I finally hit the end of my CCI 400 stash. With the limited availabilty of most components, I had to buy an "off" brand primer, Federal. I've never been a Federal fan, and I hate changing developed loads' components mid stream. Now I am reminded of why. I set aside all my crimped primer brass so it can be swaged with my RCBS swager combo, which has always worked in conjunction with CCI primers. I swaged all the cases today and began TRYING to seat the Federal primers, NO GO damnit!!!! Seems Federal primers have a rough edge at the top of the cup, and possibly a slightly larger OD than CCI. I tried the countersink technique as well as my deburring tool which always worked before I had the swager, no luck, pocket still to tight. Now I'm stuck with the ultimate last ditch effort, using a utility knife and trimming the crimp, slowly.

Had I known this when I started sizing, trimming, cleaning pockets, I would've just stuck with .223 brass with no crimped pockets.


So be warned. If you like Mil Spec brass, stay away from cheap ass Federal primers.

Thanks for the heads up!

I've been using CCI as well but just stumbled upon 10,000 feds so now ive got them instead.

Beggers cant be choosers at this point. ill take what i can get.

Have fun with 10k. I almost threw 1k out the window.

Ha! hopefully i dont have problems using them in Win brass and if i do im sure i can find someone who will buy them from me instead of tossing em out the window!

Is it WCC brass? If so, be ready to get pissed. I have FC, LC,PMC, and WCC. NO GO on any of em, with PMC being especially tight.

nah just regular winchester brass. think i should be fine there.

Yep, they worked fine in standard 223 non Mil Spec, or non crimped primer pocket brass.

Thanks for the heads up though, cause i would have tried to stick em in LC cases had you not warned me.

Don't throw em out the window I will try them (better than no primers Ican't find anything here)
I have about 200 Fed primers and I've been able to get them in crimped LC WCC and other MIL brass
I has to swage them all and then use my pocket reamer and work the pocket a little more and then
they go ok when I use my single stage press (LEE Challenger) O type press..
But they aren't as good as CCI

I've had some great luck with the magtech primers going in lc and fiocchi perfectly. I picked up the last 3k of sr they had in anything. I hope they shoot good.

This post has been edited by brettstaman: March 6th 2009 12:50 AM

Well I guess that pretty much explains why some press manufacturers that use the press punch to set the primers recommend against them.

I have some but haven't tried them yet. I figured it would have to be new brass or reamed and sized and you just confirmed it.

Tj

BTW, I was just reading, they're 0.003"-0.004" larger in diameter.

Primer Dimensions

Wish I had known that before buying, but it was Fed or CCI Mil primers. I don't need Mil primers for Pdog huntin. Why be a PITA, Fed seems to live just a fuzz outside the box on everything. I'll be ok as I have plenty of non spec brass, but none have even been tumbled yet. Live and learn I guess.

I've loaded a bunch in my LC from Top Brass but it was already reamed. I had a couple that were too tight but have an RCBS Trim Mate with a small pocket uniformer attachment that cleared it right up. Worth a try

How does the pocket uniformer work, more importantly how much is it? I only bought 1k to get through this season til I could restock on CCI. I don't really want or need another tool, as the RCBS swager die works great, just not with Fed primers. I have a pretty good hoard of 223 brass, so I'll just have to start sorting, and tumbling, and sizing, and trimming, you get the picture. I will get by. Justthought others here would like a heads up before they buy large quantities of the primers if they are using Mil Spec brass with crimped pockets.
As a side note, the LC was almost swaged enough to accept the Fed primers, but the FC,WCC, and UMC were way to tight. I could put the HeMan squeeze on my Lee priming tool and get em into LC, but it took way more pressure than I am comfortable with.

This post has been edited by pdog1517: March 6th 2009 4:02 AM

They should work good in some of my brass thats starting to get loose primer pockets though

If you already have the Trim Mate the small rifle uniformer runs about $22 from Midway. I bought it and the large pistol uniformer both when I bought my Trim Mate from them because I load .45 ACP too and wanted precision rounds on each. They work great, kind of like a reamer w/o taking too much out. RCBS also has a miltary crimp remover for $16.49 that runs off the Trim Mate but since I already have the RCBS swaging die I just wanted to make sure my primer pockets were exact. Can't do all these by hand because of arthritis in my wrist so the Trim Mate is probably the best investment I've made. It comes with primer pocket brushes, chamferer and deburring tools which are very nice too. I really recommend this tool.

I've had the same problem with the Federal Small Rifle primers. The only ones the shop had in stock... I bought 1k "once fired" 223 brass from Pistol Gear.com, dirty and not decapped. Military crimp mixed in with pressed. Had a heck of a time on my Hornady single stage. One I got the RCBS Mil. crimp remover on the a drill clamped in the vise, deburring tool to ream, and RCBS small pocket uniformer, the primers pressed in nicely. What a chore! Wont buy Fed. primers again if I can help it.

I bought the Lyman kit which about the same thing. It has a head to center the top of the brass on their crank trimmer, and two bits. The first one removes the crimp and leaves a slight champher and the second one forms the pocket hole. The first one is just like the hand crimp remover tool so I can use that on a slow drill. The other one though, it really needs a stop to keep you from going too deep so I leave it on the Lyman Trimmer.

Still its a pain.

Its enough so, I'm seriously considering the RCBS power station. Saw a video on Utube where a guy used one of the stations with a modified Lee hand trimmer and does all of his brass operations on the power station, trim, deburr in/out, pocket ream, pocket form, and clean the pocket.

Tj

Well I bought a thousand of the Federals about 2 weeks ago. Wish I would have known, but then again their was nothing else in stock. I have been using Remington 7 1/2's. I'll let ya'll know how the Federal's work out!

This post has been edited by chevy8000: March 6th 2009 9:41 PM

The Feds will work, albeit a bit more brass prep than normal. I'm supposed to get in 5k of the Reminton BR small rifle primers next week and hope they seat easily. They were all I could find.