I have some 7 Dakota brass that is on its third firing and noticed this morning as I was prepping cases, that just a few primers were going in way to easy and would just drop out if I rapped them on the bench. I knurled the outside edge of the pocket and it may or may not work for this firing. Has anyone peined the pockets or other fixes?

I would discard those cases to avoid blown primers. Cases are cheap, eyes are priceless.

I'd be looking to find out why it is happening, as much as fixing it.

Third firing?? Sounds like you have a rather warm load there.

Yep, I would toss them out and buy new brass. Not worth getting hurt over.

One more recommendation for safety: Toss them. I'd very seriously consider reducing the load a bit.

A company called RW Hart offers a tool to salvage those primer pockets. I can't recommend the tool, but the company has an excellent reputation.

I've got 6 or 7 firings on my WSM cases and some are just now starting to loosen a hair.

Brass is cheap, a new breech is not.
I had the same on some Major 9 loads and obtained a nice case of breech erosion, i.e. pitting due to gas escaping between the primer and the primer pocket. I switched to a little softer primers (better seal when firing) and I am chunking brass with loose primer pockets. No additional breech erosion since. Do you have signs of pressure on your spent primers? Any photos?

I ahve heard of this from over powdering. Neve done it myself.

Sorry no photos. Really no signs of high pressure, no rolled edges around the pin dent or flatened primers. Bolt has not opened hard. It is not happening with the old head stamped Dakota brass in big bold print(7mm DAKOTA) I do not know who made this, just the second batch I bought, head stamped in smaller print with an A inside the D, I thought this was produced by Norma. I have 100 rounds new never fired that I will run through it now and see how this goes. I am running 76.5 grains of retumbo under a 180 grain Berger with the Federal 215 magnum match primer.

I had a similiar experience with factory federal 300 WBY Mag ammo when I first started handloading. I took the brass in and showed it to my friends down at Nosler and it was the same thing, no signs of high pressure. They had me try Federal primers as apparently they are made out more ridgid metal and don't collapse as easily as others. I was able to salvage most of the brass doing that and in fact reloaded much of it several times. Just for my own reassurance I also used primer sealant on them. I was loading full house ammo and the primers never cratered or flattened and I never had a problem with any of the ammo. If you try that and the federal primers are still loose then toss the brass.

I second that, fwiw. Federal primers will seal best with pistol calibers (where ok to use) usually working better than rifle primers. Russian rifle primers seem to be the worst.

Interesting,I usualy toss them after this happens,but I have not had that many it has happened to. I have been handloading since 1970,and a lot of rounds have crossed my bench,I am reloading 50 calibers now. Most of my stuff is close to, or full throttle,at loading,in the rifle calibers,and most handgun calibers. A slight segway to this subject,does anyone have any info on Berdan primers? I have some older cases,different calibers,and can not find any berdan primers to replace them. I know RCBS makes the tool to remove them, but no replacements that I can find,Rick.

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