My Primer went ka-boom tonight

[BeemerMark]

Sitting here at 3 in the morning because I'm in too much pain to sleep. Typing with one finger. I'm not a newbie, been reloading 20+ years. have always used Lee priming tool to seat primers. Tonight while doing 45 colt BOOM. No clue why. Brass was trimmed , pockets cleaned, primers seated with normal seating pressure. Tore / burned most of the skin off left thumb. Plastic tray fragmented like a fragmentation grenade.

So I never want to hold a priming tool in my hand again. Still want to prime and load 50 cases at a time in loading blocks. Need recommendations for new priming tool.

What about the RCBS auto bench priming tool? Not sure how it works, advice?

[MediumCore358]

Oh man! Not cool and sorry to hear that happened to you. You weren't using Federal primers were ya??

[mold maker]

Get an x-ray for shrapnel and heal fast. Sore thumbs are a bummer.
Been using a LEE priming tool forever with no problems. Have heard rumors, but this is the first, 1st hand account of such.
Sorry to hear of your experience, but need to hear the details when you can.
Was any extra pressure needed to seat this time? Which components? Was the primer possibly upside down?
There is always the possibility of a freak accident, but we need to rule out all the variables we can.
I just purchased the RCBS bench tool. Had been looking for one used for quite a while, and finally found one for cheap. RCBS supplied the 2 missing parts free. I had used one previously and liked it.

[farmerjim]

Witch lee priming tool? Auto or ergo ?

[Dan Cash]

Bonanza Co-Ax.

[opos]

I may be really old fashioned but I've tried several primer tools over the years...the old Lee round tray, the new Lee square tray, the Lee "safety prime" on the press,etc...I found the hand primers just made me uncomfortable ...even with the thousands of cases I've loaded with them...always concerned with a bunch of primers that close to one that might go off. Same with the "on press" round tray "safety prime"...

I take a primer tray (orange color...no idea who made it) and flip the primers all anvil up..I use alcohol hand scrub to get any oil off my hands and dry them well...and I simply pick up one primer at a time and load it into the on press priming arm. nothing goes in backwards or on edge...it's quick enough for me (I use a single stage press so am in no hurry) and it's the safest way I can think of to handle primers. Never had a misfire from handling primers...just don't have problems and if one goes off it goes off in the press and away from all other primers.

I think Lee said the old round tray hand primers are subject to a chain detonation (don't quote me on this) and that is why they went to the new one....I never would trust a tube type primer feed (seen too many pictures)...just one primer at a time for me.

[Eddie2002]

Man, that stinks, hope you heal well. Just wondering if you know how many primers were in the tray when it lit off? I use a single stage press for primers and have had maybe two fire off and both were my own fault with too much pressure.
Was thinking about upgrading to a hand held primer but now I guess not.

[Hardcast416taylor]

If you were using Federal primers that could explain a lot about what happened. They say to NOT use Federal primers in their priming tools.Robert

[slim1836]

I HAD A Remington 9 1/2 primer go off yesterday in a Hornady hand primer, a first for me. I was priming ZQI .308 brass casings at the time. Seems the primer pockets are tight as I had to exert more pressure than I normally do. Also, it felt like the primer had to be "2 staged" in order to seat the depth properly. Wished I had a pocket swager.

The ZQI ammo was from Wally World ($9.99 for 20 rounds) and I just wanted the brass for reloading purposes in the AR.

It was a surprise for sure.

Slim

[nicholst55]

Glad you weren't more seriously injured. I would definitely seek professional medical care.

I never load more than 20 primers at a time with the Lee (round tray) tool for just this reason. Now, I would most definitely NOT want to have 20 (or even 1) primer(s) detonate in my hand, I figure that such an event would be just marginally better than having 100 (or 99) primers detonate at once. I find myself using a ram-prime setup a lot now, frankly - one at a time, wearing safety glasses.

[HeavyMetal]

First examine the tool primer punch, Lee's have a problem with the lathe they use to make the punches and I have found several with a small firing pin type projection on them.

I saw this on my first Lee screw in type hand primer and they continue to have this issue with every tool I've bought from them.

Last tool I got was fair but I still filed the ends of both punches and then polished them with a cotton buff in my Dremel tool.

I never had a problem with any of them after I did that no matter what primers I used and I favor Federal's heavily!!

About the middle of last year I found that the hand tools just made my wrist hurt and I bought a clean, used, RCBS auto priming tool off of a member here.

This is the long low one, not the new tall machine, and it is the best primer seater I have ever used off the press.

Buy one of these and life will be better.

[BeemerMark]

Federal LP # 150 primers. Original Lee priming tool (I have two - one for SP, one for LP). Same setup & tools for over 15 years. No excessive force, brass was cleaned,trimmed and pockets cleaned with hand tool. Probably less than 20 primers in the pan and they did not all go boom. Besides the exploding primer, the d_mn plastic tray disintegrated and lacerated both hands, stomach(thru T-shirt) and a little check below safety glasses.

I think it was just a real sensitive primer, who knows why. Going with a bench mount, all metal loader. Either RCBS or Forester.

[NavyVet1959]

I've really put a lot of force on seating my primers with my Dillon 450 due to either crimped pockets or whatever and have never had a primer go off on me while seating them. I've really manged them at times and even had ones go in sideways, but I managed to crush them to fit in the primer cup. I've had ones manged to the point where one side of the primer was clearly wrinkled up on the top of the brass and when I tried to fire it just to see what would happen, it worked perfectly -- no noticeable gas blow coming out the primer hole.

Now, on a side note, I have to wonder if using the manual primer on the Dillon is really faster than just placing one primer at a time by hand in the cup. It seems that the time needed to load the primers into the primer pickup tubes, transfer them to the primer loading tubes, and operate the primer bar for each primer is not any less than it would be to just pick up the primer by hand and put it in the primer seating cup. If you have one of the automatic primers on the 550, I can see that it might be worthwhile though.

[farmerjim]

I just finished loading 1,000 5.56 Mil brass that I had trimmed and swedged and reamed the primer pockets. I used an RCBS hand priming tool to seat the primers. I crushed at least 25 of them forcing them in so that I could take the shell out of the holder. Several of these had gone in sideways. These were CCI, but I do have some Federal small rifle. I like the hand priming tool because it is fast. I guess I will start wearing leather gloves when I use the hand primer. The RCBS moves the primer up about 3/4 of an inch from the primer tray to seat it into the case, so I don't think there is much chance of multiple primer detonations. I will not use the Federal in the hand primer any more.
Thanks for pointing this out before It happens to me.
Get well soon.

[country gent]

I had a round tray Lee go on me I had used it for years. Was priming the coming seasons 308s in the living room. ( 5 gal buckets for loading blocks) Had done around 800 sitting there. When it went. I had noticed some dust build up in the tray and mechanisim just before, and it was late winter early spring in an easy chair on carpeting and flannel shirt. ( thats a good combination for static electricity). It went just shortly after I had filled it with another 100 primers, Not sure how many I ghad primer but we found around 30 that didnt detonate. The one being seated didnt detonate either. Possible static electricity and the dust. I had primer anvils embedded in my face along with a piece of the plastic cover. This dust build up is cumalitive a build up over time or use. Blowing these tools out with compressed air or washing occassionally should help stop this build up. Get to the Doctors and get checked out there is a very good chance you may have "extra" parts imbedded in you. I had 25 or so stiches 1-2 in each place. Thank goodnes I wear glasses.

[Eddie2002]

The strangest primer that I had go off unexpectedly was a berdan primer. It was in a 8mm Mauser case and I was using the punch and pry method to decap. The primer had a solid firing pin mark on it and wasn't loaded of course but still went off. Glad it was clamped in a holder in the vice, boy did it make me jump, surprised as to how loud it was. Got a couple dozen of the cases from a buddy who runs a reloading store and they were in his scrap bucket.
Still have a brick or two of berdan primers and will reload them any chance I get, just am a little more careful decapping them now.

[JWFilips]

Federal in a Lee ! Well They warn you up front...So They are covered
Sorry to hear about this ....Hope you do well in recoup

[chloe123]

Very sorry to hear about the injury. Make sure you're treated properly. I use the RCBS bench mount when I use the single stage. In hindsight, it doesn't over exert with the specific primer assemblies, but the RCBS hand unit I own seemed safe as well. I'll have to re-read your post to figure out what happened. Fwiw, glad it isn't worse.

[Shooter6br]

Had a primer go down the ram of my RCBS turret press a few years ago. Like a dumb A** .I tried to "wiggle" the ram to unstuck it and "POW". I had a bloody left thumb(the meaty part).I let it bleed over the sink. I did not want to explain the wound to the ER staff so as an R.N healed myself. As they say in plane crashes " Operator error" ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION

[joesig]

What about the RCBS auto bench priming tool? Not sure how it works, advice?

It works like a dream. RCBS includes longer tubes now. I've been using an earlier "short" tube model for 35 years and never had a problem. One quirk with them is they have to be mounted at the edge of the bench unless you want to cut and weld the handle or mount on an angled base. I don't mind the overhang but I don't prime while watching TV.

There is also the APS style that uses plastic strips. I'm not a fan having yet an extra piece of plastic to deal with. It's up to you if you think the trade-off is worthwhile and want to stock the strips (I seem to recall there was a shortage of them a while ago.) There is also a tool to load the strips.

The Forster Co-Ax Bench Priming Tool stacks the primers side to side rather than top to bottom. I don't love how the primers are loaded but do like the overall design and would take it any day over a hand priming tool. It CAN be used while watching TV. I bought one for a backup (read: used at another location or to start off a new loader.) and like having it around too.