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Thread: POW! primer in casting pot!

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy
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    POW! primer in casting pot!

    I had just loaded my allready hot pot with sprues and floor sweepings, turned away to place my mould on a stove to keep warm when POW!,my right ear rang a minute after I pulled my fingernails out of the ceiling and my heart stopped racing.I thought for a minute what it could have been and figured it must have been a stray primer that was swept up with the lead splashes and dribbles from the floor. I fluxed and cleaned the pot and sure enough,a prmer with no dent floated to the top of the melt. I have to thank Jesus it didn't get under the molten lead and spray me as I was only about 3 feet away from it when it popped. A reminder to myself I can't be to careful.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master in Heaven's Range 257 Shooter's Avatar
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    Glad that you did not get hurt. It really pays to double and even tripple check what you are putting in the pot.
    In God WE Trust!
    NRA Life Member
    "I'll keep my guns, my money and my freedom, you can keep the change!"

  3. #3
    Boolit Master on Heaven's Range
    Bill*'s Avatar
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    So, when are you going out to buy the lottery ticket?
    "HMMMM.........It wasn't spos'ta do THAT!"

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill* View Post
    So, when are you going out to buy the lottery ticket?
    No sense now, with all the luck used up, wont even find a dime on the street...

    Glad it didnt turn out worse

  5. #5
    In Remembrance
    montana_charlie's Avatar
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    If I drop something on the floor that I want to keep, I will look for it and pick it up.
    But, I can't imagine sweeping the floor, then emptying the dustpan into a casting pot.

    Of course, your floor may be a lot cleaner than mine...
    CM
    Retired...TWICE. Now just raisin' cows and livin' on borrowed time.

  6. #6
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    lwknight's Avatar
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    I hate when that happend. It makes a circle of sparkley stuff on the ceiling. And walls. And me.
    Sent from my PC with a keyboard and camera on it with internet too.
    Melting Stuff is FUN!
    Shooting stuff is even funner

    L W Knight

  7. #7
    Boolit Master wistlepig1's Avatar
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    Glade you were not hurt! You were LUCKY

  8. #8
    Boolit Buddy
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    Glad you dodged that bullet.
    Odd, because I was just thinking about this possibility today. I picked up a box that I had been tossing culled bullets into and started to take it to the furnace, when I looked in and saw a (spent) primer. I don't know how it got in that box from across the garage, but it was, and that showed me you never know what can get in there.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master

    Johnch's Avatar
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    I guess before you started casting , you had to change your shorts

    Just glad you are OK

    John
    Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
    And I carry a LOADED Hell Cat

  10. #10
    Boolit Buddy
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    I cull boolits as I size and lube at the same bench where I reload.I keep a can for rejects on the floor and toss culls in as I go. It looks like a primer found its way in the can or I swept it up with the lead off the floor. Anyway I am going to move the cull can to the top of the bench and empty it after every sizing session to eliminate that possibility.And yep,it was almost time for some new shorts!

  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master



    cbrick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by montana_charlie View Post
    If I drop something on the floor that I want to keep, I will look for it and pick it up. But, I can't imagine sweeping the floor, then emptying the dustpan into a casting pot. CM
    No kidding!

    I get an occasional sprue dropped on the floor but what could there be on the floor that would need to be swept up and then dumped into the lead pot. Other than primers anyway . . .

    Glad you weren't hurt, keep things tidy.

    Rick
    "The people never give up their freedom . . . Except under some delusion." Edmund Burke

    "Let us remember that if we suffer tamely a lawless attack on our liberty, we encourage it." Samuel Adams

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  12. #12
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    Just wait 'till you throw one of your "dummy" .45 acp rounds (you know, the kind that accumulate from checking COAL and setting the seating die with unprimed brass) in the pot because you're too lazy to pull the boolit and it turns out it's not a dummy, it's actually a cull from the progressive that didn't get a primer, but DID get powder! I did that a few months back, actually put a handfull of rejects and dummies on top of the half-pot of alloy before turning it on (I DID know better than throw the dummies into molten lead!) and my ears are STILL ringing from the explosion. Never have gotten a ladder and extracted the brass shell fragments from the blades of my overhead ceiling fan. Ya'll be careful

    Gear

  13. #13
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    A few years back I dumped some cull boolits from my bench in the bsmt into my pot in the garage. I had just hit the garage door on my way out when I heard a boom and a lead splash occurred. I put a primed nickle 38 case in with them. Being carefull requires a lot of vigilance.
    [The Montana Gianni] Front sight and squeeze

  14. #14
    Boolit Master
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    Never dumped a primer in the melt(yet). My casting is in a shed out back, reloading in the basement. I have blown primers loading and it does make you think. Glad you OK.

  15. #15
    In Remembrance


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    That`s why I cast out in the barn and reload in the house. Anything that goes into the melt pot is identified before it gets remelted. I thank the stars I`ve never had your experience with a primer and melt pot, thank goodness you didn`t get burned.Robert

  16. #16
    Boolit Master
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    Crack....ting...ting...ting!

    I was smelting down a batch of range lead ( 60 pound plumbers pot) and just happened to look out my front window (old food service building with exhaust hoods) and saw the nieghbor kids pull up in a pickup and start to unload a deer, so I strolled over to the window for a better look, just as I got to the window....CRACK and the tinging started. Almost at my feet was a 380 case. The HP was still in the pot when I looked. The primer was also blown out of the case.

    Needless to say, I check the range lead I smelt a lot better than I used to!

  17. #17
    Boolit Grand Master Harter66's Avatar
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    I'm glad I'm not the only 1 to pop a range scrap round I got a dud 22 in the pot that wasn't very duddy. I too had stepped away just long enough to be clear. It made me more carefull about that.
    In the time of darkest defeat,our victory may be nearest. Wm. McKinley.

    I was young and stupid then I'm older now. Me 1992 .

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  18. #18
    Boolit Master klcarroll's Avatar
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    I too have had an unexplained "Pop-in-the-Pot"!!

    Just one more testimony to the fact that eye/face protection and proper clothing are MANDITORY when casting!! …….It can happen to you!!

    Kent
    KLC


    “.....Nuttier than a squirrel turd.” - An assertion by a fellow forum member

  19. #19
    Boolit Master


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    Been there, done that too!

  20. #20
    Boolit Grand Master







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    Guess thats why I load in the basement and cast in the garage. Good thoughtful post however as a reminder to remember.
    1Shirt!
    "Common Sense Is An Uncommon Virtue" Ben Franklin

    "Ve got too soon old and too late smart" Pa.Dutch Saying

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check