How to fix an enlarged primer pocket?

R

rolf

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Is there anyone who have heard/seen or perhaps even own a tool that`s made to restore an enlarged primer pocket?
I saw this on a website, which one I`ve already forgotten:eek:, and thought it was a pretty good idea.
If you have any contact info to the firm that makes these I would be very grateful.

//Rolf
 
There are some

I bought one from Harts but the whole thing is made from soft steel and it mushroomed and distorted to the point where it is unusable now ( I had a bunch of loose pockets). The design of the tool is fine if only the maker had hardned the tool and anvil the case sits on. When brass will mushroom steel something wong!

The last time this subject came up here someone mentioned a die they had made to restore pockets but I don't recall if there was a picture shown of it. Twould be nice if the person who made that die would offer them for sale. After I go to all the trouble of making brass it's a shame to chuck it.
 
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The enlarged primer pocket is only ONE of the symptoms of the disease. Just because you MIGHT make the primer hole smaller doesn't mean you have repaired all of the damage created on that piece of brass and it sure won't cure the cause of the symptom.

I think that taking severely damaged bass and making the primer pocket smaller is a flawed concept.

Ted
 
The only way to "fix it" is to re-swage the casehead. There is a man making a colleted swaging tool that does work, maybe he'll chime in. There is no commercially available tool IME. I've tried three, including the one mentioned, and they all suck. Trying to swage using a conventional die will not work and will cause you to stick a case and ruin the die and you need to swage clear to the extractor rim anyways..... and beating the case out of the die after swaging with an arbor press will convex the casehead.

The long-term answer is to make new brass, back off on the loads.

al
 
I will agree

alinwa said:
The only way to "fix it" is to re-swage the casehead. There is a man making a colleted swaging tool that does work, maybe he'll chime in. There is no commercially available tool IME. I've tried three, including the one mentioned, and they all suck. Trying to swage using a conventional die will not work and will cause you to stick a case and ruin the die and you need to swage clear to the extractor rim anyways..... and beating the case out of the die after swaging with an arbor press will convex the casehead.

The long-term answer is to make new brass, back off on the loads.

al
Click to expand...

With Al to a point. Make NEW brass. DON'T bother trying to save loose pockets. But,.........if the rifle shoots bugholes w/ HOT loads, AND there are no soft loads that work, SHOOT HOT loads! and plan on making a lot of brass.

David
 
rolf said:
Is there anyone who have heard/seen or perhaps even own a tool that`s made to restore an enlarged primer pocket?
I saw this on a website, which one I`ve already forgotten:eek:, and thought it was a pretty good idea.
If you have any contact info to the firm that makes these I would be very grateful.

//Rolf
Click to expand...

Concave taper cut the brass base face. This will create self-tightening primer pockets every time the cartridge is fired.

Some lot #s of Lapua brass were excessively mfgd. with too much of this type of taper and competitors actually had to re-face the brass in order to prevent over tight primer pockets..........Don
 
There is one sure way to tighten primer pockets that have gotten to lose. Take your brass, dump it in the trash and then fireform more. Brass that cost you to mush, find some that are priced with what you can live with. Why bother trying to turn a pig's ear into a silk purse.:)
 
Few fixes, but I'll offer a cure

Fixing an enlarged primer pocket may or may not be feasible but you gotta look at the cause. The cure (almost every time) is a turn or two on your powder drop..usually clockwise..

That may eliminate other problems as well such as feeding and extraction.
 
Wow

I shoot in the upper load window, and by that, I mean pushing a 68 grn bullet out of a 6PPC at 3400+ from a 21 1/2 inch barrel.

I do not see loose primer pockets. I get pretty radical with the full length sizing, which allows me to get no less than 10 firings. When I retire the cases, the primer pockets are still in good shape.

If I don't have a problem, it leads me to believe that you are experiencing something above what even we call the norm..........jackie
 
I think the point

all of youse guys are missing is that some people WANT to rehabilitate the brass they have, there is nothing wrong with it other than loose primer pockets and there are some tools available that WILL make the pockets smaller. Like Jackie sez, shooting hot loads aren't necessarily the cause of loose pockets.

Years ago I purchased some Rem BR brass. Some of it had loose pockets from the beginning which haven't tightned up any as I have used them. I have only cycled them a couple of times to date however.

Awhile ago on here some scholarly person assured us that brass doesn't "flow" forward as a number of us thought. It apparently stretches and looses it's thickness at the webb by some other process other than "Flowing". That being the case, how can holes, which may have been made too big in the beginning be a problem to repair? The brass hasn't "flowed" away from them, they just got too danged big! :D
 
For the future.

Excessive pressure will, for sure, enlarge primer pockets. But, oversize chamber bases will certainly speed up the process.

Measure your chamber base diameter closely, then measure your brass at that same point. If, after full length resizing, you have over about 0.002" difference in brass diameter vs. chamber base diameter, you may get a good indicator of where your problem comes from and be able to prevent it next time..
 
The story behind the question is that I own a Rem 7 that has been rebarreled to a 6x47 Lapua. The brass is both expensive and very very hard to come by here in Sweden.
The gun`s a real shooter and particularly with hotter loads. It seems like the more I put in the more I get back.
I agree with you all when it comes to milder loads and using new brass, but it would be nice if someone could help me with the question.

//Rolf
 
I have the Hart tool and it works fine. You just have to have a consistent whack with a nylon hammer and hit it straight. Even the most uncoordinated people should have no problem after a little practice.........
 
JerrySharrett said:
Excessive pressure will, for sure, enlarge primer pockets. But, oversize chamber bases will certainly speed up the process.

Measure your chamber base diameter closely, then measure your brass at that same point. If, after full length resizing, you have over about 0.002" difference in brass diameter vs. chamber base diameter, you may get a good indicator of where your problem comes from and be able to prevent it next time..
Click to expand...


Jerry,

You might want to do some testing before you throw this nugget around as "fact."

You CANNOT contain caseheads by using a tight chamber, doesn't even make sense once you think it through.

ALL you'll get from this is a guaranteed click.

al
 
alinwa said:
Jerry,

You might want to do some testing before you throw this nugget around as "fact."

You CANNOT contain caseheads by using a tight chamber, doesn't even make sense once you think it through.

ALL you'll get from this is a guaranteed click.

al
Click to expand...
Al, contrary to your expert opinion, on a properly fitted custom action with a cone bolt you do get some case head support from the chamber base.

This guy with a Model 7 and a barrel properly fitted, could be even more support.
 
Hi All , I made a swage tool back in 1998 abouts ,because i could not keep the pockets in the Rem cases i was forced to use..I still can not shoot my case (based on a 300 WM Lap case) without using the swager on each firing.. It is not rocket science to make one ..JR .. Jeff Rogers..ps i no longer make any products to sell to other shooters , so i sent the detailed diagrams to Dave Tooley ,if anyone is to make the Die commercially it will be Dave ..as in the past please don't ask me to build you one by PMs
 

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JerrySharrett said:
Al, contrary to your expert opinion, on a properly fitted custom action with a cone bolt you do get some case head support from the chamber base.

This guy with a Model 7 and a barrel properly fitted, could be even more support.
Click to expand...

Huhh?

A coned bolt??

So I guess what you're saying is..... the casehead begins to expand but is contained by (something) and it springs back?

and a Model 7 does this even better?

How?

Doesn't work for me using BAT, Borden, Nesika, Time Precision OR Remington actions.... although my Rems are 600's, 700's and XP100's not Model 7's. Maybe mine are poorly fitted?

I suckered for this many times before I caught on...... I had actions barreled to minimum spec by some of the best. I've even got a fitted boltface on one, barely takes a stock .473 casehead......Sure never got one to contain caseheads though, even when I had to pry them out of the boltface. Turned a perfectly nice ejector rifle into a shellholder boltface style.....



al
 
primer pocket sizer

Could a person cut the bottom inch off a f/l sizeing die, slip a round steel snap ring in the extractor groove , wax it up and shove the case through the die with a harden steel bar using the loading press as a ram. RANDY
 
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Rewinder said:
Could a person cut the bottom inch off a f/l sizeing die, slip a round steel snap ring in the extractor groove , wax it up and shove the case through the die with a harden steel bar using the loading press as a ram. RANDY
Click to expand...

Randy,

You lost me with the snap ring...... why?

al
 
Primer pocket shrink

The extractor grove is part of the retaining wall of the primer pocket. The ring would compress the brass in the groove. Once I tried to modify the clamp on RCBS bullet puller to fit in the extractor groove to see if I could swage down the dia. of the groove to tighen the primer pocket. The piece broke so I abandoned the idea untill I thought of this. RANDY
 
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