Question that might catch me some heat

[BIGGUNGOBOOM]

OK, so like I said this question is very debateable at the least, but here it goes.



As I sat here tonight primeing 6MM BR brass which as we know is a small rifle primer hole, I found that I had many older brass that the brass wasnt worn out but yet the primer hole is worn out and not keeping a small rifle primer in, Basically it just falls right out. Now as I was sitting there saying a few choice words, I came to the thought "what if I reemed out the Primer pocket to large rifle and then worked up the loads again starting about 10-15% below min charge. I cant seem to find any info out there of wether or not this would be considerd unsafe "what is unsafe" and I cant seem to find any one that has done it.



Would it really be that unsafe to do it, for grins and such I pulled out the large primer reemer and ran it into the brass "took a little longer than a normal trim" and then used the crimp remover for LR and put a nice bevel on the edge of the primer pocket, after making sure that it all looked smooth and clean I ran a LR primer into it and it fit great, not to deep and not sticking out. now granted that the 6MM-7MM BR brass is basically in all intesive purposes is based of the 243/308 that has been shortend, they use LR primers as we all know. so after a few mintues I now have a 6MM BR case that is ready to rock but with a LR primer in it. now comes the question, AND THIS IS STRICTLY A QUESTION AND I WILL NOT BE OFFENDED WITH YOUR COMENTS, now that the case has been made to accept LR primers, do you think that the Preasures or loads or gun would be in danger ? even if the load is down load and started from 10-15% below min ? is there anything that could possibly happen. this is mainly a question and maybe a possible answer to fellas that get worn out primer pockets yet the rest of the brass is in great shape. granted you could always order more brass at about 70.00 a 100, but what if you could prolong the brass life by adjusting the primer pocket to a different primer size. I feel that It may be ok, because there was in fact much BR brass in 308 made with small primer holes and yet the data isnt much different.



anyways I thought that I would get some thought from you fellas, and see if that it might be something to further test and see.



thanks for the input,

BIGGUNGOBOOM

 

[watercam]

Some questions just need to be asked! No idea how things will turn out but do have a thought. It would seem that the flash hole would need to be opened up as well. Sinclair's flash hole reamer would seem ideal to open/uniform the hole. Seems that a 10% reduction would be sufficient - hell, switching to Wolf primers might be sufficient according to primer tests that have been run lately. My only concern is that the reason the primer pockets opened up is pressure over X number of reloadings. I'd be checking for case head weakening overall. I have witnessed one blown up rifle (it was a Winchester - the action held, the mag. well and stock went Kablooy. Shooter cut from flying wood and knocked on his keaster but otherwise OK).

 

[BIGGUNGOBOOM]

Yea, that is all understandable , the brass was from an XP100 that had ran more on the hot side, I wasn't trying be cheap, more of a what if. I can order brass till im blue in the face or out of money. But the thought had crossed my mind about whether or not anyone had tried it. Some will question my reloading ethics. but it was more of a what, if, and can it work question. I think that the Primer flash hole is another thing, It most likely would need to be made slightly larger. granted I only have about 20 bad pieces of brass, but it was a thought that crossed my mind. Is it worth chancing blowing up a 2,500 rifle ???? NO, but I still wonder about it.

 

[Ackman]

No matter what it is with reloading, there're people whose reaction to everything is "Oh no, you're gonna blow yourself up".....wind up injured/maimed/dead/etc. Well if BR brass were available with a large primer pocket, that's what I'd buy. If you have a reamer to enlarge those primer pockets, do it.

If this is Remington brass, it doesn't take real hot loads to lose primer pockets on that stuff.

PPC brass has a small primer. But that same 7.62x39 case has a large primer. A good friend shot benchrest for many years. Back in the 80's he made his ppc brass (22 and 6mm) from PMC 7.62x39. For years he competed successfully with that large primer pocket brass and even won a few matches. He found that the difference in velocity was about 1grain.....it took about 1gr. less powder to get the same velocity as with a small primer. The other way around, that large primer was good for about an extra 150fps with the same load.

A good friend of my friend tried enlarging the primer pockets on some Rem. BR cases, to see how it would work. This was back when Rem. 7BR brass was only thing available. I don't know what was done to the flashholes, but there was a similar increase in velocity and those large primers worked fine. With the flashholes, I'd enlarge them to regular large-primer size. I wish someone made a jig/reamer setup for that specific purpose.

 

[Rust]

I suppose you'd have to back the powder charge down a bit, the large primers have more primer material and would add to the overall pressure of the load, but I don't see any other inherent issues with it provided the case head isn't ready to seperate from the hot loads that stretched out the primer pockets in the first place.

But it doesn't seem worth the effort to me unless you have a lot of spare time on your hands....

 

[jwv2001]

The RW Hart catalogue offers an tool that tightens up primer pockets. Go to: http://www.rwhart.com/html/catalog.html

Download the pdf catalog and go to pg. 17.

 

[BIGGUNGOBOOM]

Thanks JW, Ive been looking for something like that, I wonder if it works good? might have to order one and try it out.

 

[AckleymanII]

I have fired many, many thousands of rounds of 22 and 6 PPC brass made from PMC 7.62x39 brass. Accuracy with the large primer pockets is astounding, really makes you wonder.

Groups in my Panda with the large rifle primers is exactly what you would think it should be from a benchrest rifle.

Some time back, I reamed out the primer pockets on some 6 BR on Rem Brass, problem was, you still had Remington brass.

No doubt there is a nitch market for a tool to mill out a small primer pocket to a large primer pocket, Wilson's case trimming tool comes to mind.

HOpe this helps

 

[dantiff2]

Do you leave the flash hole the way it is (.065) or ream it bigger to (.080) ? ???

 

[ourway77]

I got the bright idea to buy a tool to take .243 and .308 brass down to 6BR. Now I have LR primers, brass that seems to be thicker and definitly required neck turning. So with all that I got rid of the tool, and went and bought new Lapua brass. As far as SR to LR. How would you hold the case to expand the primer size? I guess with all the problems I had trying to save a buck. You may want to do as I did buy new brass. If you do the task let us know what the pro's and con's are, and what type of additional equipment needed to complete the task. Good Luck. Lou