I pulled a Homer on new Lapua Palma Brass

[willbas]

I got new Lapua Palma brass for my new rifle. I was having about every 5th round not fire re-cock the bolt and boom. I had gone from small primers to large and back to small on my 21st century hand primer tool when I went back to the small I added 3 more click(may have been more need to write thing down). I then loaded up 160 rounds. I went to match now all my round do not go boom. Get back and start to brake apart my round I pop out one of misfired primers an measure it. It is .12 thick new ones are .13 and all primers depth are .15 deep. I check primer pocket depth all are ok. I then reset the primer tool and prime 50 cases and set the primer depth to .006 and then check them and sure enough every 5th one is .003/.004 deep putt hem back in the primer tool and repress them again and check and now they are at .006 just very tight primer pockets DOUGH. Live and learn make a change and make sure to double check.

 

[jsthntn247]

I've noticed that Lapua Palma brass is headspaced very short, mine were .006 shorter than standard Lapua. If you are using hard primers and jumping bullets you will get the issue your are seeing. After the first firing and you minimally bump shoulders there is no issue.

 

[21shooter]

Hi willbas, Your primer pockets are .150 deep?? How are U checking
the depth? Thats at least .020 to deep. please check ....John

 

[willbas]

Hi willbas, Your primer pockets are .150 deep?? How are U checking
the depth? Thats at least .020 to deep. please check ....John

I meant primer depth was .015 the pocket depth are .137 I think my old and new brass primer pockets are the same may be .001/.002 difference. I am checking with the rod end of calipers your primer tool works great it was an operator head space problem

 

[skiutah02]

I think you may not be the only one. When load testing the 200.20x in a new barrel and new Palma brass last month, I had 4 out of 17 fail to fire. Tried multiple times. At first, thought trigger had just locked me out. However, definite firing pin strike. I had NEVER had a FTF in 15000 handloaded rounds, so I was caught off guard.

I disassembled the rounds, put in a new primer being sure to crush it in hard and all four rounds fired on first try.

When I loaded up 67 for a match last week, I made sure to do a hard crush. Nevertheless I had 5 of them also fail to fire. Kinda killed my mojo during the match......

Luckily brought the 17 used for load development loaded just in case.....

I had guessed that it was some combo of primer pocket and HS, but the 500 other pieces of brass from same lot worked fine (in two other rifles with 185 Jugg).

Ave. diff of new case to fired case is 0.005 but I did not think that too large a difference to see this effect.

Drew

 

[Ned Ludd]

Drew,
Is that what happened the other week at ENGC? Been meaning to call and ask you. When you mentioned it afterwards I was mistakenly thinking it was still the dropped bolt issue. So what you and Bill are referring to is primers not getting seated fully down into the pocket (i.e. not enough crush)? Am I understanding this correctly? When the firing pin strikes, is it that the primers do not actually fire, or they fire but the powder doesn't ignite? I haven't ever seen this issue with my Palma brass loads, but would like to understand it in case I ever do. I use the old RCBS table mounted priming tool and I really stand on it when seating primers, so hopefully it won't be an issue.

 

[skiutah02]

Drew,
Is that what happened the other week at ENGC? Been meaning to call and ask you. When you mentioned it afterwards I was mistakenly thinking it was still the dropped bolt issue. So what you and Bill are referring to is primers not getting seated fully down into the pocket (i.e. not enough crush)? Am I understanding this correctly? When the firing pin strikes, is it that the primers do not actually fire, or they fire but the powder doesn't ignite? I haven't ever seen this issue with my Palma brass loads, but would like to understand it in case I ever do. I use the old RCBS table mounted priming tool and I really stand on it when seating primers, so hopefully it won't be an issue.

Yep that was what was happening at engc. I was actually using Lightning with a new barrel on her in 308 a 1:10 so the trigger issue was not in play. It does seem that it has to do with primer seating but not sure if HS was a contributing factor. Primers not firing at all and as mentioned, never has been an issue before. Once brass is 1x fired,gtg.

 

[Ned Ludd]

Thanks for the update, Drew. I will continue seating primers with my "crowbar" and hope that never happens .

 

[rmist]

I've had a fail to fire with a good primer strike on new Palma brass. Once home the case length was very short. Base to shoulder was almost .020" shorter than the rest of them. Firing pin just pushed the case forward in chamber. Loaded it long next time to jam and it went boom !!

 

[Dans40X]

Check &/or cut the primer pockets to depth instead of assuming!

I've never had an issue with Rem URBR brass sized/necked to 243,6.5-08,260,7mm-08,308 or 7.62x51.

I don't drink the Lapua KoolAide....though!

 

[spclark]

I've never had an issue with Rem URBR brass sized/necked to 243,6.5-08,260,7mm-08,308 or 7.62x51.

I don't drink the Lapua KoolAide....though!

Then you're the only person I know who was around at the time AND smart enough to buy up a lifetime supply of it when it was plentiful!

The rest of us have to be content with Lapua's products, at least until maybe other producers get savvy to the benefit of having more brass around their primer pockets.

I've pretty much settled on using Palma brass for Palma loads, for forming up 6XC (work but worth it) and a 7mm wildcat dubbed 284INCH (a 7-08 on steroids) I tied a National Record with late last June @ 1,000 yards: 200-15x shooting iron sights & a sling.

 

[jsthntn247]

It's the headspace that's the issue. It's hitting the primers and pushing the case forward in the chamber and not setting the primer off. Either jam bullets or change to soft primers on the first firing.

 

[lloydx2]

Most new Lapua brass is short of min saami.

 

[willbas]

just got done testing bullet seating depth check all 50 rounds at .006 primer depth all fired just fine.

 

[uashooter]

Then you're the only person I know who was around at the time AND smart enough to buy up a lifetime supply of it when it was plentiful!

The rest of us have to be content with Lapua's products, at least until maybe other producers get savvy to the benefit of having more brass around their primer pockets.

I've pretty much settled on using Palma brass for Palma loads, for forming up 6XC (work but worth it) and a 7mm wildcat dubbed 284INCH (a 7-08 on steroids) I tied a National Record with late last June @ 1,000 yards: 200-15x shooting iron sights & a sling.

If possible, may I ask for the 6xc from Palma process via PM or another thread(don't want to hijack this one)