Issues with CCI 450 Primers

[ireload2]

Put on some safety glasses and put your own face about 6 inches from a primer and hit it with a hammer.
I guarantee that you will never do that again. I have seen radiographs of primer cups shot 2 inches up the back of a man's hand. Any part of your anatomy is at risk when a bare primer goes off.

You DO own shooting glasses don't you?? What do you do when you press your primers in??
Your face is about 6" from the bolt when you pull the trigger isn't it? Might consider taking up basket weaving.

 

[Laurie]

Years back I bought a lot of loose surplus 7.92X57mm military ammo and found a live 7.65X53mm 210gn RNSP round in it, the old Belgian / Argentine Mauser cartridge. This was an old Berdan primed commercial Kynoch deer round and I had to have it for my inert cartridge collection. Pulling the bullet and dumping the powder was easy, the issue was the Berdan primer - how to get it out or make it safe. Having previously discovered how hard it is to 'kill' primers by soaking in oil or WD40 and suchlike and not having a rifle chambered for the cartridge, I made up a simple 'chamber' and 'firing pin' using an old Lee Loader hand kit body holding the case and using the Loader's decapper rod as a firing pin. Hold the Loader + case + decapper onto the garage floor in the left hand, hit it with a hammer held in the right. What I clean forgot was that in a rifle it's the bolt that holds the primer in place in the case-head (unless a military round with crimped or staked-in primer).

Anyway, as a 'chamber' it worked - nearly all too well. There was an earsplitting crack that left my hearing affected for some minutes. The finger and thumb holding the decapping rod come 'firing pin' were blackened and slightly bruised, tingling for a while - just like when I once held a misidentified firework that exploded in my hand as a kid years before - and there was no sign of the primer that had been blasted somewhere far away, but luckily not into my face. I gained a lot of respect for the explosive power of primers that day!

 

[dttheliman]

Earlier this year , i took my fathers trusty old 3006 out and put a few rounds through it , his reloads actually , reloaded before he passed in the mid 80's - all fired no issue - primers are seriously reliable - that box of 3006 had been stored in a box in my garage for donkeys years . Check your case shoulder

 

[JohnMill]

Now having a reoccurring issue with my CCI 450 primers. Two misfires today shooting 6 Dashers that were loaded last night. Tried to re-fire both rounds multiply times but they would not fire. When home, pulled both bullets from the misfires and both had a full powder charge of Varget. Only have had one other CCI 450 primer misfire. Tried to post some pictures be they must be too big of a file. Have 5000 450's left all lot # doesn't give you a lot of confidence in a tournament.

Is it possible that you oversize or jump the bullets? Either situation allows thefiring pin to push the cartridge forward rather than delivering the blow to a stationary cartridge.

 

[hunter686]

I have had issues with 450's not igniting. Around 1% I'd say. The head spacing sounds like thay could be the issue with me. As I'v found I'v been bumping back my shoulders too much. It's a brand new rig so I'm in the process of doing all these measurements out.

 

[Raythemanroe]

99.9999999999999% of the time it is not a primer issue..


Ray

 

[ebb]

Back in the 70s I hit a shot load for a ram set gun while using a conventional hammer to finish driving a pin. Still carry a piece of brass in my finger. Glasses or not don't use "the hammer test".

 

[ebb]

The hammer test may be relevant if you normally fire your rifle with a hammer. But firing the primed case in another rifle of the same caliber may give you some useful info.

 

[Barlow]

I have probably used a couple thousand of them the last few years and have had 0 issues. Barlow

 

[6MMsteve]

don't primers have like 20.000 cup or something like that

 

[chuckshooter]

you can always push the primmer out and re seat it in another case (one that has fired successfully) and chamber and test. of course be careful when decapping a live primmer. I have fired 10'000 cci450's this year alone varmint shooing. no issues.3 years back I inherited about 5000 old primmers from my dad and did have several of those not go bang, but those were from the fifties and I expected that. in general I have to agree with Ray 99.99% it's not the primmer

 

[chuckshooter]

don't primers have like 20.000 cup or something like that

most std primmer = .020 thickness cup , mag primmer is .025 cup
for exact, google and you will find a post with the numbers

 

[Laurie]

A bunch of our guys in northern England have just had CCI-450 problems too in 308 Palma brass. It seems that the cups of a recently imported batch are shallow and not all priming tools get them fully seated into the pocket with that desired bit of pressure on the anvil. A friend had some FTFs with them (the new lot) seated as usual with his RCBS hand tool. When he tried again with a Sinclair BR type priming tool, the one that has a single primer hand-seated, no magazine, they were OK, but seated 0.006" deeper than the RCBS seated new lot examples or against cartridges primed with older 450 lots that had worked OK.

 

[hunter686]

A bunch of our guys in northern England have just had CCI-450 problems too in 308 Palma brass. It seems that the cups of a recently imported batch are shallow and not all priming tools get them fully seated into the pocket with that desired bit of pressure on the anvil. A friend had some FTFs with them (the new lot) seated as usual with his RCBS hand tool. When he tried again with a Sinclair BR type priming tool, the one that has a single primer hand-seated, no magazine, they were OK, but seated 0.006" deeper than the RCBS seated new lot examples or against cartridges primed with older 450 lots that had worked OK.

I'm north of the border to you Lauie and also using the RCBS hand primer with .308 palma brass. All seems a bit convenient to be a coincidence. I'd be curious to compare batch numbers to see if they correlate.

 

[alphapygmy]

I use about 1500 450's a year. Had 2 CCI 450 fails this year. Checked primer depth, pin protrusion, etc. When I checked both the duds I found debris down inside the hole in the center of the anvil.
Maybe coincidence, maybe not...

 

[KenOath]

I personally thought that bad primers didn’t exist, heard of and seen others having miss fires with cci 450 but believed it was a head space issue. I’ve fired 5500 in the last 3 years. My opinion changed last week when I had 22 that didn’t ignite out of 200, I took the remaining 800 back to my smith and he generously gave me a new box of 1000, I’m into the new box 150 now and no misfires. Headspace was tight and only bump shoulders 1-2thou at most. Mysterious!!!!!

Cheers Rushty

 

[hunter686]

I personally thought that bad primers didn’t exist, heard of and seen others having miss fires with cci 450 but believed it was a head space issue. I’ve fired 5500 in the last 3 years. My opinion changed last week when I had 22 that didn’t ignite out of 200, I took the remaining 800 back to my smith and he generously gave me a new box of 1000, I’m into the new box 150 now and no misfires. Headspace was tight and only bump shoulders 1-2thou at most. Mysterious!!!!!

Cheers Rushty

You have cleary never seen man on fire...

 

[KenOath]

You have cleary never seen man on fire...

No..I don’t believe I have?

 

[Rsadams]

you can always push the primmer out and re seat it in another case (one that has fired successfully) and chamber and test. of course be careful when decapping a live primmer. I have fired 10'000 cci450's this year alone varmint shooing. no issues.3 years back I inherited about 5000 old primmers from my dad and did have several of those not go bang, but those were from the fifties and I expected that. in general I have to agree with Ray 99.99% it's not the primmer

Wow.. the fifties.. really is a testament to how long primers stay good...

 

[Zero333]

Every time I had a primer fail to fire it was because the firing pin spring was tired and needed a boost.