Cure - Difficult primer seating

[Pdvdh]

I'm fire forming 270Win Nosler and 280Rem Norma brass into 280RCBS Improved casings using the COW method.
Sometimes it's very difficult to seat primers in brand new cases. I used to think it might be caused by shallow primer pockets.
I use Hornady Unique resizing lube for a number of differing reloading steps. These primers were seating really hard, so I decided to apply some Hornady Unique to a Q-tip and lube the primer pocket sidewalls. Wow! What a huge difference. And they seated down right where they should be. Around 0.004" down beneath the case head.
Never heard of this or read of this solution before. Been reloading for 45yrs. I'll continue this practice when I encounter overly tight primer seating.
Yeah, I hear the concern over primer contamination. I'm not worried. It's wax. Not oil. And it requires very, very little. Just a thin film.
80% of the resistance to seating was friction between the primer and pocket sidewall.

 

[Rich Coyle]

Perhaps the primers will look like you are firing a higher pressure load than you really are.

 

[Pdvdh]

Yeah, that could be with a full pressure load. I think the primers will seat easier in future loadings, since I tend to run pretty healthy pressure loads. So I may not need to use more wax.
Regardless, I mostly read pressure by measuring case head expansion. When the case head swells, with stiffer bolt lift, there's no longer any doubt that pressure is running high.

 

[HARPERC]

....Yeah, I hear the concern over primer contamination. I'm not worried. It's wax. Not oil. And it requires very, very little. Just a thin film............

I wouldn't have thought of that. Thanks!

How/what are you using to seat primers?

 

[rcoody]

wonder if they will deprime as easily. keep us posted.

 

[g0rd0]

another good idea to put in my storage locker.

 

[Pdvdh]

How/what are you using to seat primers?

I use a K&M hand held priming unit. They're heavy duty. No bending handles, parts, or pieces.