Depriming live primers

[ar10ar15man]

primer is an IMPACT EXPLOSIVE.
so it is fine to PUSH them out...just no banging on them.
do not rely on a wetting agent to make them "safe"
they have a SEALER on top

 

[MNbogboy]

View attachment 128870 View attachment 128871 Top one seems to deep. Bottom is what I'm used to. It was hard to get pictures to turn out.

And maybe I'm way off and there is no problem.

Top does look deep. Did you use a press or priming tool. If press you may have put way too much "crush" on it. If you crushed it you can't reuse it anyway so just shoot it your firing pin should reach.
If it is bottomed with a priming tool then my guess is the pockets are too deep.
We're the pockets uniformed?
Uniformed pockets are square on the bottom where some factory brass is kind of radiused and it will deform primers and allow you to seat it too deep because of the lack of consistent "feel".
Answer to your question I've decapped thousands of live primers. Safety glasses and run the decapper down like JE said.
Good luck,
Randy

 

[Mach 1]

This Is a common issue loading pistol cartridges with picked up range brass. Using multiple headstamps you can see just how much difference there is in dimensions. Luckily it's easy to set the primer seating depth on my progressive loaders. There is a good reason I only use lapua and norma brass in my rifles.

 

[okie man]

Before I started cutting my pockets I ran into a batch of Norma brass that had shallow pockets ! I don't care how hard I tried the primers would not seat flush or just below flush and would cause hard or impossible closing of the bolt! That's when I started informing all brass before loading it for the first time!

 

[pburton]

Thanks everyone! I use a RCBS hand priming tool. No I did not uniform the primer pockets, never have and have never had problems until now. I will start doing this moving forward.

This is the first time I've ever used Hornady brass. This is what i get for being cheap. I should have bought the Lapua

I'm going to pop out a couple of primers and measure them to see if I over crushed them. I'm also going to measure the primer pockets.

 

[J E Custom]

First, check and see how deep they actually are. The specs says that they should be flush (.000) or as deep as (-.008).

Most firing pins should have between .055 and .065 travel (protrusion).
At .055 of firing pin travel, the primer will still see a .047 pin strike. (More than enough to set the primer off).

If the primer is more than .008 to .010 below the case head, you may need to replace the case or the primers (The primers themselves should be between 0.115 and 0.126 tall).

As stated, the primers should be flush and slightly flattened when seated against the bottom of the primer pocket so there is no movement of the primer during firing.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Oi.223]

You can very carefully run them through your resizing die with no problem. I have done it to around a 1000 cases that needed primers removed for one reason or another. Mostly my error. Make sure you are wearing safety glasses or goggles when you do it just in case one does go off...

 

[Alibiiv]

Thanks everyone! I use a RCBS hand priming tool. No I did not uniform the primer pockets, never have and have never had problems until now. I will start doing this moving forward.

This is the first time I've ever used Hornady brass. This is what i get for being cheap. I should have bought the Lapua

I'm going to pop out a couple of primers and measure them to see if I over crushed them. I'm also going to measure the primer pockets.

I've been reloading for a very long time, and as such de-primed 100s if not a 1000 more live primers from brass, never had a problem. I am not saying that it cannot happen, just never happened to me. I recommend that you wear safety glasses when de-priming live primers. Even if a primer did inexplicably go off, the case would be inside of the resizing die and the damage would be minimal if anything at all.

 

[Angelo Campana]

View attachment 128870 View attachment 128871 Top one seems to deep. Bottom is what I'm used to. It was hard to get pictures to turn out.

And maybe I'm way off and there is no problem.

Yep, way too deep. I set my primers at .005 to .007, depending of it is a bolt action (like my Creedmoor, or my AR, Grendel). Generally, Okie is correct. ~.115 - .117 is what I see in primer pocket depth.

 

[Jeffrey Van Zandt]

I made the mistake of seating some primers to deep. I have never deprimed live primers and want to know what the safe way to do this is. I actually did not realize you could actually seat primers to deep until now. Can you safely run them back through your sizing die or is there a better way to do this? Thanks for any info

I had to deprime 100 cases last year I use a arbor press Sinclair and put a wash cloth over the front but never had one go off where safety glasses

 

[TheLongRanger83702]

I found this issue interesting so i spot checked all 3 cartridges I load. NONE look anything close to yours. I'd have to agree with others here that those primer pockets are way too deep. These are mine: 1) .308 Win, 2) 300 WinMag, 3) .45ACP. I use only Nosler brass. They have extremely tight tolerances. For example case mouth runout under .005". Thats tight. Yours might fire like they are shown but that has to affect accuracy. Id try to return them.

 

[Kaptoe]

I spray wd40 in mine on a recommendation. Not sure if that would have any impact on the sealant another poster referred to but have never had a primer go off decapping

That one pic you posted I have never seen a rifle primer seated that deep

 

[epags]

Never had primers seat that deep. FWIW, for dimensions Google Primer and Primer Pockets SAAMI.
SAAMI gives the ranges that manufactures can use. Because of the tolerance range one manf will/can be different from another.

 

[pburton]

Thanks for all the help. I have not had a chance yet to do any measurements. I'll do it after work today.