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Thread: Flash-Over Incident with Hornady Hand Priming Tool

  1. #41
    Boolit Grand Master
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    I have never had a primer go off while reloading. Must have loaded about 500k rounds with the vast majority processed on those dangerous progressives. Never had double charge either.

    Maybe it was the equipment (Stars and every model of Dillon for pistol rounds; and PW and Spolar for shotgun) or maybe I have just been lucky.
    Don Verna


  2. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by dverna View Post
    I have never had a primer go off while reloading. Must have loaded about 500k rounds with the vast majority processed on those dangerous progressives. Never had double charge either.

    Maybe it was the equipment (Stars and every model of Dillon for pistol rounds; and PW and Spolar for shotgun) or maybe I have just been lucky.
    I'm in the same boat as you and have been reloading since 1958 and my job when in the Army was to cast and reload 45 and 38 loads. About 10 years ago a friend of mine and I tried putting Federal primers every wrong way possible in a Dillon 550 because someone said they blew the entire tube of primers on theirs and damaged their ceiling. We crushed them sideways and got ridiculously rough with the handle whacking it way harder than anyone ever would while reloading. We even attempted to put a piece of shot in the cup before installing a primer and still no results and of course installed one upside down and then deprimed it. We even tried this in a 9mm case that really should have had the crimp taken out with the primer looking crushed after installing it. Our thought was that we couldn't hit it sudden enough to make it go off. Worrying about static setting off a primer or even powder is a waste of thought too because there was an experiment on utube where a person tried setting both off with a device that made a continuous spark of electricity about an inch long. He held it in one place for about 15 seconds and nothing, which is probably because powder conducts electricity real well so it won't heat up, with the primer being the same because it is metal. I can't imagine how this is being done.

  3. #43
    Boolit Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by Electrod47 View Post
    This thread has been a real eye opener. I been loading for 45 years and can only be described as a very careful loader not out to set any records. I own at least 20 reloading manuals and other books on the subject and love to reread them when its to hot in my big metal barn/garage to be out there tinkering on some modest load work up. I have 5 presses set up. Each one a Lee of all their configurations ending 20 years ago. With all the Lee hand primers from the 70's that I still use. Plus the auto prime on my one set-up. I have detonated a handful of primers over the years. That's it. Am I smart. No way. I am one lucky moron. I've done it all in the past from primers in a glass jar to dumping a hundred primers in a round tray and working it so fast I mash sideways a few primers from each tray! Carpeted floors yeah that's me.
    Thank you for starting this thread.

    Funny.. Just the other day I mashed a primer sideways in some 5.7-28.

  4. #44
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    I have popped a few primers while seating them but not more than 3 or 4. In every case I was loading 40 S&W on my Dillon 650. I can’t say for sure that they were any specific brand but they were definitely all seated sideways. I attribute this to excessive vibration of the press. The bench is reasonably solid and fastened to the wall but as I set up a new reloading room I’m going to additional lengths to make the new progressive bench as solid as possible.
    Sometimes life taps you on the shoulder and reminds you it's a one way street. Jim Morris

  5. #45
    Boolit Master



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    The only time I have popped a primer in the 30 years have been reloading is when it ended up in my lead pot. I separated my loading and casting areas, so it hasn't happened in a few years.

  6. #46
    Boolit Mold
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    Thanks for this thread! I have been terrified of this happening since I started using the Lee tool nearly 30 years ago. Richard Lee spent so much time warning about primers in his book that I never tried using Federal primers in it. I also admit that I've never used it without feeling a little nervous. To be fair, I've never loaded on any of my many presses without feeling a little nervous so maybe that's why it hasn't happened yet (knock on wood). I believe the Lee patent was still valid when I got mine, so no one else could copy it yet. I think I will pick up one of the RCBS units that was mentioned as having gates.

  7. #47
    Boolit Master

    Eddie Southgate's Avatar
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    So far in over 50 years I have never had this happen . I have used ( still do ) just about every primer that's been on the market in that time . I have the old round tray Lee tools as well as one of the Hornady tools . Don't really like the Hornady tool so it does not see much use . Never could get to where I liked the rotating tray . I have several machines that can be set up with the tubes but have never felt real safe in using them so I do not . Unless I am doing a really large volume I usually do priming one at a time on the old presses that I use .

    Glad you received no more damage than you did and hope it never happens to you again .
    Grumpy Old Man With A Gun....... Do Not Touch !!

  8. #48
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    What happened to Scrumbag ... He made the first sensational post and never came back and explained how it happened ...
    What a pity ... I'm always skeptical about things like this ... getting old and wary .

    50+ years of seating primers ... never a mishap except with the Lee Whack-A-Mole primer seater ... the little base had a small teat left on it ... it acted like a tiny firing pin ! one tap and pow ! Once I filed the base flat ... it didn't pop the primer . Still that was only a single primer not several .
    Still would like for him to explain circumstances ... I might learn what not to do !
    Gary
    Certified Cajun
    Proud Member of The Basket of Deplorables
    " Let's Go Brandon !"

  9. #49
    Boolit Master
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    So far I haven’t had a detonation when priming cases (~30 years and maybe 250K loaded), but I admit that I don’t hand prime, using a progressive press that also lets me feel the primer being seated. The primer tube has an external metal protective cover and the shell plate is oriented so that the frame is between the priming station and the reloader, just in case. I still wear eye pro, though.

    Primer dust. This is a good reminder to me to clean the inner primer sleeve. Alcohol soaked Q tips pushed through it the last time came out bright yellow with priming compound.

    I should also vacuum the bench and (concrete) floor around the press. I have seen other reloading benches and I don’t spill primers or powder like others do but it’s a sensible precautionary measure, so long as I use the shop vac rather than one of those units with a beater brush.
    Last edited by kevin c; 11-01-2021 at 02:40 PM.

  10. #50
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Careful with an electric vacuum cleaner and explosive powder and/or primer residue or you may get another unexpected surprise!

    I haven’t done it, but the report of such an event in an indoor range was enough of a cautionary tale for me!

    Froggie
    "It aint easy being green!"

  11. #51
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    Just last week I tried to set a primer off while priming. Well, not on purpose. I decided to try using the Powrgear press for actual reloading 38 Special. First case was sized and de primed then primed on the press, OK. Grabbed another case and tried to seat a primer, it was stiff so pull harder on the crank till the shell holder gave way. Oops, I had forgoten to deprime that case before the ill fated attempt to seat a primer.
    The primer never went off and I re-learned that I need to pay attention while reloading.

  12. #52
    Boolit Master
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    I have popped 1 primer in my 60 years of reloading. It was on a Lee pro 1000 that has one of the worst primer handling systems ever built. I believe the Lee powder spitter that sets directly over the open primer slide spit a few grains of powder into the primer slide and stopped a primer part way onto the primer punch. It blew the primer tray off the press but fortunately all the blast was stopped from going forward toward me. I have several of the round tray Lee primers with the slide in shell holders and have never had an issue with them but I don't use them much as I normally prime on a press. Most of my presses separate the primer being seated from the primers in a tube so if it goes off it is not right beside a bunch of live primers. Primers systems that have live primers very close to the one being seated make me nervous.

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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