.327 Fed Mag brass

[Rodentman]

Well I have been successful with my starting loads, no issues. Except that some of the brand new Federal brass (bought in factory Federal sealed bags) had loose primer pockets, or looser than I am used to seeing and feeling. In fact one primer fell out of the case after I had charged it and seated the bullet.

I tried several brands of primers and found that Rem seemed looser, CCI and Fed were better. I even got some Wolf and they seem OK too. Maybe there was some variation in the brass...but i didn't expect that. Starline .32 H&R Mag brass is fine.

I sealed the rounds with primer sealer but I realize that isn't intended to secure them. I will fire the rounds, carefully, this weekend and see if any primers back out.

The pockets seem to measure .172 with my caliper so I figure maybe it's the angle or shape of the pocket that is an issue. I think .172 is a good measure on the pocket. Maybe I won't clean the pockets and see if some bit of residue makes them tighter, not that it would be a better seal necessarily.

Very puzzling. I loaded up another 50 from new brass and they seem tighter.....

Anyone else see a variation with Fed .327 brass, or have any suggestions on better primers? I have SR primers as well as SP but they're the same size............

[Seismic Sam]

That's very troubling. I've NEVER had a bag of new brass where the primers weren't tight, and I never let my used brass get to that point either. I'd send the entire bag back to the manufacturer with the offending case marked in red magic marker, and see if you can get two good bags in return, along with an explanation of WTF went wrong.

You didn't by any chance take John-Boy up on some of his "once fired" primer specials, did you??

[Rodentman]

These were new Federal brass. I will take it up with them when the reopen after the holidays in Jan. They are closed now, I called.

I carefully fired all my loads at the range. I checked to see if any primers had backed out any after I fired each round in the cylinder. There were no issues. There appears to be no leakage that I can discern. I will see how much resistance there is when I deprime the cases. I know the press doesn't have much feedback in that operation but I will pay detention to it.

On a more positive note, my .50AE worked great and my loads (34.0g H110 with 300g IWI bullet) performed well. Aside from some white stuff flaking off the ceiling into the tray at the firing line.....and no I didn't hit the ceiling.

[Rodentman]

Wonder if this a sign of a loose primer pocker. Not all the rounds exhibited this:

[OldmanFCSA]

STOP - DON'T SHOOT ANYMORE OF THESE LOADS!

SEVERE OVER-PRESSURE LOADS.

No wonder your primer pockets are oversize !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Be SAFE - CHECK YOUR LOADINGS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rodentman]

OK OK but my issue is that the primer pockets felt loose rignt from the start with virgin brass, new sealed bags from Federal.

So did the loose pocket cause the deformed primer? Very few (maybe 4 0r 5 showed this). I noticed no difference when firing the S&W 632.

Loads are all with 100 XTP bullet:

10.5g 2400
4.8g Titegroup
5.0 W231
12.5g H110

I know it wasn't on the H110 loads because I used Wolf (copper colored) primers on those. I can cut my loads, but they don't seem excessive. I plan on paying close attention to reloading any of this brass and if the primers feel loose, I'll knock them out and contact Federal.

I have a bunch of Starline .32 H&R Magnum and plan to load those with MO lead bullets so charges will be much lower on those.

[Seismic Sam]

Agree with Oldman completely. NEVER had a primer look like that in my life. Dead sharp corners on my 45 Super loads, yes, but an outward flare like that I have never seen before, even on the one or two bulged cases I have had in my lifetime. Something is VERY, VERY wrong!!!

Hate to ask a stupid question, and I know you would never do this, but any chance you turned to the 357 Mag page for 327 Mag data?? Those seem like pretty big powder charges for a 32!! What manual did you get these loads from?? Go play with your 50AE in the meantime!!

[crbutler]

I've seen them look like that with a safe load in 2 instances. One is excessive headspace, the other is what you have been describing- a loose primer pocket.

If I were you, I would contact Federal before I used that lot of brass again.

In any case, until you get it sorted out, I would not be using that stuff again.

[Rodentman]

I'll stick to the Starline .32 H&R mag brass for awhile. As Sam said, I can always play with the DE if I want "power." I thought the .32 Fed mag would be a fun round, and it is, but not with bad brass. I asked John boy about it since I bought it from him and he said he's had no complaints and sold a bunch of it.

The loads came from MD Smiths page and I backed off his maximum loads. I also looked at Hodgdon's site and found H110 loads at 12.2g min to 13.2g max with the 100g XTP bullter. I loaded 12.5. Maybe I'll check the calibration on my 1010 scale.

[Rip Van Winkle]

Interesting, on a hunch I did a search on 327 brass. Natchez has it listed as "Rifle" brass, that might explain why the Small Pistol primers are loose.

[url=http://www.natchezss.com/product.cfm?contentID=productDetail&brand=FA&prodID=FAP327UPB100&prodTitle=Federal%20Premium®%20Unprimed%20Brass%20Rifle%20Cartridge%20-%20.327%20Federal%20Mag.%20.327]Natchez Shooters Supply[/url]

Does the packaging say anything about being rifle brass?

[Rip Van Winkle]

Maybe not. I just checked Federal's website and they list their small pistol primers as being the same size (diameter) of their small rifle primers.

Federal Premium

[Seismic Sam]

Nope -small rifle and small pistol are the same diameter, and height. Large pistol and large rifle are also the same diameter, but the large pistol primer is shorter!! Therefore, if you were using S&W 500 brass designed for large magnum pistol primers, you have to ream out the primer pockets to go to large rifle primers, which is now the de facto standard for 500 Smith.

You can interchange small pistol and small rifle primers in stuff like 38 Supercomp brass, provided you have worked up loads using both primers BEFORE you make the swap!!

[Rip Van Winkle]

For some reason I thought small pistol primers were slightly smaller than small rifle, guess not.

Maybe the problem is Federal just makes crap brass. I know their rifle brass has a bad reputation.

[Rodentman]

I sized and primed 50 1x fired brass. Primers seated firmer. The only thing I can think of (my error) is that I put a bit of oil on the plunger of my K&M seating tool. Maybe some oil made the primers too loose, but I was very sparse with the oil and wiped the part off. I charged the cases with 3.5g of Trail Boss and await 1k lead .313 100g bullets from MO bullet. OK why load TB in the .327mag? Good point but I want to check the primer reaction, one by one this time, with a light load.

But all told, Sam is right. The .50AE is a lot more fun.

[Rodentman]

Hold on, make that 3.0 g Trail Boss. Bad memory sets in with age. I double checked this morning.