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Primer seating method?

Kevin1990

So I have a rock chucker supreme, that I use to seat primers. I try and be careful, but I’ve absolutely decimated some primers trying to seat them every once in a while, and I can’t get a “feel” for them at all. It just seems very inconsistent.

How do you seat your primers? what tool do you use for the job?

I have a 6br and 30br on the way soon, and I feel like if I’m not doing everything possible to be as consistent as possible I’m my reloading, it’s not worth shooting.
 
Measure some primer pocket depths, and some primers. The difference is how deep they need to be seated below the case head seated to the bottom of the pocket, no crush. Than seat a few and measure how deep they are when the ram stops. Tell us your numbers. Only problem I have seating primers with the press is the time, my old Lee primer is fast.
 

My primer seating method

Enough folks have asked that i decided to do a post about how i seat primers these days. I like to seat my 205m primers to a .004 crush but this will work with any amount of crush. The cup on a 205m is .120 tall to i made a brass blank .120 long. I cut the pockets with my adjustable cutter to...
forum.accurateshooter.com

Primer Seating Depth?

OK, I understand, but don't quite accept the concept that a consistent primer seating depth "might" be better. What I have a problem with is, if the primer is not seated against the bottom of the pocket, how is that a good thing? I've used my Sinclair "Primer Pocket Uniformer" many times to...
forum.accurateshooter.com
 
Last edited:
Kevin1990 said:
So I have a rock chucker supreme, that I use to seat primers. I try and be careful, but I’ve absolutely decimated some primers trying to seat them every once in a while, and I can’t get a “feel” for them at all. It just seems very inconsistent.

How do you seat your primers? what tool do you use for the job?

I have a 6br and 30br on the way soon, and I feel like if I’m not doing everything possible to be as consistent as possible I’m my reloading, it’s not worth shooting.
Click to expand...
I like to seat my primers where there's ~.002 of crush. Because different brass can have very different primer pocket depths and there can be variations in the depths for any particular brans of brass, I like to uniform the pockets and use an adjustable primer seating tool (like in the pic below) to get a more consistent crush that I want. I have a Frankford Arsenal tool that's also adjustable too, but it just doesn't work as well as this one. This one is really easy on the hands due to good leverage built in. While this can be set up for a hard stop to get a particular seating depth, it can be used to seat primers by feel, like so many reloaders do for primers pockets that are not uniformed.



1694242885290.png
 
My current setup is an old Lyman Spar-T, with a Lee ram prime.

It doesn't have the leverage of the modern linkages, so the primer seating 'feel' is not lost.

The old RCBS RS has the same linkage.

Either of those presses, with the Lee or RCBS ram prime, gives you a consistent precision primer seating tool, with adjustable seating depth.
 
I gave up using RCBS primer tubes over 30 years ago. While convenient, I seemed to routinely have a primer misaligned and / or damaged. Fortunately, I never had one detonate igniting a whole tube or I wouldn't be writing this thread.

I switched to an RCBS hand primer, single primer load and began seating by feel which was a significant improvement in obtaining more consistent primer seating alignment and depth. However, the handles on these tools would begin to crack and fail after a year or so used. RCBS would replace them without any hassle, but it became a tedious cycle of replacement.

So, I took the plunge and purchased a Sinclair hand priming tool about 25 years ago and it was the best reloading tool investment I ever made. They are durable, precise, and easy to use. I like single loading and seating primers and this tool is perfect for my needs. Yes, it's slow but even though I load about thousand centerfire rifle rounds a year and about the same pistol, I load in small batches, so the tool works perfectly for me and allows me to seat primers more precisely.
 
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