Negative to the "hat rim", just rounded normal pressure appearance. I have gone through all but 150 primers of the original brick of 1000 with no problems. The last brick and a half was CCI 400's. If you enlarge the photo you can see the split leading to the hole. Maybe I should look into annealing the primer cups.....never mind.
I must respectfully disagree with you. This was like scratching a gnats nuts in terms of difficulty. I pried out the anvil. I then used the wrench end of a 1/4-20 tap with it's wedge like taper and tapped the cup to open it. I see no evidence of gas cutting or gas blow by near the open end or along the split surfaces. I think there was a microscopic stress fracture before it got hit with 45K psi of hot flame. The split ended at the shoulder and released the the flame there. The case pocket wall supported the cup wall from spreading open.There was no evidence of leaking inside the case pocket. I seated another 205 and it was factory new tight. I rest my case....a .222 Remington one.
You should definitely anneal your primers before seating them to avoid stress cracking. Should work out great. Don't mind the POP! That's normal.
All jokes aside though, this is an unfortunate situation. I use Federal primers almost exclusively in all of my rifles. From GM210M, GM215M, GM205M, and 205 standard. I couldn't even guess how many 205s I've shot in my varmint rifles over the years. Thousands. And I have about 25 thousand more 205s on my shelf for future use. I've never had a single issue like shown in the picture. Doesn't mean I won't ever, but so far so good.
Though the pit on the bolt face will look ugly, it shouldnt effect performance in any way.
Sportsmans Warehouse was out of CCI 400's five years ago (Obozo, 1st term) but had these in stock. So recent manufacture. With so few left I will discard them to the far reaches of my bench. I have two bricks of 400's I will start using.
Nope....that is a cavity created by the hot gas jet, just like in the steel.
