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I've had a few issues with primers failing to seat during my latest US visit.

Wolf Large Pistol primers needing enough force that a Lee Hand Prime broke - fixed by using an RCBS Universal Hand Primer. We use them because they're $14/1,000 instead of $30 for CCI or Federal.
Missing a couple of Small Pistol primer .45 cases during the sorting process leading to a need to dismantle the hand primer in order to remove the case.
Seating primers in crimped cases need a LOT of effort if you don't remove the crimp first. More of an issue with 5.56 really, as there's far more military crimped cases to be scrounged up at the range.

dromia wrote:It is well worth investing in a Ram Prime unit

Thought i'd post another update.

I got my ram prime couple weeks back. It now takes very little effort to seat,but...i had 2 more failed primers which from a box of 100 isnt good odds.

Just a shame i have another 900 to go...

You need to make sure that they aren't seating a tad too deeply and the anvil is crushing and perforating the compound.

dromia wrote:You need to make sure that they aren't seating a tad too deeply and the anvil is crushing and perforating the compound.

They're level so not too deep. They've failed using the upstroke of press where i had to almost batter the things in and now on the downstroke using little effort with the ram prime.

Steve wrote:I got my ram prime couple weeks back. It now takes very little effort to seat,but...i had 2 more failed primers which from a box of 100 isnt good odds.

No consolation I know, but I've probably used three or four thousand PPU primers over the last few years and (touch wood) haven't yet had a failure to fire. Wonder if something untoward had happened to the box you're using?

Ok,a follow up to a follow up.

Tried both 303 and 8mm reloads last week with the PPU primers using the ram prime thingy and didnt get a single failure.Now whether this is just pure chance or if the primers were being damaged by me having to use so much force to get them into the case im not sure!