Primer compound in ingot mold.. YIKES!

[trooperdan]

There is a fellow on another list that is pretty darned knowledgeable in things shooting and he is of an inquisitive bent as well. Name is Geoff Beneze and he is out west somewheres. A while back he was testing primers for something and it involved in removing the compound from a bunch of primers. The text below is from his post: Kinda interesting!

Well, I can tell a story on this one....... When doing the primer
experiments, I found that if I soaked primers in alcohol, it would
inert them as long as the compound was wet. I soaked the primers, then
tumbled them (in alcohol) to remove the compound so I do test the
shells.

Evidently, in the process, some of this alcohol carrying the primer
compound spilled on my ingot mold. You couldn't see the stuff (after it
dried) so I assumed all was ok.

When I next poured ingots, it was a REAL surprise. Evidently the
"coating" was micro thin, and only had enough for one good "POP," but
it popped progressively as the lead spread through the bottom of the
ingot mold. I was fortunate in that it only made noise, but I could
imagine what several "full" live primers would do in a lead pot!

[NVcurmudgeon]

dan, A few year ago a good friend of mine was garageless. I invited him to set up his loading equipment on my second bench, the one I used for casting. John is one of nature's noblemen. Once when I was houseless, he smuggled me, my then 14 year old son, and our two dogs into a senior citizen apartment complex for a month, so I owe him. I noticed that John was careless with primers and cautioned him about them. One evening I was smelting, taking wheelweights from a plastic bucket under the casting bench. I had just added a handful of weights to the pot and turned away when there was a loud bang. Alloy went straight up, depositing a generous coat on the ceiling about ten feet above. I guessed it was a primer because the weights had been under the bench for at least a year. I immediately emptied the bucket and carefully checked each weight. One weight had a primer lodged under its clip, ready to cause another explosion. I can't prove John's primer was the culprit, but it sure sounded like one!

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I once wanted to bring some inert Iraqi 7.62x39 cases back from Kuwait, but the trouble is, they weren't inert, and I didn't know if oil would prevent their being shown up by airport scanners. So I put one on the ring of my gas-cooker, switched on and hurriedly left the room. The bang was quite different from popping one in a firearm, without powder or bullet, and when I went in, I found the primer missing, despite the military crimp. When I found it, I found that it had a considerable flat from whatever it hit, and I'm glad it wasn't me. Could be worse. I could have started with the Soviet 14.5x114, with its imitation of a .30 calibre half-jacket.

Before my Webley revolver was confiscated by Her Majesty the Queen, whom I think was acting on bad advice, I used it to do comparative tests on different brands of primer. I just loaded them in the pistol case, sandwiched a piece of brass or copper shim in the cylinder gap, and fired. It took a considerable thickness not to actually tear. The advantage of a Webley (or break-open American revolver) is that you can still open it, and unlatch the cylinder, to remove a domed piece of shim. I trust this much more than the comparative photographs primer makers used to put in ads. Funny business, photography.

[PDshooter]

dan, A few year ago a good friend of mine was garageless. I invited him to set up his loading equipment on my second bench, the one I used for casting. John is one of nature's noblemen. Once when I was houseless, he smuggled me, my then 14 year old son, and our two dogs into a senior citizen apartment complex for a month, so I owe him. I noticed that John was careless with primers and cautioned him about them. One evening I was smelting, taking wheelweights from a plastic bucket under the casting bench. I had just added a handful of weights to the pot and turned away when there was a loud bang. Alloy went straight up, depositing a generous coat on the ceiling about ten feet above. I guessed it was a primer because the weights had been under the bench for at least a year. I immediately emptied the bucket and carefully checked each weight. One weight had a primer lodged under its clip, ready to cause another explosion. I can't prove John's primer was the culprit, but it sure sounded like one!



I did the same thing! but I was standing wright in front of my casting pot! when it went "BANG" scared the $hit out of me! :mad: