S&B primer weirdness

[Buck13]

I've loaded S&B pistol primers a few times recently, and noticed two odd things:

1. The seat from easily to scarily easily. Online lore is that S&B brass has very tight primer pockets, so maybe their primers are correspondingly undersized? That issue seems less often discussed.

2. Fired rounds often have VERY flat looking primers from what should not be off-the-charts loads. Their cups start out flatter than some, to my eye, but they finish really flat.

Wondering if 2. could be caused by 1. Would slightly loose primers back out more or faster and somehow get swaged flat as the case head presses back?

 

[1KPerDay]

They feel fine to me. They are flatter/squarer at the outside edges so I wouldn't worry about them looking flat.

 

[Dudedog]

Yes, takes a bit getting used to looking at them because they start out pretty flat to begin with.
I have used a bunch in mixed 9mm range brass with no issues.

Hard to argue with the price, and Cableas only wants $20 for hazmat, less than some other places.

 

[FROGO207]

I have used them with no major problems in the past when they were available and my preferred choices were not. They are made to metric specs and might be a hair smaller than US products. Note that the Tula primers are metric and they are usually tighter in the primer pockets though. Also the price has been real good when I purchased the S&B. I noticed no difference in on target results between them and my usual CCI and WIN primers either. YMMV

 

[Buck13]

No problems with the way they work, that's for sure. And I've read plenty of smart people saying that primer-gazing is not really a reliable indication of pressure, so I should not worry too much about how they look. I just deprimed all my brass a couple of days ago, so I could go through the garbage and see if I can find any with muffin-topped edges, but I'll probably just wait to inspect the next batch.

The easy seating is a little disturbing, but I haven't noticed any soot around the primers, so I guess it's not bad enough to cause leaking. I should keep inspecting the primers just to confirm that isn't happening.

 

[Rule3]

I am not so sure that SB primer pockets being tight is " Online lore "?

I believe it is a truism

 

[FROGO207]

From what I have observed the S&B primer pockets are not beveled in any meaningful way and this causes the "regular" primers we use to go in hard. If you slightly chamfer or use a swage or primer pocket uniformer tool on the primer pockets (what I do) all hard seating goes away. I recall that even their primers were harder to seat in their brass using the older round Lee hand priming tool. I will see if I have any S&B SPP/SRP left now and measure them to compare to CCI if I do.

 

[kerreckt]

I have never had any problems using S&B primers compared to CCI or Winchester. They are all the same to me. The small variances between different brass primer pockets often explains any perceived problems with the primers. That's my take on it, anyway.

 

[Zendude]

I have never had any problems using S&B primers compared to CCI or Winchester. They are all the same to me. The small variances between different brass primer pockets often explains any perceived problems with the primers. That's my take on it, anyway.

Same here. Reloading mixed brass, some seat easily and some need a bit more pressure to seat.


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[AZAndy]

I am not so sure that SB primer pockets being tight is " Online lore "?

I believe it is a truism

Absolutely. I cull the S&B cases from stock used on a progressive. I can load them on a turret okay, but I have to fiddle with the case placement a bit.