by Seismic Sam on Tue May 15, 2012 9:53 am
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.