Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only .375 H&H Hornady Brass Problems

Anyone have these problems? I never did.

I decided to prime some virgin Hornady brass I bought. The primers would not go in all the way until I applied so much force with the Lee priming tool that I thought I might break it.

But thank goodness I only primed a few. Next, I loaded up some 300 grain Hornady Interlocks. About every other one stuck in the seating die, not in the cartridge. When this happened, I unscewed the seating die, rapped it on a metal surface to retrieve the bullet, and then seated the bullet BY HAND. Only a crimp from a Lee factory crimping die held it in the case.

270 grain TSX bullets were worse. The load I selected was supposed to be slightly compressed. Same deal except that 100% of the bullets stuck in the seating die and there was no way to seat them to the correct OAL with the die or, obviously, by hand.

I have never had this problem with any virgin brass from any manufacturer. I'm afraid I will have to resize the brass and ream out the primer pockets before loading any more.

I always full length resize new brass before loading. Without resizing, I have found that case necks on new brass usually don't hold on to the bullet very well. Also, you may have a bit of lube built up on the seating plug thats trying to hold on to the bullets. If you don't want to remove the plug and reset it, use a paper towel rolled up and dipped in alchohol. Twist it around in the die and it'll clean it out. A primer pocket uniforming tool is always a good idea during case prep. I also use a flash hole uniforming tool on all new brass. New brass from all the manufacturers usually needs to be cleaned up, even Hornady.

Indy,
You probably know this, but I'll toss it out there just in case.
Are the primer pockets shallow or too small in diameter? If shallow then a primer pocket tool will easily deepen them, but if the dia. is undersized the pocket tools can be a pain to use for reaming them open. Different manufacturers primers vary in diameter by a half thou or more, also a slightly softer primer will push into the pocket a bit easier than a harder one. It may be possible to find a primer that will work for a few loadings until the pocket relaxes a bit. Don't remember which primers are normally the smallest but someone here or on the reloading forum should be able to tell you. IIRC one manufacturers primers were larger than normal by the thickness of the nickel plating used on the primer cup, about 1/2 thou. You might also want to try lightly beveling the primer pocket edge with an inside neck chamfer tool (very lightly just to remove any burr or bump from the manufacturing process) as that sometimes helps. I've even had success running tight pocketed cases over an RCBS military primer crimp removal tool.
I usually do a partial full length size on new brass just to be sure the necks are round and consistent. Don't forget to check case length after resizing, they can go over spec even on new brass.
During the "Obama panic" it seems like manufacturers let flaws slide that would have been caught by QC in normal times.

I have not had any such problems with the Hornady brass I used in the Rugers I built. A 375, a 416 and a 404 Ruger all on 98 Mauser actions.

If the ogive is wrong bullet will stick in a seating die..I have had to deal with this many times with lots of calibers..you can polish them out or order an new one for little of nothing. Most of the problems come from the use of monolithics that may be extremely long to start with..

As to the seating problem, sounds like a bad batch of brass to me. I wouldn't mess with it as its obviously out of specs at the base and in the primer...and sometimes you get a primer half in and half out and it will pop when you try and nock it out..thats not funny..I would holler at Hornady, they will fix it post haste I am sure..

I've got some new 270 WSM brass going back to the Manufacturer today. Same problem as you but not Hornady brass. I started to cut the pockets deeper and found limited success so I contacted the MFG and they said they would take a look at it. I normally use a Lee hand primer and I'm sure I would have broken that if I continued on this brass. I then purchased an RCBS hand primer which works nice but smashes the primers flat in order to get them flush with the case head (only with this bad brass; the RCBS unit is NICE with a sturdier feel than the Lee; it should be at 3x the price) . I even put the primer arm back on the Rock Chucker and tried that but that only crushed the primers as well. This effort was expended on about 15 pieces of brass before the lightbulb went off saying "hey dummy, you've got a brass problem". Oh yeah, I also tried two different primers, CCI 250s and WLRs. The point of all of this ramble is there is bad brass out there and there is not much you can do to fix it other than replace it.
Brian

Well I reamed out the pockets on some virgin brass with the tool I use to clean pockets and now the primers seat just fine.

As far as loading, though, I can now seat Hornady round noses and Nosler 300 grain partitions but not 270 grain TSXs. The latter seem to "rebound" a little and just cannot be seated to the right cannelure. They eventually stick in the case.

This occurs with slightly compressed loads of H4350. Repeated attempts bell the case at the shoulder slightly and the loaded round cannot be chambered.

I think the solutions are:

1. Get some more loading data and use a faster (less case filling) powder.

2. Complain to RCBS about the shape of the seating die.

Indy,

I think Atkinson has it right about the seating die. I've had to replace some and work on others with the seater in an electric drill and use emery paper.

Good luck.

Bob

www.bigbores.ca

dont think for a minute hornady will let flaws slide i made a suggestion to hornady through a personal friend and darn good bulder when i heard they would be making 404 and 426 brass that they might want to temper the brass to weatherby spec as a had had a grat deal of trouble with some wildcat based on 404 cases and the 416 which operate at much pressure this could possibly be the problem that the brass is harder than you have experienced sure might keep primer pockets from getting lose i will say this though i have not had that problenwith the hornady brass before call them they will tyell you what to do and fix the problem pronto you can bet on it

Dude, punctuation is your friend.

Yeah, I think Ray is right too. RCBS's customer service is closed on Fridays but their FAQ section on the web says that if the seating plunger makes a ring below the tip of your bullet, it's the wrong size and you can special order one, from their "Special Order Catalog," that will fit. that's probably my problem with the TSXs. It makes such a ring with 300 grain Partitions so I think that's the same problem. Naturally such a catalog is not on their web site so I'll call them Monday. I think I'll talk to them before trying the Dremel tool on it.

I also ordered a Load Book guide for the .375 H&H and should have it Monday or Tuesday. There are better ways to pick powder than trying to use the H4350 I have, and a faster powder that did not fill the case so much would help this problem. Jorge, who posts here, has recommended some H414 and Re15 loads.

+1 on Re15. You might try Ramshot Big Game as well. I have had very good luck with the 270TSX with both powders in my 375 H&H.