Primer pocket uniforming. Tight pocket.

[BunGhoLeo]

I've about got all my stuff to start reloading, minus the chronograph and WS2, so i'm in the process of getting the brass ready and all the initial measurements for each rifle. The once fired Winchester brass was easy enough to uniform the primer pockets; amazing the differance between depth of the pockets. The once fired Hornady brass has some really tight pockets, tight enough that the first one i did the Sinclair uniformer got stuck. I know eventually the pocket will expand from firing, but I'm wondering if at this point if it's still worth the trouble of using lub to uniform these case's. I'm also wondering if lub will even make it possible. Does anyone have the Sinclair uniformer and another brand? Is the Sinclair a little bigger?

[Rick in Oregon]

Leo: I've been using the Sinclair uniformer in a Forester tool now for a few years with complete satisfaction. I use Norma brass, WW, R-P, Lapua, Hornady, LC military, and all those pockets uniform just fine in all other calibers. However, and it's a BIG however, I've never seen such tight primer pockets in any caliber as in Hornady 204 brass, and for that reason, I got rid of all my 204 Hornady brass.

I, along with others here have experienced the same problem with Hornady 204 brass. If you don't uniform, it's no problem, but as you've already found out, it's amazing how unconsistent pocket depth is from case to case and brand to brand. I would imagine many shooters have crushed primers trying to seat them properly in Hornady 204 cases and not known why. I'll never use the stuff again, and I use ALOT of brass.

I had only 20 Hornady 204 cases to start, and every one was a real bugger to get the pocket uniformed because of stuck tooling. Once done, it shot fine, uniformed up okay after the initial hassle as the pocket had been opened up properly, but gads, what a bunch of fussing about over each one! I'm done with Hornady 204 brass, but that's just me.

[Silverfox]

BunGhoLeo--I have a Sinclair primer pocket uniformer and a K&M primer pocket uniformer and I am quite certain there is nothing wrong with your Sinclair uniformer. It is the Hornady primer pocket diameter that is too small. Back in the first week of June 2004, I purchased my Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger over in Miles City, MT. There were no casings available for reloading other than the factory Hornady ammo. Hence, I purchased 15 boxes of the 32 gr. Horndady V-Max factory ammo to get some brass for reloading. Ten of those boxes were from one lot number and the other 5 were from a different lot number. The 5 from the different lot number all had primer pockets that I could not get either of my primer pocket uniformers into. About a year later, another .204 Ruger shooter sent two boxes of once-fired Hornady brass to me, and those casings (from an entirely different lot number than the 2 lot numbers I had) had primer pockets that were too tight to get my ppkt uniformers in.

Since then, I have been using WW brass and have never found a primer pocket that was too small for my uniformers. I recently purchased 150 of the Nosler factory 2nds brass and haven't tried a uniformer in them, but they are already supposed to have been uniformed. I should try a few of them just to see if my uniformers fit in those pockets.

[Edited for spelling and grammar errors!]

[BunGhoLeo]

Here i thought the hornady brass was going to be better. Live and learn. The Hornady brass was about 0.005" shorter, but they weight around 6 grains more. In this savage my chamber is 1.868", and the shortest Winchester brass was 1.839", so they all got trimmed to 1.838". One thing is for sure, they have lots of room to grow.

About how much does brass grow lengthwise each firing? The first firing they didn't grow at all, from filling the chamber no doubt.

What's the minimum the bullet can be seated in the brass? To the lands yeilded only about 0.150" of the bullet seated in the case. I'll start with 0.010" away. This chamber seems, sloppy. The fired case's swelled allot after firing. And the primers were cratered. Yeah i posted that before...
http://www.rugerhunting.com/forum/viewt ... f=2&t=3836

After talking with Glen, and a local gunsmith, we determend that a more logical cause could be drawn up once a fire formed case was reloaded and shot, to eliminate a sloppy chamber.