Have loaded many hundreds of CCI 400 primers in a gas gun ( not comparing apples to apples) never an issue with CCI primers.. Still buying them when available. Just looking back I opened a pack of 100 yesterday price was $ 3.99. Those were the good days.
Make sure you are loading the bullets a little past jam point to ensure the brass isn’t pushed forward too far on primer strike. This also ensures good formation of the new brass to the chamber.
I had the same problem with my new Alpha brass with CCI-400 in my .308. I took 10 of my Alpha brass to fire in order to measure their case volumes before I started any load development. I did load them the same as I've done with my Lapua brass that give me good results. Out of the 10 I had 3 pierced primers and the rest looked fine. I've never had this happen before.
This mean we don't need to bush the firing pin hole, yes?
Do you have a small firing pin or large firing pin? Remington 7 1/2 will also work better. Same cup thickness, .025" as CCI 450 while 400 has a .020" thickness cup.
I agree with everything you said in the last couple of posts but I think it might be interpreted to mean that clearance has no fault in cratering. I think we both agree that it does by allowing brass of the primer to flow, weakening the cup which will often lead to blanking primers. Otherwise, I think we're on the same page and agree, possibly on all of it but just clarifying what I think you mean is all. I'll bring up what I mentioned in a previous point as an example, where I stated that Savage bolt heads often have a little concave area around the pin and that simply making it flat but no bushing or other fitment changes stops the cratering as well. The concave area I'm referring to is quite a bit bigger than the fp tip diameter but that flow or stretch weakens and slightly thins the cup around the fp strike, promoting craters and blanking.
Remove the firing and measure. .062" is small. I had the same issues on my Dasher back in early 90's. I had the bolt bushed on my Remington 700 action and all my troubles went away including the flyers. Actually my troubles really went away when I started shooting a 6X47 Lapua, LOL
Is there scuffing on side of the firing pin? On my Rem 700 the part of the FP assembly that sticks out of the back of the shroud when cocked shows a lot of scuffing due to rubbing. It hasn't been a problem, but I know a competitive shooter would fix it.
No, it looks good.
Cant comment on the savage issue. But I have eliminated cratering by reducing pin size while also increasing clearance by a huge amount. So no I do not think that clearance plays a role. Even when you have a lot like .010" thats only .005" per side and the cup just is not so elastic that it will flow into such a small gap. The pin itself has to be pushed back to shear the cup.
I'll go back and re-read your posts when I can but what stops the fp from getting pushed back again? Spring pressure and what else? Thanks
Energy, which is fall, mass, and spring. Thats how deep the initial dent is. Diameter is the surface area the pressure can push back on.
Right...with ya on that. Not sure this applies to what you're saying but this isn't hydraulics though. If I hit a nail on the pointy end or the head with the same energy, I believe the same energy gets applied. Not psi but force.
I had three Savages done by Carlsbad and he only had to take a small cut on one to clean it up.
