Tula Primer Problems?

[Westwindmike]

I bought a box of Tula Small Pistol primers a while back when I couldn't get Winchesters. Been using Winchester for 30 years or more. Decided to try out the Tula's by loading some 9mm on my Dillon 550b. On the Dillon, you prime on the upstroke after you decap/resize. The WW primers go in really smooth. The Tula seem to be ever so slightly bigger and don't want to seat fully. I was leaving a high primer on most of the cases I primed.

 

Went to the Dillon manual and they said the shellplate might be too loose. Adjusted it as tight as possible and still rotate. They still don't want to seat all the way. I tried cleaning/reaming the primer pocket with the Lyman PP tool which takes off metal till the pocket is the "right size".  Tried another 25 Tula's in these cases. Still won't seat without a LOT of force. Tried using my Lee hand primer and they go in, but flatten out when seated all the way.

 

Could the Tula primers be "taller" than the WW? Or just slightly "fatter". I have not miked the two yet to compare. Just wondering if anybody else has had this trouble too.

 

I've taken the 900 I have left and put them into the "end of the world/last resort" ammo can. I just need to get back to using WW primers exclusively.

[Garufa]

I think in general they are harder primers.  That may be the cause of your difficulty.

[Westwindmike]

I just went out and did some measurements. The diameter of the Tula that I measured was .1760", the WW was .1750" and the CCI was .1753". The CCI primers are also slightly harder to seat.

 

This was just one primer at random from each box, so the measurements could vary in the lot. But, I think I see why I'm having trouble seating them.

 

As to the height of the primers, the Tula is actually shorter than the others. Tula .1177", WW .1186" and CCI was .1187".

[Raoul]

Sorry to hear that. I hand prime and haven't had any issues. Of course brass primer pocket sizes are all over the place too.

[Guest BCR#1]

In my opinion, tula primers and ammo are bottom of the barrel trash. For me, its Winchester primers or nothing.

 

Bill

[Raoul]

In my opinion, tula primers and ammo are bottom of the barrel trash. For me, its Winchester primers or nothing.
 
Bill

I've not had a single Tula primer fail to fire, Wolf either.

[frankmako]

when primers got hard to get i went with tula and/or wolf pistol and rifle primers.  never had any problems with them with either of my dillon 550 and/or lee hand primer.  to me they are just as good as other brands. 

[Poor_Dog]

Never had a problem seating them, had some give me fits trying to get 'em out. I think that was my fault as I had tried soaking them in Simple Green instead of tumbling them. Let them sit for a few days to dry and they were super glued in place... Had to tumble the lot and they freed up just fine.

[Jamie Jackson]

I use a Dillon 550B and mostly reload 9mm.

 

I've gone through about 10,000 Wolf SPP (and Mag SPP... my preference for 9mm) with zero issues.

I just finished my 1st 1000 Tula SPP and also has zero issues with seating the primers.

 

The only time I've had any trouble seating any primers in my 550 are with S&B brass (with the red sealant ring around the primer pocket). I separate those out for a later pocket reaming...

 

I prefer Winchester or Federal...but they are like looking for unicorns these days...besides, the Wolf and Tula have been about $30.00 less per 5000 than the Federal or Winchester...but that's kind of a moot point these days. :-\

[Hershmeister]

S&B brass gives me a hard time no matter the caliber. 9mm, 380, 303, you name it

[Westwindmike]

The bad thing about these Tula's is that I have reamed all the primer pockets and they should be the correct size. The primers are just .001 to big.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I've been hand priming the last couple of years, and loading on the dillon sdb with the decap pin removed from the size die.

 

Began doing that because I was too cheap to throw away kinds of brass "known to be problematic" for priming, but even just using "easy to prime" brass brands I'd get maybe one high primer per 100 loaded, priming on the SDB. And for some reason .357 was more likely to get a high primer than with 9mm or .380.

 

So after awhile, hand priming, one only needs to clean out the primer pocket, if I already had uniformed that piece of brass. I only have to uniform brass that hasn't been reloaded yet.

 

Reaming the pockets with a primer pocket uniformer bit on all the brass helped so much. The "easy to prime" brass brands don't have to be held on the uniformer very long because you can tell its not cutting any metal and is already the correct size. Some easy to prime batches do seem to have a slightly shallow primer pocket, and it will remove some metal from the bottom of the hole. Hand priming helps avoid high primers, because I can catch it right away if a primer is high, and it is easier to feel the seating with the RCBS hand primer. But making sure the pockets are the correct depth sure helps as well. All my primers come out real consistent, just barely below the level of the back of the brass.

 

Merely uniforming the pocket didn't make S&B and PPU and military crimped USA stuff always easy to prime. I separate out those brands and use a chamfer bit to round off the entrance to the primer hole. A lot of the "easy to prime" brass, look at it with a magnifying glass and the opening is nice and rounded off, which seems to "guide a primer" down into the hole without the primer catching on the edge of the primer pocket. A lot of the hard to prime brass, even if uniformed, has a barely visible radius curve or even a sharp right-angle at the entrance to the primer pocket. Chamfering off those sharp edges helps a bunch.

 

I had got one of those primer pocket pressure reamers that is supposed to mash out military primer crimps, and maybe it works great on heavily crimped military rifle ammo, but the arbor on the one I got, will slip right in even a S&B primer pocket and barely move the edge opening of the primer pocket. So maybe I'm doing it wrong or my lee arbor is the wrong size from the factory, but it doesn't help at all for me on pistol brass. The rotary primer pocket uniformer cutters, plus optional chamfering of the tight pockets, works, and the pressure arbor doesn't do anything at all even on crimped 9mm.

 

So anyway, dunno if my uniforming would make a difference on Tula primers, but it makes priming real consistent with win, rem, and fed primers.