Anyone had a Primer go off in their press?

[Snowgun]

I was reading Enos for some reloading black magic, and happened on a thread where they were discussing how they have had primers go off on them while reloading.

It seemed that they viewed this as one of those "not if, but WHEN" scenarios.

I wear eye protection when I reload, but this one has got me kinda jumpy now. Has anyone had this happen to them, or heard of it? Is this due to some sort of equipment or technique malfunction? Should I be wearing hearing protection and a face shield?

[JoeH]

This is my normal getup.




Joe

[gyrfalcon]

I've had them go off a number of different ways, but never in the press thankfully. They're surprisingly resistant to being crushed but I wouldn't push your luck. A blast shield or tube is recommended with any quantity of primers in a press.

[engnerdan]

I have loaded something in the area of 12,000 rounds in the last year and never had one go off. Now if you put the wrong parts on your press maybe. On fella (not on this forum any more) was loading with small primers and accidentally left the large primer tube on his press. A primer jammed up in the tube and upon trying to remove the jammed primer he successfully lit that primer off. Which in turn lit off the whole tube of primers. It was not until after the police stopped by that order was restored in his garage.

[45Badger]

I've loaded somewhere north of 20K rounds and never had a boom. I have mangled dozens (if not hundreds) of primers, usually by having them tip on edge or not having crimps completely removed from military brass.

[TH3180]

Yep once. Turned out they had some out of spec parts on a small run of presses.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22276

[Snowgun]

So you guys are saying we are all due?

[OldmanFCSA]

I've loaded somewhere north of 20K rounds and never had a boom. I have mangled dozens (if not hundreds) of primers, usually by having them tip on edge or not having crimps completely removed from military brass.

Same here ! But over 55,000 and counting.

But I did set one off trying to de-prime a case in a press and accidentally hit it too hard with de-capping pin from inside out.
Use care when doing this type of operation, slowly raise ram onto de-capping pin and slowly press out live primer, then throw it away, do not try to re-use it. I was de-priming some factory-primed 1995 TZZ brass so it could be worked to Match Brass conditions. Normally shooting the primer is preferred, but in the city, setting off a 50BMG primer sounds like a lesser-caliber rifle shot. As it was, it was quite loud in my reloading room, and had wifey kind of jumpy for a while, upstairs.

[Rem700]

Never while reloading, The wife has had a couple go off in the vacumn cleaner while vacumning the reloading room
Now that I think of it she hasnt been in the reloading room for yrs to clean.

[Seismic Sam]

I gave up on those #@^#^$%@#$%^&*((*&^%$#$%^&*(!!!!! primer tubes about 30 years ago, shortly after the Lee Autoprime came out. Took about 25 years to wear out the first one, and #2 is barely broken in. From a safety perspective, the only real worry you have is primers in a tube, where if the bottom one goes, you will have a chain raction up to the top. I have heard these incidents are quite spectacular. God help you if that happens with a tube of Federal 215's (Large Magnum rifle primers, capable of igniting 100 grain charges of H1000 and such...) With a Lee autoprime, it's doubtful if you can generate enough force and a quick strike to make anything pop, and the primers are sitting next to each other rather than on top of each other. Unless you have one of those pricey Dillon primer tube feeders, the time you spend loading the ^^%$^*$*&*&& primer tube is more than simply pouring the primers in the Autoprime and hand priming the cases one at a time. Plus with the autoprime, you can feel when the primer pockets are getting loose and the case needs to be shot and then thrown away. I may have had one primer pop on me over 30 years ago, but I really can't remember.

So, I don't think it's inevitable that you will have a primer go on you, but the real danger is if you have 50 primers in a tube. If it's 50 Federal 215's, THEN your safety concern is much more serious, because if a tube of those chain detonate it could be nasty, and you might get hurt.

[crbutler]

For an answer, yes, once.

It was when I was in a hurry and forced things. Made a hell of a ruckus and scared the you know what out of the dog.

I knew what happened when I did it and why. I just didn't apply common sense while doing things, and my ears rang more than usual for a week.

Could have been worse- I was loading my open gun ammo at the time and had a full tube of small rifle primers in there (a little over 100) but only the one went off. High end gear (Dillon 1050) has plenty of shielding. Now I do try and remember to put the safety glasses on...

Having said that, it isn't inevitable if you pay attention.

[Snowgun]

For an answer, yes, once.

It was when I was in a hurry and forced things. Made a hell of a ruckus and scared the you know what out of the dog.

I knew what happened when I did it and why. I just didn't apply common sense while doing things, and my ears rang more than usual for a week.

Could have been worse- I was loading my open gun ammo at the time and had a full tube of small rifle primers in there (a little over 100) but only the one went off. High end gear (Dillon 1050) has plenty of shielding. Now I do try and remember to put the safety glasses on...

Having said that, it isn't inevitable if you pay attention.

If you don't mind, how did it happen?

[crbutler]

Occasionally the primer sticks to the decapping pin and gets reset into the case. You feel that the primer is not seating.

What I did was mentally say wow this one is not going in we... BANG. I have crushed way more primers than I want to count by doing the same thing. After the one went, I back things up and fix the problem now. Its called hard earned experience...

[mmcnx2]

I've been reloading for about 30 years. Can't begin to give you a round count but well in excess of 100,000 and have never had a primer go off. I've used progressive with the feed tubes, single stages with tube feeds and the manual primer tools.

[Snowgun]

I get sketched out when I have to force the primers in those damn s&b cases....