Federal Primers

[gasboffer]

I've been using a Lee Classic Turret to load .45 ACP. Just purchased 1000 Federal L.P. primers. The package for each 100 primers was designed by an evil genius who has a diabolical hatred for reloaders. The Lee press has of course a round primer feed tray, and the Fed. primers come in a square box. To open the box you have to pry two cut-out tabs on the back with a knife or small screwdriver. I don't know if the boxes are of a size that will dump into the square trays on some of the new primer feeders, but they certainly will not dump into the round tray without dumping about 10 out on the bench. I have talked to God about this, but so far he hasn't answered me. Anyone have a magic solution for getting the primers out of the square box and into the round tray?

[Lonestar22]

I agree the Federal primer packaging is a pain. That said I use the Lee hand held priming tool [round], which I believe is the same configuration as the press mounted tray. After unlocking the Federal box [grin], I slide the primer filled tray out of the box until I see 50 primers, and dump 50 onto the Lee priming tray.
You can try putting the 100 count box in the priming tray but I find not all primers make it onto the tray. Place a small towel on your bench to catch the strays, and hand place these primers on the tray. I use a towel as the primers don't bounce as they will against your bench. Lee now makes a square hand priming tool, and may make the same for your press.
Hope this is of some help.

[sundog]

Yup, just did a couple hundred Fed LP primers last night. I have to agree with your comments about the new style packaging. If I want to dump all 100 I have a restaurant 'bill and tip tray' with a corner very carefully broke off. Unload them into the tray and then shake them into the primer tray through the broken corner of the tip tray. Works okay for my use. So much for lawyer proofing the packaging!

[Dale53]

I open half the box and dump them, then I turn the box around and dump the rest. It works pretty dern good. I seldom drop a single primer...

Dale53

[eniku40]

Square piece of stiff cardboard the size of the primer box.
Round hole in it the size of the plastic tray.

Cover 'n tip. It still leaves some primers in the box, but at least you won't be hunting for them on the floor.

The square trays are supposed to be the same size as the primer box, but as I only have a round one, I can't say for sure.

[gefiltephish]

I use the square RCBS primer flipper tray. Gather the primers in the center and lay the Lee over top, flip over. Nuttin' to it.

[JohnFM]

I solved the problem of dealing with those Federal boxes.
I don't buy Federal anymore!

[Tatume]

All primer packages are very poorly designed. Federal is the worst. Remington may be the best, but is still poor. Don't trust any of them. They will flex and spill primers when you least expect it. I agree with the "evil genius" comment.

[sirgknight]

I guess I learned how to dump primers from a square box into a round tray by using Wolf primers. It's fairly simple: dump one row at a time into the center of the tray until all 100 primers are on the tray; lightly shuffle the tray to get the primers all turned upside down. Piece-of-cake!!!

[Rocky Raab]

Just noticed your sig box, sirgknight. Howdy, fellow FAC!

On topic: I have no really good way to handle that pernicious packaging other than careful placement and dropping only a few rows at a time. But the cardboard sleeve with a hole is intriguing.

[cbrick]

Yep, Federal primer AND gas check boxes are a PITA. Why? Because they are so large that they take up so much room in my primer cabinet that I get about 1/3 fewer boxes than the CCI or Winchester boxes.

Fed 210's are some of the best I've tested in several rifle loads though so a solution to the primer flip tray was needed and I found that with the Dillon brass primer tray simply because it's large enough to place the Fed box into it and flip them. I'm not a big Dillon fan, I've only got a few pieces of Dillon tools but the brass tray is really great.

Rick

[kelbro]

Federal LP primers are the only ones that hang up in my Dillon primer tubes. Usually just one out of 100 but still a royal pain.

I also use the square RCBS tray (new style) to dump them.

Once I'm through with this 1K, back to WLP for me.

[contender1]

I use a lot of Federals, and I also use a Dillon brass flip tray. No problems with Federals to me. I think their design is to help prevent continous combustion in the event of a hard strike against one of them.

A side note about the tip tray, or the cardboard box. Go to Harbor Freight tools, and they sell a plastic "Parts sorting tray" that would be excellent for that as well. About $3-$4. I own 3 of them for different areas of the house for sorting things. A neat idea and well worth the money.

[imashooter2]

If you want to lower DA pull on a S&W revolver much under 7 pounds, you gotta go with Federal. I buy 'em 5K at a pop.

Mine fit easily into one of the big Dillon flip trays and I've heard about having to pry the tabs out... Personally, I don't see it. The trays slide out just as easy as any other brand for me.

[Beau Cassidy]

I those little flaps on the Federal primer package was the only thing I had to worry about life would be good. I don't let them bother me. But then again, for storage reasons, I usually don't buy a whole lot of Federal primers.

[Lizard333]

+1 on the Dillon BRASS tray. They aren't selling the brass anymore. The new ones don't work as well as the old ones. I stopped buying federal as well because of the packing. Just takes too much space.

Maybe it's my imagination but it seems like they are a tighter fit. Loading them in an S&B cartridge and it seems like I'm loading a primer in a military case without the primer pocket swaged. They suck.

[cajun shooter]

I use the same set up that you do and I do it the same as others have posted.
First you just push the tab in the direction you want to slide the tray out. I then only push the tray out to expose about 40 primers at a time. Doing it this way is easy and causes no problems.
I've also used the large metal primer tray from Dillon ant it also works.
Federal has decided that they will make the primer box so darn primer explosion proof that no wolf lawyer will come Knocking.
I've used all brands of primers in my some 40 years of loading and Federal give me the best performance with any gun that has lighter springs.
Just 4 years ago I made a good buy on some Winchester Lp and started using them. I was having one or two out of 100 fail to fire and that was too much. I went back to Federal .

[tomf52]

I don't like the Federal primer packaging either but I just dump them into the palm of one hand and then dump them into the Lee primer tray. Not really a problem. If you still need a solution, make a funnel from a one liter soda bottle to pour them onto the tray.

[sisiphunter]

Like others said. Only dump 50 then flip the primer box around for the other 50. and in my dillon 650 they are the ones that get stuck in the primer tubes. and they r too big to store easily bit they do work well. So i ise them quite a bit.

[Moondawg]

Don't know if it is true or not, but I was told the reason for Federal's large square primer box is because it meets NATO standards for shipping. Seems sometime back in the dark ages, Federal had a contract with one or more NATO countries to provide them with primers. It was cheaper for Federal to just go with one size packaging instead of having seperate size packages for military and civilian componants.

[geargnasher]

I suspect that primer packaging has to pass SOME sort of "drop test" for DOT or other shipping safety standards, and I understand that Federal primers have to have the thicker boxes and set the primers on edge to make their more sensitive primers safe enough to ship. Maybe I'm wrong and each primer manufacturer makes up their own mind about packaging, but I do know that they're packaged to prevent chain-fire, at least to a certain extent.

As far as getting the Federal primers out of their confounded boxes and into the old Autoprime tray, Lee posts warnings all over the place, and finally discontinued the old Autoprime for the purpose of keeping us from using Federal primers in any of their automatic feeding equipment. Like most of you, I wear my safety gear and ignore this warning, but if you have trouble transferring the primers, remembe Lee doesn't want you doing that anyway.

My solution is simple: Pop the cardboard tabs, slide the tray halfway out, dump them into my hand, pour them into the tray. Repeat with the other half IF using the Safety prime on the turret presses, otherwise only 50 at a time because they jam in the other systems more easily.

Gear

[ku4hx]

Yeah, I got about 10,000 and they're a pain. Kind of like brushing and flossing your teeth: a royal PITA but gotta do it.

I just lay one half of my brass 8" (or so) Dillon primer flippers on top of an open tray of primers then invert it and lift the little holder tray off. Back and forth motion on the bench gets them off their edges, I punch the ones with anvil down up into a pickup tube, put the matching half of the flipper into place, flip the flipper over and punch up the rest. Easy as pie.

[cbrick]

Ok, here's the rumor that I heard about Federal primer packaging, the DOT had mandated new shipping container (packaging) rules and Federal jumped in early and came up with the packaging they have now. The DOT then scrapped the new regulations, Federal left the new packaging in place and no one else had yet done so, they left their packaging as it was.

True? Dunno, could be. At the least it's as good a story as any.

Rick

[thehouseproduct]

I have talked to God about this, but so far he hasn't answered me.
Cracked me up....:mrgreen:

[thegreatdane]

I guess I learned how to dump primers from a square box into a round tray by using Wolf primers. It's fairly simple: dump one row at a time into the center of the tray until all 100 primers are on the tray; lightly shuffle the tray to get the primers all turned upside down. Piece-of-cake!!![/B]

This is a great method.

[prs]

I changed brands. It was not too difficult to dump them into a clean lid from a tin box and then pour them onto the round trays to the shaken upright, but with other brands I don't have to do that and I am lazy.

prs

[Sonnypie]

Jeeze Man!
Brings back the thought of a fellow who actually had a lot of trouble getting the cap back on a glue bottle on the woodworking forum. :groner:

Lookie, How about something like a big funnel? Think canning funnel (http://www.bing.com/shopping/fox-run-canning-funnel/p/43750CC81C4CAACD5006?q=canning+funnels&lpq=canning%20funnels&FORM=HURE).
Mount it to the edge of the bench, or something accessible on the bench like a shelf edge.
As far as opening the boxes, well, try to avoid chewing gum and walking at the same time. ;)
:lol:

[Bullet Caster]

I use CCI large pistol and small pistol primers and they are in a square box and my Lee ram prime has a round bin. I've found your suggestions about dumping only 50 at a time most intriguing. I've done it with the towel method so I don't loose too many primers on the floor.

I also use CCI large rifle primers and they came in the square box as well. So I don't think it's just a Federal thing as CCI come packaged in square containers as well. Who would have ever thought of putting a square peg in a round hole. Hopefully Lee will change their design for press priming to square bins. I have never understood this. BC

[cbrick]

I use CCI large pistol and small pistol primers and they are in a square box and, I also use CCI large rifle primers and they came in the square box as well. So I don't think it's just a Federal thing as CCI come packaged in square containers as well. BC


:mrgreen: It's not that it's a square box . . . They all come in square boxes, I've never seen primers that didn't. :mrgreen:

It's the SIZE of the box, Federal boxes are much larger and they don't fit in most primer flip trays except the brass one from Dillon. :coffeecom

Rick

[dnotarianni]

It's the SIZE of the box, Federal boxes are much larger and they don't fit in most primer flip trays except the brass one from Dillon. :coffeecom

Rick

Now I understand this federal problem and why people have problems with them. I couldn't understand until the comment about the Dillon flip tray as that is all I ever had so the large box has never bothered me

Dave

[fourarmed]

I just keep an old breakfast food bowl on my bench to dump them in, then dump them from that to the autoprime tray.

[geargnasher]

I just keep an old breakfast food bowl on my bench to dump them in, then dump them from that to the autoprime tray.

How can something so simple and readily available possibly work so well? :kidding: :kidding:

Gear

[thegreatdane]

Here's mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac4wBIwMZBg

created because of this thread.

[gefiltephish]

:mrgreen: It's not that it's a square box . . . They all come in square boxes, I've never seen primers that didn't. :mrgreen:

It's the SIZE of the box, Federal boxes are much larger and they don't fit in most primer flip trays except the brass one from Dillon. :coffeecom

Rick

As I mentioned in a post farther up, the square RCBS flip tray is large enough and works just fine for me. For that matter, just use a larger piece of card board, flip over, fold pizza style and pour it where ever you want. I mostly use the tray for filling primer tubes

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_83024f10d047b64e7.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=3432)

[cbrick]

Well gefiltephish, perhaps if you read post #28, the post I was replying to you'll comprehend my reply in post #29.


I also use CCI large rifle primers and they came in the square box as well. So I don't think it's just a Federal thing as CCI come packaged in square containers as well.


It's not that it's a square box . . . They all come in square boxes, I've never seen primers that didn't.

It's the SIZE of the box, Federal boxes are much larger and they don't fit in most primer flip trays except the brass one from Dillon. Rick

Rick

[dromia]

I just keep an old breakfast food bowl on my bench to dump them in, then dump them from that to the autoprime tray.

That is what I do only I use a pre packed food tray.

You want to try PPU primer packaging, the tray won't slide out of the cardboard cover and needs to be cut off, now that is a real recipe for spilt primers, I do it in a see through polythene bag.

[Lloyd Smale]

i bought a second big dillon tray and drilled a 1/2 hole in it by the edge. I dump them in the try and tip it toward the hole and hold it over the smaller trys on my primer filling tools. Dont drop a single one like that. that said i do wish theyd go to a smaller box like cci uses.

[gefiltephish]

Well gefiltephish, perhaps if you read post #28, the post I was replying to you'll comprehend my reply in post #29.
Rick

No need to get snooty. Perhaps you failed to comprehend my post #6. I knew exactly what you were referring to, which was a good point. Or has something gone completely over my head (which wouldn't be the first time)? My response was merely to address your claim as indicated in red below. The photo is self explanatory. Perhaps someone other than yourself may find the info of value since numerous posts in this thread point to the apparently no longer available big Dillon brass tray. I'm only pointing out that there is an alternative large square flip tray. Sheesh! No need to start a :takinWiz: match over such a simple thing.


Originally Posted by cbrick;1533214 POST #29...
It's the SIZE of the box, Federal boxes are much larger and they don't fit in most primer flip trays except the brass one from Dillon. Rick

[Mooseman]

Good Lord...this is the first time Ive seen a pissing match over the size of primers boxes vs a primer flip tray. Havent you heard of Paper plates ??? Useful for more than just Targets.
Some of y'all crack this old geezer up sometimes. It reminds me of what my daddy said about driving a nail...Common sense is to quit fooling around and just hit it with the hammer until its done and move on. lol
:popcorn:

[44man]

I don't like the Federal primer packaging either but I just dump them into the palm of one hand and then dump them into the Lee primer tray. Not really a problem. If you still need a solution, make a funnel from a one liter soda bottle to pour them onto the tray.
That is what I do.
Fed went to the large box because some primers went off in shipment long ago.

[44man]

Good Lord...this is the first time Ive seen a pissing match over the size of primers boxes vs a primer flip tray. Havent you heard of Paper plates ??? Useful for more than just Targets.
Some of y'all crack this old geezer up sometimes. It reminds me of what my daddy said about driving a nail...Common sense is to quit fooling around and just hit it with the hammer until its done and move on. lol
:popcorn:
I like that answer. Do I hold my dogs tail up when she poops or just wash her after?

[rintinglen]

I just keep an old breakfast food bowl on my bench to dump them in, then dump them from that to the autoprime tray.

Hey, hold on just a cotton picking minute. This uses a common household item that we won't have to special order, does not needlessly add complications to the process and doesn't cost an arm and a leg--I THOUGHT we were talking RELOADING here.:bigsmyl2:

[Sasquatch-1]

I found them to be a problem also until I saw the empty CCI 22 long rifle box setting on my bench. You know, the one made of plastic. I dump a row at a time into the box until I have empty it and then dump them into the primer tray. Works rather well.

[thegreatdane]

Yall must be using smaller flip trays than I. They work fine for me (see my YouTube video)

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