Primer goes off while Primming

[53caddy]

Has this ever happened to anyone? Was using remington small rifle primers with .223 brass on a RCBS rock chucker. It scared the poop out of me.

[Raoul]

Yep. Noisy. I was vacuuming the floor once and sucked up one I dropped. POW!

Had to clean myself after that one. :rofl:

Edited February 4, 2013 by Raoul

[Jonnin]

excessive force.  Now if you can remember how hard you were pushing, try to push less hard than that from now on.

 

 

Useless comment aside, really, primers should only take a gentle push to go in.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Jonnin

[vujade]

how much damage does it cause to the equipment?   to self?

 

I'm a chicken and don't use my Dillon's primer - I hand primer each one so that I can control the force. 

[Guest Fruit jar]

I had one to go off when I was a kid. My uncle said, this is a hobby not a production job.

 

If you're pressing, you're ok. It's when you start jamming.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Fruit jar

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I've never had a primer go off. Lurking internet threads, occasionally happens on dillon presses. Dillon fixes em fer free. The primer tube is in a "barrel" and they go off straight up into the ceiling. Don't recall reading of people being injured except for soiled pants. That is one reason I keep all the primers except what's in the primer tube, closed up in a drawer 10 feet away, and all the powder except whats in the powder measure in a closed cabinet 20 feet away. Wonder if anyone ever had a primer tube go up, and didn't have the lid on the powder measure? A hot primer bouncing off the ceiling down into a full powder measure would ruin one's day.

 

Guess any machine that could crush a primer could set one off. But lately I don't use the dillon primer mechanism, not really because of safety, but I can seat primers better with an RCBS hand primer. Less wastage because of high primers or sideways primers mashed up in the primer pocket. Doesn't happen real often on the dillon, but its annoying when it does. Hand-priming I can check every case for high primers and such while priming, and that leaves one less thing to inspect for after the ammo comes out of the progressive press. Just have to remove the de-prime pin from the size die to run the dillon with pre-primed cases.

[53caddy]

how much damage does it cause to the equipment?   to self?
 
I'm a chicken and don't use my Dillon's primer - I hand primer each one so that I can control the force. 

Non to equipment. To self ears just ring for a minute

[leroy]

53:_____________

I've had 'em go off a time or two usin a single stage press and priming arm.  As others have said; "..."too much pressure.  Ya crushed the primer and set it off...".  The problem is that it's hard to "feel" sometimes when the primer seats.  Iv'e fixed this little problem by usin a lee hand primer.  Ya can "feel" the primer seat and get just the "right amount of pressure" to seat the primer like it should  be.  I load lots of ammo; but i hand prime all the rifle stuff and almost all the pistol stuff.  I'll occasionally prime with my dillon progressive; but most of the time i hand prime everything.

 

Hope this makes ya feel a bit better.  You aint the only reloader to ever do this.

 

leroy

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I must be lucky. I have crammed the heck out of them and not a one has gone off, with an old Lyman Tmag press, and the Hornady LNL.

If I have to cram, nowadays, I just throw the PMC, or other crap case that got through, away.

 

I'm too old for that crap. :D

[RED333]

I am with 6.8, I have jamed the in sideways with the hand primer and it did not go off.

I dont care for the hand primer, I have yet to to work it and not have it pointing at my face.

So I just use the press, works well.

[53caddy]

53:_____________

I've had 'em go off a time or two usin a single stage press and priming arm.  As others have said; "..."too much pressure.  Ya crushed the primer and set it off...".  The problem is that it's hard to "feel" sometimes when the primer seats.  Iv'e fixed this little problem by usin a lee hand primer.  Ya can "feel" the primer seat and get just the "right amount of pressure" to seat the primer like it should  be.  I load lots of ammo; but i hand prime all the rifle stuff and almost all the pistol stuff.  I'll occasionally prime with my dillon progressive; but most of the time i hand prime everything.
 
Hope this makes ya feel a bit better.  You aint the only reloader to ever do this.
 
leroy

I have the rcbs hand primer just trying to get the holders. But getting dies, bullets, powders, and primers money runs out pretty quickly.

[Static_USMC]

Knock on wood, 1000s of rounds in single stage, dillon 550, 650 and super 1050.  1050 has crushed the heck out of some of them, but no bang.

[173rdABN]

I had one go off in my rock chucker as well about 4 years ago. also rem 7 1/2 doing .223 funny enough. I SLAM some primers in my .223 with my dillon 550B. I mean like slam, not love tap. never had another one go off sense the rock chucker. scared me. but wasnt a big deal. really not that bad. and didnt hurt anything. my friend has a Lee progressive, and the primer feeder is known to set all the primers off if one goes off. he said he had about 9 go off in a row. and read stories of all 100 going off. now that would scare the shit out of me. but one... nah. no biggy. 

Edited February 5, 2013 by 173rdABN

[I_Like_Pie]

Ya have to be careful with the Dillon presses and 45 acp these days.  You pick up your range stuff thinking you have recovered yours, but pick up some of the ones made for small pistol primers (what were they thinking by doing this)

 

Try slamming a large primer in a small 45 pocket...a pop is bound to happen.

 

Always wear goggles is the rule

[Guest Lester Weevils]

The RCBS hand primer has a little "gate" in the mechanism that at least in theory would prevent a primer from setting off all its siblings in the primer tray. It is pretty easy to right-handed hold the hand primer pointing away from one's head and body in use. But I wear safety glasses for all the operations.

 

After reading about rare bangs on progressive presses, I started wearing electronic muffs and full face shield operating the progressive press, when using the primer mechanism. It must seem "safer" to me not priming on the press, because then I usually only wear safety glasses. Internet reports say that a stack of primers going off is kinda loud, and if experiencing a shower of hot primers, maybe the eyes are not the only thing one would want to protect. Maybe I look like a big chicken wearing electronic muffs and face shield in that situation, but I already have the equipment and its not uncomfortable to wear, except sometimes if its a little chilly in the room the face shield eventually wants to fog up.

 

The dillon mechanism, its kinda hard to figure how an entire primer tube could go off if a primer got crushed under the priming anvil, as that primer is well-isolated from the ones stacked in the tube, but there are occasional reports of the whole tube going off. Maybe it somehow manages to occasionally crush one back inside the mechanism near the stack? Dunno.

Edited February 5, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[bikertrash2001]

Ya know Lester, A face shield isn't a bad idea...I may do that myself.

[Lumber_Jack]

This is why it's important to wear eye protection when priming. You could easily loose your eyesight

[Jonnin]

I worry about it and am careful.  Its not the primer.   Its the 200 grains or so of powder sitting a foot over it in my powder dispenser that I worry about.  I have not heard of anyone managing to blow one of those but I am not going to try for the first to do so....

[Dave Shooter]

Ya have to be careful with the Dillon presses and 45 acp these days.  You pick up your range stuff thinking you have recovered yours, but pick up some of the ones made for small pistol primers (what were they thinking by doing this)

 

Try slamming a large primer in a small 45 pocket...a pop is bound to happen.

 

Always wear goggles is the rule

I can personally attest to this with a 1050. 

Also set off a small pistol magnum primer years ago using a Lee Loader.

[MarkInNashville]

A Hornady phone rep told me that it takes 300 pounds of force to seat a primer. I have put one in side-ways and had one hook and degenerate when seating in a press and neither one popped (PTL!). Bottom line is A) you need to expect things to happen B ) work hard to keep bad things from happening and C) WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!

 

 

Late thought: if bad things do happen, keep an extra pair of underwear handy (but tell people it is to wipe up the mess - OF THE PRIMERS)!

Edited February 9, 2013 by MarkInNashville

[Guest tnpaul]

I don't know how many thousands I have primed with a RCBS hand primer never had one to go off. Maybe I have been lucky.