primers for 308 palma brass?

[BP1]

What primer are you folks using with this brass,i am planning on shooting 185s and 200s.I have 205 match,cci450s,and rem.7 1/2. primers and more than likely varget powder?

 

[effendude]

BR4 since I switched to palma brass last year. They seemed a little more consistent than the 205M. A couple guys have had a ton of misfires with some BR4's this year. Mine are a few years old.

Scott

 

[spclark]

Any of the Russian variety (I have a Stash), or BR-4's, or 7-1/2's.

I bought 2000 450's last weekend, just 'cause I wanted to see if using them'd change anything in a meaningful manner.

 

[Ned Ludd]

I've been using plain Fed 205s with both .308 Palma brass and in the .223s. However, because you have 3 types, simply do a quick test with all 3 somewhere in the vicinity of your optimal charge weight and see which gives you the lowest ES/SD. Varget is a very good powder for 185s and 200s. A lot of people use it and you won't go wrong with it. H4895 will also work and will usually net you about 20-25 fps greater velocity at the sweet spot. I've been using H4895 with the 200.20Xs in a 30" barreled rifle and getting right at 2660 fps. The precision is good, but the more I shoot that load, the more I'm thinking the recoil impulse with H4895 (which is a fairly fast powder for 200 gr bullets) is more like a sharp "crack", as opposed to more of a slow "push" I'm accustomed to getting with Varget. Not a huge deal either way, just different.

 

[dogdude]

BR4 since I switched to palma brass last year. They seemed a little more consistent than the 205M. A couple guys have had a ton of misfires with some BR4's this year. Mine are a few years old.

Scott

I probably was one of the guys Barking about the BR-4's and Palma brass..the problem went away when I seated them deeper, 2 thou. was spotty, 4-5 thou. No problems!!

 

[BP1]

Thanks fellas,i will find the charge the gun likes and then switch between primers and see what happens.

 

[Pwhite11798]

Sellior and Beloit primers have proven to be as consistent and similar performance to br4 for me in the loads I shoot. Single digit rd and sd. They were on sale at cabelas for $20 for a 1000. I stocked up.

 

[BP1]

Sellior and Beloit primers have proven to be as consistent and similar performance to br4 for me in the loads I shoot. Single digit rd and sd. They were on sale at cabelas for $20 for a 1000. I stocked up.

Thanks, I have a friend that has a ton of those so will try them too.

 

[DRNewcomb]

I ran out of Federal 205Ms, so I've been using RWS small rifle primers with good results.

 

[Tempest]

Shot 2 matches and bunch of testing with CCI 450 Mag primers and last batch had bunch misfires. 90% would fire on 2nd strike. Firing pin protrusion is good. Will maybe do some testing with something else.

 

[JoeZA]

Shot 2 matches and bunch of testing with CCI 450 Mag primers and last batch had bunch misfires. 90% would fire on 2nd strike. Firing pin protrusion is good. Will maybe do some testing with something else.

I have the same issue with the recent batch of CCI 450's. Several misfires on warm days. Firing pin protrusion is also good.

 

[effendude]

I probably was one of the guys Barking about the BR-4's and Palma brass..the problem went away when I seated them deeper, 2 thou. was spotty, 4-5 thou. No problems!!

Shoot 600 yard league last night, my buddy had 6 failure to fires out of 25 rounds. His original batch of 1000 bought this spring had about 25% failure rate, but went bang when smashed on the floor so we attributed it to missing the anvil during production. He went and bought another 1000 and the failure to fires continue. I gave him some older BR4's and he had no issues. I'll have to give him a brick...
Scott

 

[savageshooter86]

I posted this a while back. CCI 450 not going off. It was close to 22% failure rate. I have only used a handful of BR4s but no issues so far

 

[Joe R]

What primer are you folks using with this brass,i am planning on shooting 185s and 200s.I have 205 match,cci450s,and rem.7 1/2. primers and more than likely varget powder?

Otis,
Obviously, you should take other people results with a grain of salt. Everyone here has a different barrel with different chambers and twist rates and that changes everything. Everyone has their own methodology and there are so many different tools to do the same thing that it is unlikely you're even using the same tools with the same skill, not to mention that the order that you do things will affect the results.

The bottom line is do your own testing. Having said that, remember that common problems have common solutions. So go to your range and talk to someone that you see shoot well and ask him about it. It will start a conversation, and who knows you may make a friend/mentor. One of those can save you thousands of dollars not to mention the frustrations of trying to re-invent the wheel.

Kindest regards,

Joe

 

[DHuffman]

I've never had a problem with several thousand 450's

 

[dcali]

I use CCI 400's without issue. Also used Fed 205M's. Can't really tell the difference.

 

[JoeZA]

Turns out my problem wasn't the CCI 450's but a new batch of brass where about 5% of the new cases have a very short headspace. Problem goes away after the second firing....

 

[spclark]

Turns out my problem wasn't the CCI 450's but a new batch of brass where about 5% of the new cases have a very short headspace. Problem goes away after the second firing....

Not at all an unusual circumstance.

New brass is typically sized to fit very short chambers, otherwise unless end users are adept at resizing new brass according to their chamber's dimensions, too-long brass won't chamber well if at all.

A useful technique for circumventing this comes from wildcatting smaller-neck cases from larger OD neck parent brass: leave a bit of the original neck OD near shoulder (if possible) to act as a 'false shoulder' upon first chambering. Problem with this is when using 308 brass for 308 you'd have to size the neck up first with an expander mandrel, in this case maybe an 8mm (0.315"), before then sizing the brass as you would normally.

Another method is soft-seating bullets into the lands but unless you make allowances for the higher pressures this practice can result in you can effectively ruin brass with the first firing if you typically load at or near maximum for your equipment and shooting disciplines.

Also not recommended for match conditions where a cease-fire called with a round in your chamber can quickly induce an "oh $#!t" comment when your charged case gets extracted leaving the bullet lodged in the lands... and powder granules everywhere in between.