pierced primers: sellier&bellot

[lpreddick]

NEED ADVICE: i bought 1000 sellier&bellot large rifle primers from sinclair when they had them. loaded three 6-.284s with a proven load safely fired with cci benchrest primers previously. first primer PIERCED with significant blowback in my face,i always wear safety glasses. enough residue was on my glasses to possibly have injured an unprotected eye!) the second was fired off face and also pierced. third pulled and fired with no powder,no piercing. gun is rem 700 action, bolt has tubb spring and firing pin and no problem with various bullets and powders. s&b primers obviously have a cup design different from cci but are they that soft? primers pierce very rarely in my experience even with HOT loads that i try to avoid. this load has been fired over 300 times safely. what to do? reduce load and probably change group size? try again,same load only 2 bad primers out of a thousand, right. use in smaller calibers? any advice appreciated. if i can see you, i can touch you.BANG,not with this primer).

 

[lpreddick]

re s&b primers pierced in my 6-.284: they are very soft! tried some in my .22-.250 proven load and they crater more than ccibrs. group size was as good as with ccis. the higher pressure in the 6-.284 was too much. seems many of our reloading components have their own niches where they perform best. if i can see you, i can touch you! BANG

 

[Winchester69]

If others experienced problems with those primers, Sinclair would know about it. You might give them a call.

 

[lpreddick]

win69: i did call sinclair and told best to reduce load by a grain. no mention of primer being somewhat soft which mine seem to be, but they work nicely in my .22-.250 fast twist pushing bergers 73 gr behind rel 17. also, diameter of s&bs seem to be a tad smaller than cci's. if i can see you, i can touch you! BANG

 

[lpreddick]

another discovery with s&b large rifle primers: their diameter is smaller than cci brs. they are loose in my .22-.250 normas that have been fired multiple times...ccis still fit snugly enough. the s&bs fit tightly in new brass so they will be used. another observation about primers: i decapped some ccis from new brass and when inserting them in fired brass, noted they were too loose! they were squeesed a bit but do fit nicely in new brass. granted, the anvil is compressed but they seat snugly and go bang. still learning.if i can see you, i can touch you.BANG!