What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Extend your shooting experience while reducing the cost of your ammunition!
Post Reply
LowKey
Posts: 214
Joined: 18 Feb 2016 23:31
Location: New Rawlins, WY
Has thanked: 212 times
Been thanked: 102 times

What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Post by LowKey »

If you reload ammo on a progressive press,
how many light primer strikes do you get per hundred bullets?

Most of my light strikes seem to be caused by operator error,
and most of those are caused by not putting in enough ooomph on the upstroke
of the Dillon Square Deal handle to get the primer fully seated.

I try not to blame the primers.

If your percentage of light strikes is zero, I salute you.
Ohio3Wheels
1000 Shots
1000 Shots
Posts: 1599
Joined: 31 Jul 2014 15:18
Location: Dayton Oh
Has thanked: 227 times
Been thanked: 328 times

Re: What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Post by Ohio3Wheels »

So far zero with the Dillon 650 and on the single stage I prime off the press with an RCBS bench primer and that's had zero light strike also. To be fair I also uniform most of my primer pockets for the target loads which are mostly BP 40-65 loads for the Sharps these days.

Make smoke,
Curt... makin' smoke and raising my carbon foot print one cartridge at a time Image
Archer
2000 Shots
2000 Shots
Posts: 3942
Joined: 04 Feb 2014 05:30
Location: SoCal Loco
Has thanked: 137 times
Been thanked: 610 times

Re: What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Post by Archer »

Zero on the Square Deal .44 Mag through somewhere between 800 and 1500 rounds.
Zero on stuff that has been primed off the press.

I tend to prime rifle stuff off the progressive and for precision stuff I tend to load it on the Co-Ax.
I don't have a good basis for handgun loads on the Dillon 550 yet since most of my loading of handgun stuff has taken place before I got that one up and running. I'm still shooting off stocks reloaded on single stage for 9mm and .45 ACP as well as .30-30, .308 and .30-06.

On the Dillon presses IF you are going to prime on the press you have to get used to bottoming it out on the upstroke all the way to the stop. I went real slow and checked each case for the first 50 or more on the SDB before I started to assume that the press was going to seat the primers right. I STILL tend to check each round as I'm boxing it for high primers by touch. Anything that feels/looks wonky gets examined more closely and may get pulled down and/or scrapped.
User avatar
Jaybm
500 Shots
500 Shots
Posts: 739
Joined: 09 May 2014 17:15
Location: SC
Has thanked: 118 times
Been thanked: 139 times

Re: What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Post by Jaybm »

Zero as well using the Lee press.
Although it's a progressive my practice is to seat the primers first separately
and just out of habit look to verify they are fully seated. It's very seldom I
spot one high and it requires a second push.

Jim
Gun Control Means Hitting The Target +guns
User avatar
GasGuzzler
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 2745
Joined: 02 Nov 2015 19:54
Location: Cooke County, TX
Has thanked: 310 times
Been thanked: 451 times

Re: What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Post by GasGuzzler »

I don't have a progressive but I do have a Lee Classic Turret that I very rarely use....the last time I used it I primed by hand with an old RCBS installer I use with my single stage presses. I got 4-8 high primers per 100 back when I used to use the LCT but no light strikes.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane.
techiej
Posts: 22
Joined: 08 Sep 2013 17:00
Location: WA
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Post by techiej »

0 - Hornady LNL AP; about 20k rounds/yr mix of 38, 357, 45, 9, 44 and some 308 & 30.06
Greebe
Posts: 24
Joined: 27 Apr 2016 19:40
Location: Up North
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Post by Greebe »

Zero -- I use a Dillon RL550B and have not had this problem. Just make sure you give enough pressure when seating the primer and there should be no problems. I have loaded many tens of thousands of pistol rounds on this press an have not had any problems.

Going to load another 500 .45 Colt this week when my cast lead bullets show up. Have 500 new brass this time around too which is exciting because I haven't bought that much new brass in ages. I usually reload my brass way too many times, but have never had any problems with primer pockets.
runfiverun
Founding Member
Founding Member
Posts: 274
Joined: 30 Jan 2012 23:04
Location: soda springs Idajo
Been thanked: 51 times

Re: What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Post by runfiverun »

I wouldn't say zero but I probably skip or put in more upside down than I have not seated properly.
I just finished a run of almost 10-K 9mm's and had one missed primer and one upside down.
Steve-R
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 77
Joined: 12 Jul 2015 22:27
Location: ia
Has thanked: 17 times
Been thanked: 11 times

Re: What is your percentage of light primer strikes?

Post by Steve-R »

Zero. I use a RCBS bench primer for small primers and a RCBS universal hand primer for large. Both tools are bullet proof.
Post Reply