CCI primer thickness

[spudgun]

I am having a issue with piercing primers with my Savage 12, F/V.

It's not all primers but maybe 30% of the time I will get a small pierce.

I do reload and my load is: 40.5 g, H4350, 140g berger bullet, CCI small rifle primers, 2715 FPS.

I have read about Savage firing pin hole in the bolt may be too large for the diameter of the firing pin and will cause a wiggle in the pin causing cratering or small pierce.

I show no signs of over pressure on the cases, cases have been trimmed to proper length.

My question is I know I can get mil spec primers which are thicker, but are the pistol primers the same thickness as the rifle?

 

[243winxb]

CCI 400 primers are ok to about 40,000 PSI. Change to Rem 7.5 and the problem will go away.

 

[Link]

I have a rifle that pierces CCI 400, it's fine with 450, BR4s, etc. Just don't use 400s.

 

[spudgun]

That was my thought too. I'll try some winchester's on my next loads.

 

[PDS]

https://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/primers-and-pressure-analysis/
This should give you something to chew on.

 

[mikeeg02]

I had a savage f class in a 6br that only shot great at higher pressures and I was using 205 primers with similar issues as you. I messed with firing pin timing and everything until I finally looked closely at the pin tip itself. Mine seemed to almost come to a point. I took the firing pin out, touched it up with some 400 grit and took the point off of it, and voila. No more pierced primers.

May not be the appropriate way, but the gun still hammers to this day.

 

[Texas10]

You can switch to BR-4's or 450's, 205M's or any other primer with a thicker cup. You can also measure your firing pin dia, and bolt head firing pin hole dia. If clearance is more than about .002 you can...

A) order several new firing pins from Savage and use the best of the group to reduce clearance.

B) have your bolt head bushed to reduce clearance.

I had a new 12FV that cratered or pierced virtually any load. Factory didn't fix it, so I replaced the firing pin and that fixed it. But it will still crater when shooting a hot load and soft cup primer.

 

[perazziguy]

I sent my Savage bolt to grimstod. He did the firing pin modification ,trued the bolt as well as help the bolt lift. Highly recommended. The supplied rounds that came with the rifle (6 br, wolf srm, 30.4 varget, Berger 105 vld .005 itl) would slightly crater primers. Now, not at all.

 

[spudgun]

I want to thank you all for your comments.

Everyone of them is a A+.

For the first time someone didn't blast me for too hot a load and blame my reloading issues instead of pointing to solutions and not to me.

The link t the primer specs was what I was looking for and the fact that some of you have the same rifle that I do and having the same issues tells me where to go next to correct it.

Again thanks to all of you guys, your great!

May you all shoot a .25 MOA at 600 yds....

 

[fyrewall]

https://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/primers-and-pressure-analysis/
This should give you something to chew on.

There you go - facts - never ever had a problem with thicker cup small rifle primers like Rem 7 1/2's, CCI 41's, CCI 450's.

 

[dcali]

+1 on “don’t use 400s”. The cups are annoyingly weak to the point where I think they need to put a disclaimer on the package that they’re unsuitable for most rifle cartridges. I’ve managed to pierce them *while decapping*.

 

[spudgun]

+1 on “don’t use 400s”. The cups are annoyingly weak to the point where I think they need to put a disclaimer on the package that they’re unsuitable for most rifle cartridges. I’ve managed to pierce them *while decapping*.

WOW, I have been using CCI products since the 70's. I guess I will save the 400's for my .223 ammo only.

 

[243winxb]

Avoid using Rem 6 1/2 rifle primers in 5.56/223 or any firearm running pressures higher then 40,000 PSI.

 

[dcali]

WOW, I have been using CCI products since the 70's. I guess I will save the 400's for my .223 ammo only.

I wouldn't. I'd stick with something like a Federal 205 if you don't want to use a magnum primer. The CCI 400s are better suited to low pressure (old) rounds. They'll work in a high pressure rifle, but as others have said, they do tend to cause problems in my experience.

 

[JMayo]

I ff with 400's.
Shoot with 450's

 

[Uncle Ed]

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRIMER - A PRIMER ON PRIMERS
http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=56422.0

"In rifle cartridges, the 6-1/2 small rifle primer should not be used in the 17 Remington, 222 Remington or the 223 Remington. The 7-1/2 BR is the proper small rifle primer for these rounds." CCI/Speer Technical Services says: "The CCI 400 primer does have a thinner cup bottom than CCI 450, #41 or BR4 primers... [with] the CCI #41 primer... there is more 'distance' between the tip of the anvil and the bottom of the cup."

CCI 400 -thin .020" cup, not recommended for AR15 use by CCI/Speer. Good for .22 Hornet, .30 Carbine. See Note 1 at the bottom of the page

NOTE 1: According to Speer/CCI Technical Services - Both the CCI 550 Small Pistol Magnum and CCI 400 Small Rifle primers are identical in size. Both primers use the same cup metal and share the same cup thickness. Both primers use the same primer compound formula and same amount of primer compound. They can be used interchangeably.