Bill, I’ve used Bertram Brass in the .45-75 (altho its been years now) and the .33 Win. I use Remington Large Rifle primers and a hand primer and do not recall any issues with overly tight primers. If your primer is some of the European primers that have been on the market of late, some tend to be slightly bigger in diameter than the Remingtons and other US made primers. Do you have access to US made primers?? Tim
Bill have to agree as CCI should fit well. If you don’t have a pocket swager JUDICIOUS application of increased seating pressure likely will suffice in my experience and then after firing they should be relatively easier. My primer seater is a Hornady hand priming device so its limited to the mechanical advantages I can generate by my grip only. Tim.
Bill,
I had a bad experience with some Bertram 25-20 S.S. brass. The primers did not want to align with the pocket hole, and they were difficult (and sometimes unable to) get started. The root of the problem was that the primer pocket holes were not centered in the base of the cartridge case! Poor quality control was the real problem. Fortunately, I have been able to scrounge up (400) original 25-20 S.S. cases over the years. I do not full length size them as they are all being shot in the same Single Shor rifle.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
November 7, 2015
I haven’t bought CCI primers in awhile but in my experience they had hard cups, Winchester and Federal had the softest cups. Never had a problem with Remington primers. I’ve been using a Lee hand primer exclusively for single stage loading for most of my loading career. No experience with Bertram brass but I understand it ain’t what it used to be.
Mike
I have a lot of Bertram brass. It is not my first choice but was the only thing available. It works but is not as consistently manufactured as many of the others. The way things are going right now you better buy whatever you can find and hope someone will make some in the future.
Shell holders can be problematic also. I’ve had priming problems with both Lee and Hornady as their tolerances are much larger than RCBS and Redding. I was having a rough time with some 9mm and I measured the groove diameter of a Lee shell holder. It was .035″ larger than the rim of the case. I purchased a RCBS shell holder and my priming problems disappeared. The RCBS was .005″ larger than the rim diameter. I still use the primer tubes and press for priming, I started that way and never found a reason to switch to the hand primer. (other than being cheap)
Erin
2 Guest(s)