Peterson 6 ARC Brass

[Old Bob]

ANybody tried 6 ARC brass from Alpha munitions?

I've loaded some but haven't shot any yet. With the first 100 cases, I found their primer pockets were really tight. I had to add a second step to my priming set-up to get the primers seated to where they weren't above flush with the with the cartridge base. No matter how deep I adjusted my RCBS bench primer seater, I couldn't get my primers seated below flush. To get them below flush (& just barely so), I had to do a second step with a RCBS ram type primer seater installed on my reloading press. Funny thing though, the Alpha brass primer pockets were .001" deeper than either Hornady, Starline or Lapua. Did the tighter pockets obdurate the primers making them deeper/longer than normal?

I had no problems seating primers in a second batch of Alpha 6mm ARC brass (different lot#). Their pockets weren't as tight but were still deeper than the other 3 brass makers. I could get primers seated below flush with my normal process.

BTW, I did order some Peterson 6 ARC brass. I wasn't going to but I was curious to see if their 6-8 weeks shipping disclaimer was for real, so I ordered a box. Turns out, that disclaimer didn't apply ... this time. Tracking info from Geissele/UPS says my brass will arrive here Monday.