as it would not load a primer and it smashed the drimp inside that you could not tell was there. I have had 3 cases of brass that I had a hard time getting primer out of as it would almost be out of the brass but not fall and i could not get the brass out of the shell plate or do anything as it locks it all up. I had to constantly deprime it over and over and wiggle the brass some to get the spent primer to drop. I do got my powder measure setup for titegroup now and avg 3.6 but varies from 3.5 to 3.7. The brass I got .003 to .005 or .006 i am going to go ahead and load. Those .002 and less going to sit on them til I figure out if there is anything i can do to fix this issue.

[RogerT]

I use a hand priming tool to fix flush primers. Be really careful and gentle and it will work fine.

On the press, check the primer seating punch (part no 13967, page 5 in the 550B manual).

Measure the diametre and compare with the brass primer pocket and see if it is possible to seat primers deep enough, it could be that the punch is slightly too big to push the primer deep enough in that brass.

On my old 550 I gave the punch a small bevel to make it seat primers deeper and it's possible to make it sit higher in the primer slide as well with some tinkering.

Edited January 6, 2009 by RogerT

[lugnut]

Well... I personally have observed that some brass just has really tight pockets. I have noticed that Win pockets seem to be the tightest. CCI, Remington pockets seem loose. Federal somewhere in the middle.

When I seat Win primers in 9mm and get them flush or just a tad below they work very reliably for me. If I get high primers I will use a RCBS hand primer tool to fix.