I want to thank the members for sharing their experiences here. It has given me different routes to pursue to address the issue. I'm happy to find that my understanding of how primers act when fired on-point, but it is always good to have that understanding confirmed...plus the explanations were excellent for future readers of this thread.
I purposely posted this issue in two sub-forums, each slightly modified for specific focus, to solicit input from both ammo and mechanical expertise. It was very interesting that there really isn't that much overlap.
Points made in the other thread, which didn't come up here, were the possibility of bullet jump impacting the chamber throats and forcing the case backwards and powder fouling getting under the ejector star.
I intend to followup by trying the primer only cases, checking the crimp on his ammo, and checking for drag marks on the recoil shield face