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.308 Lapua Brass ….Tight primer pockets!

Mario1961

Private
Minuteman
Aug 21, 2020
36
9
I had some real problems with an order of LAPUA brass in .308 . The brass was small primer pocket. It was a bitch seating the Primers. Out of a 100 only 20 sat where they were supposed to the rest seated high in the pockets. Got them to seat only after treating them like crimped military brass . And then that didn’t work on a few. I contacted LAPUA and they were not much help. They told me to use a Sinclair hand held primer . I used one and my Redding press but a considerable amount of force was necessary to seat them. Before this order I had an order of 6.5 Creedmoor small pocket with absolutely no issues seating the primers. I tried CCI and Winchester primers too see if that was the issue. Both were equally difficult to seat. I talked to a few people I know who ran into this issue. Anyone else run into this?
 
I'd use a swager and a primer pocket uniforming tool. Shouldn't have to, but...
 
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Try a different priming system and see if that helps. I always find it hard to seat primers in Lapua brass the first few firings also but they always seat.
 
New BR brass can have very tight pockets too. I use a Q tip and spray one shot on it. A quick swirl in the pocket, wait a minute, and it makes a world of difference. Usually much easier on the second firing.
 
My 308 Lapua Palma brass seats a little too easy for 1x fired Lapua brass. Kinda nervous they won't last long.