Yesterday I had my first primer burst in many years, completely destroyed with no shards found. I load and shoot hundreds of HV rifle rounds a year.

It occurred in a .270 Win load primed with a Federal in 1X fired then trimmed brass, a load I've used many times. I fired 9 other rounds of the same load without flattened primers or any other pressure signs. The only flaw I could find in unloaded brass was a few had slightly "high" primers not fully seated in the pocket. Can this cause primer failure?

The odds of a primer disintegrating with no shards are essentially nil. I think something else has happened: most likely you blew a primer which fell out of the case during extraction/ejection. You should pull the barreled action out of the stock, remove the sheet metal, and make absolutely certain that SOB is not rattling around up where the locking lugs go when the bolt is closed. I had that happen one time and I [bleep] up the rifle. I didn't realize I'd blown the primer out of the case, it smelled smoky and I thought I'd just popped one, so I cycled the action, loaded a new shell into the chamber .. the action closed fine, the primer rolled from wherever it was hiding and dropped in behind a locking lug .. I was unable to eject the chambered shell .. busted the bolt handle off trying. You don't want to do that.

Tom

Hey Tom:

Thanks for that warning. I was shooting from a clean concrete bench, this was the only round in the rifle, but I knew something wasn't right at the shot because of the aroma, but never found a bit of the primer case. I removed the bolt and gave the face a wipe down and a good look, opened the magazine door and shook everything. I saw no primer shards anywhere, but maybe I just missed it.

This is nearly a century old gun (a Win 70 carbine, so I definitely don't want to break off the bolt handle!). But all the 100 yd shots were touching until this primer failure, which moved POI 2 inches lower.

So my question remains unanswered by any of the experts here... can a high primer cause it to blow?

Possibly a slam fire in a semi auto but I have closed the bolt on more than a few high primers in bolt actions never more than marring the face of the primer.

NO.