Primer Pocket Rocket — Another Reason to Use Eye Protection
A few years back, Our friend Grant Guess 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 — Good Reason to Wear Safety Glasses
- 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 — Another Reason to Use Eye Protection"
Tags: Grant Guess, Primer Blow-Out, Primer Pocket, Winchester Primer
This is why I like fully enclosed actions, like an AR15 or even a bolt gun in a tube chassis like the MAK or Elisio…. Even the Ruger Precision Rifle is well protected.
Rem700’s are risky because the lug way promotes a rearward flow of gas toward the shooter and out the back of the bolt.
Savage makes an effort to protect the shooter with the lug way blocker on the bolt that follows the lug and remains in the lug way when the bolt is closed.
One more point is that bolt fluting can assist with depressurization of the left side lug way, especially if the flutes are running counter clockwise.
Just a little bit safer.
What brand of primer was this??
I would bet $10 that is a Remington LR primer (either 9 1/2 or 9 1/2M). I have experienced multiple Remington primer failure just like that with both the 7 1/2 and 9 1/2 primers. Considerable comment on the 9 1/2 primers from many years ago. Remington wound up refacing some bolts.
And yes, you do get a face full of gas when they fail. And now you have a divot in the bolt face.
I ran into a batch of similar primers, guessing they were made during the great primer shortage. Had 3 out of 20 rounds. Ended up restricting the primers to low pressure rounds
Check winchester’s recall
This was a Win LR primer. Have popped a bazillion of them over the years and this was the first to ever do this.
It would be helpful if you included a note that original incident happened like four years ago
Good thing the man did not neglected eyepro, of course. I do believe that it is all more reason to have a gas port on the bolt, in case the gas goes down striker channel.