Primer mishap

[1Shirt]

Until yesterday, and after over 50 years of reloading, I had never had a mishap with a primer. I normally prime all my empties with a lee hand tool, watching TV, upstairs and away from my loading bench. Last night I was changing the small expander to the large one in my lee expander die and dropped the large one accidently on the floor (concrete) in the loading room.

[smilie=b: Bang, flash, burn mark on the floor, and me a little shook. How a live primer got on the floor in my loading room I don't know, but it did. Conditions and circumstances had to be just right for the primer to be in the exact spot wher the expander fell. No injury which is the main thing, and once again, a reminder that $*** happens regardless of precautions. Can never be to careful when reloading.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[468]

No doubt a freak accident. I'm glad there were no injuries.

[Char-Gar]

Five years back I bought 200 1920s vintage Winchester primed cases (30-40). I chose to remove the spent primers with a Wilson punch and base on a wooden TV tray while watching TV. The wife looked over and asked it that was safe and I assured her I had done this many times before.

Well, we all know that is a bad practice and it caught up with me. A primer popped and set off about 7 or 8 more in the hollow portion of the Wilson base. There was a very loud bang, smoke and the base jumped off the tray. Lots of burn marks and indentations on the tray and a highly pissed redheaded woman.

Kids, lavet this kind of stuff to us professionals and don't try it at home. Professional idiots I mean.

[nicholst55]

I have a piece of 3"X3" steel about 10" long that I use as a makeshift anvil, door stop, and a few other things in my reloading/work room. Once, when I hadn't swept the floor for entirely too long I knocked it over onto - you guessed it - a primer. It definitely got my attention when that primer detonated! I swept the floor right afterwards, too...

[1Shirt]

Maybe us who have primer mishaps are just products of a different age, or are haunted or something!
1Shirt!:coffee:

[Char-Gar]

I wonder how many of us have picked up a live primer with the vacuum cleaner. Makes a very loud noise when it pops.

[Lizard333]

I wonder how many of us have picked up a live primer with the vacuum cleaner. Makes a very loud noise when it pops.

+One!! SHE WAS PISSED! She was vaccuuming and it went off and scared the heck out of her. Not very happy at all:oops:

[captaint]

I load on a single stage and prime my cases with a Sinclair tool, also in front of the TV. I'm very careful to count them when I put them in the little bowl for removal and placement in the tool. I make sure everything's even when I'm done. I can just hear the little woman when (IF) she vacuums one up and pow!!! I think of it as preventive peacekeeping. It's worked out so far.......I shouldn't have said that, I know..... Mike

[Von Gruff]

Many years ago when I started handloading my first foray was with the Lee hand dies and I was (lile many) depriming in front of the TV. Wild night outside and it just so happened that when the inevitable (?) happened and a primer went of it was about a half second before a crash of thunder right over the house. Wifle and kids were not impressed and let me know when they got themselves up of the floor. Must admit that I had scrunched down a bit in my chair when the thunder hit.

Von Gruff.

[milprileb]

Well, I found a primer on the floor just yesterday and that got me spinning long before reading this thread. Yesterday I decided I would buy that rubber half inch matting that fits together like a jig saw puzzle to put on floor around my reloading bench to keep a primer firing off if on the floor and to make my standing while reloading less dynamic on my old feet.

Of course, the primary issue is to figure how that primer got on the floor and make sure I do not replicate that again. That has me stumped but I am suspecting that Dillon 650 which has a ski ramp that primers slide down if I have to clear the shell plate. They collect on this ramp and my solution yesterday was to cut the pinky off a rubber latex glove and stick on that ramp like a condom to keep primers jumping off ramp to floor.

[7of7]

I had never popped a primer before yesterday.. Just loading on my 550, and gave a push to seat the primer, and Pop!! (small rifle primers/30 carbine cases) Still not sure exactly what caused it. I normally use CCI's, but this last bunch are Federal.. anyway, I looked everything over for what caused it, and for any possible damage.. found nothing..
Finished loading and had no other issues..

[geargnasher]

I'm told that Federal primers are a different compound than others, and much more sensitive. Richard Lee repeatedly cautions against using Federal primers in any of his automatic primer feeders except the new handheld tool. I use a lot of them, but cautiously.

Gear

[DrB]

Guys, what's the direct hazard from a single primer other than to your shorts? I've never had one go off (yet) during reloading. Do they spit the anvil when they explode with enough force to hurt you, or do they stay in one piece?

I've always been a lot more concerned with cleanliness and limiting combustibles around my bench than with making sure a live primer isn't on my floor. My biggest concern is a primer or anything lighting a flash fire that could set off a large powder keg, or make it to my powder or primer magazine. No, the powder wouldn't explode without confinement... however in a confined space like my shed I might make it out alive, but would likely be in the hospital for burns (if it was a magazine the outcome would likely be fatal, perhaps after a too long stay in a hospital intensive care burn ward).

Eventually I plan on separating my powder and primer magazines in a separate structure... Just not very practical today. For now I keep floor and bench clean of spilled powder, powder kegs in their magazine, a fire extinguisher handy, and an unobstructed straight path to the door.

[Bullwolf]

I almost hate to relate this story, but... In the interest of safety I am going to.

In a younger more foolish time, a friend of mine had pulled a pistol bullet out of a cartridge with some pliers, and emptied out all the powder. He was hitting the brass with a hammer trying to get the primer to go off. Kind of like striking a roll of caps with a rock.

He managed to peen the mouth of the case over pretty good, and it took a fair amount of hits before the primer went off. When it finally did go bang, the primer shot out of the bass, and lodged itself pretty deep into the meaty part at the base of his right thumb. He was right handed, and that was the same hand that was swinging the hammer.

I say pretty deep, because I got to go digging for it, and I eventually managed to pull it out of the back of his thumb, using a pair of needle nose pliers.

Looking back now, all I can think of is how lucky he was that it ended up in his thumb, and not an eye, or some other tender portion of the human anatomy.

It was a very stupid thing to do, but teenagers occasionally do stupid things.

The school of hard knocks can be a brutal, but effective teacher.

While I don't recommend anyone repeating this dumb stunt, it does serve as a not so gentle reminder that even pistol primers can go bang pretty darn hard.


- Bullwolf

[Jim]

The only time I ever had a primer go off was when I was decapping some 40s era WWII M1919 brass. I wasn't slamming the ram home, just easing it. Apparently one of the primers had become unstable. I put the slightest pressure on it, started the ram up and the primer went off.

The dogs wouldn't come back in the gun room the rest of the day.

[GARCIA]

Was doing some priming years ago with the old RCBS bench mounted primer seater. Apparently a sliver of metal got between the primer and the primer seater cup. When I went to seat the primer in a 41mag case the primer detonated.

Ears rung for awhile and quit for the day. Wife asked me "What was that noise?" Gave her some non committed response.

Always checking the primer seater cup when seating primers to this day!! And it's been well over 20 years since this occurred.

Tom

[Shooter6br]

Had a live primer sucked up in Hoover vac . It blew a piece off the impeller

[jmh54738]

Forty years ago, a young nephew held a shotgun primer with thumb and index finger over the muzzle of a BB gun and pulled the trigger. The primer disassembled, with the cup lodged in the flesh of his hand, to be removed by the doctor. Why did he have primers? His father, (not a blood relative to me), bought black powder and primers for a 1" waterpipe cannon. Get this.....they ignited their cannon by placing a primer in the 1/4" hole drilled into the barrel and setting it off with a nail and a hammer. Apparently, they thought that they could imitate "Uncle John", a safe reloader and owner of a 1/2 scale 6 pounder and an 80% scale Coehorn mortar. At 66 years, Uncle John, (me), has no bad incidents to report, the other two are dead.