Primer Pocket Rocket — Good Reason to Wear Safety Glasses
Our friend Grant Guess recently had a “close encounter” with a bad primer. An apparently defective primer caused part of the casehead on one of his rounds to blow out. This, in turn, allowed high pressure gas to vent through the damaged primer pocket. Take a good look, boys and girls. This is yet another very good reason to wear safety glasses. The cartridge was a 6.5-06, handloaded in necked-down Winchester-headstamp .270 Win brass. Grant reports:
“I had a blow through between the primer and the primer pocket today. The action was really smoking and I got a face full of gas. This was a reasonably light charge. Thank God for safety glasses.
I should also mention that it appears there is a 3/64 hole that is halfway between the primer and the primer pocket. Like it burned a small jet hole through both of them.”
Could this happen to you? It just might. On seeing this damaged case, one of Grant’s Facebook friends, Chris D., observed: “Search the internet, you will see a lot of these pin hole ‘in the corner’ failures. Obviously Winchester has some issues with the LR primers.”
Careful Examination Reveals Apparent Primer Defect
After this incident, Grant examined the damaged case: “I pinned the flash hole and it is not over-sized or under-sized. The primer clearly has an area where it had a defect. At [50,000 CUP], it doesn’t take much of a defect to cause issues. There was a slight bit of pucker-factor on the next shot….”
Similar Posts:
- Primer Pocket Rocket — Another Reason to Use Eye Protection
- Primer Pocket Blow-Out — Another Reason for Eye Protection
- Primer Pocket Blow-Outs Can Happen — Wear Eye Protection!
- Primer Blow-Out Danger — Yes Always Wear Eye Protection!
- Danger of Defective Primers — Primer Pocket Blow-Through
Share the post "Primer Pocket Rocket — Good Reason to Wear Safety Glasses"
What does the bolt face look like?
I`ve had the same problem with a bunch of Winchester primers..hard on the boltface..
Friend of mines Savage had the same issue with Winchester primers. Left a nasty crater in the bolt face. Seems to be somewhat frequent with these primers from my reading.
I’ve had a lot of Winchester primers do the same thing with me runt 3 boltfaces in my opinon when they changed primers to brass from nickel
I religiously wear safety glasses when reloading, shooting from a bench and shooting prairie dogs. But this story makes me think safety glasses should be part of my deer hunting gear bag as well.
Ah, yes! Blame the primer. Could it be there is a problem with the bolt face?
when a primer leaks that way………. it`s all primer fault
I had some bad Winchester WLP primers do that on my M1A and my 700 5R, I just don’t use WLP anymore.
The obvious question is “what primmer and lot number” wouldn’t you think LOL
“Ah, yes! Blame the primer. Could it be there is a problem with the bolt face?”
No. The action (and bolt) was trued and squared by one of the best gunsmiths in the business. He has machined “many” very competitive actions for me (and others) for 20+ years. This was a Rem 700 long action chambered in 6.5/06 for hunting. This particular action has had just shy of 700rds fired through it and not a hint of problem until now.
Sure got my attention. And the moral of the story is to A L W A Y S wear safety glasses.
This is caused be a seamed cup. When the primer cup was formed it created a wrinkle; hence the gas leak. This was covered long ago in either P.S. or another publication. I have one here and and can see the seam.