Reseating Primers

[the duck of death]

*QUOTE*

Many people use them, but you can get light strikes on a slightly high primer.

After reloading on a progressive press I reset every primer with a hand primer. This has eliminated this problem.

[rmills]

*QUOTE*

Many people use them, but you can get light strikes on a slightly high primer.

After reloading on a progressive press I reset every primer with a hand primer.  This has eliminated this problem.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Re-seating primers on a loaded round...........

Very dangerous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[the duck of death]

*QUOTE*

Very dangerous

After 70K rounds I have not found this to be true. Please relate your experience where you experienced a detonation by reseting a primer with a hand priming tool.

[John Heiter]

I've never blown up a round by reseating primers by hand on loaded rounds so I have no "personal experience" with it. I've never actually been hit by a bus either...

Just thinking about it though, we've all heard of primers going off during normal loading operations and I'm pretty sure Dillon shields their primer tubes for a reason. Primers are designed to detonate under force and you're putting a primer under a powder charge and projectile and applying force. I just think you'd be better served safety and time wise by making the necessary adjustments to your primer seating pin so that you don't have to seat by hand. If you are going to have to seat a primer by hand anyway, why not do it before you drop powder just to be safe?

John

[the duck of death]

So this is the senerio: I've done it 70K times with no problem. You have " never blown up a round by reseating primers by hand on loaded rounds" but you KNOW it to be dangerous.

I'm only referring to full seating the primer since it is not always seated completely by a progressive press. I see no difference to doing this than by using a hand primer in the 1st place to seat the primer. Please advise me of the difference.

Since I have been doing this there has been NO failures to fire due to a light striker spring in my Glock.

*QUOTE*

we've all heard of primers going off during normal loading operations

Sorry I have never heard of this, there is always something amiss, a turned primer, a primer hole not lined up with the primer, excessive force used etc., I don't call this normal loading operations.

Question:Why don't primers go off when a empty case is primed with a hand priming tool?

Answer:Because it is safe to do.

If this is safe to prime a empty case then it is safe to fully seat the primer in a loaded case.

*QUOTE*

If you are going to have to seat a primer by hand anyway, why not do it before you drop powder just to be safe?

Because I use a auto progressive press and that would be very inconvenient. After the reloading is finished I reseat the primers and run them thru a chamber gage. Doing this I find my ammo ALWAYS works.

[shred]

I too have reseated the odd primer and not had it go off.

Is it more dangerous than priming empty brass? Yes. Is it deadly-dangerous? Probably not. Worst case the primer pops and you've got a situation just like an ejector-fire on unload-and-show-clear. If your hand is nearby or you've got no protective gear, it will be bloody and ugly. You could lose an eye or use of a hand. With caution, the risk of death seems fairly low.

I split these posts off and re-opened them because some people asked me to. In the past these threads have deteriorated into is-too/is-not arguments, so please try to avoid that. Thanks.

[.40AET]

D of D- I would have to say that you are better off using a hand priming tool, only because you don't have the mechanical leverage that a press will offer. However, I would rather look to fixing/adjusting the press so that it seats the primers correctly than try to do it in a separate step. The last little bit is when the anvil is pushed towards the bottom of the primer pocket. If the anvil is crushed...well we all know what happens. I've been reloading for close to 20 years and reseating a primer on a loaded round just never occured to me. I check the primer depth on match ammo, and if I get a high primer on practice ammo, who cares.

I'm glad to hear that you have a 70k round history of no kabooms. I crushed a primer in my press on crimped brass and the primer went off. It scared the sh!t out of me. If there was powder too........

I'm just saying that I wouldn't like to to it. I've tossed out quite a few problem rounds where the primers aren't all the way in. I could care less about the 10 cents that I'm out each time.

Good luck

[TRG65]

I have blown up a cartridge trying to reseat a primer. I keep the largest casing fragment as a reminder of past stupidity.

I feel I was fortunate that I was loading very light bullseye rounds at that time.

Do it once and you won't think about it again, or if have such a thought you too can look at the casing fragment proped on the back ledge of your work bench.

Apparently you are using a hand priming device, I didn't have a hand primer at that time, because I wasn't loading for rifles yet. I was using the Lee progresive press I had at the time, so theortically I probably had more leverage. But by the same token, it was having the press that saved me, because the body of the press was between myself and the detonation. Also the bullet expended a large portion of its energy running into the case head.

I will not reseat a primer by hand or any other way.

Hi my name is Seth and I've been a stupid reloader in the past

[Flexmoney]

I use Federal primers and load them on a 650. I practically crush them into the primer pocket. They are "well below flush". I have never had one of those fail to go off in my Glock (light striker spring and just a nub for a firing pin).

If one doesn't look/feel right as I am reloading...I toss it into the trash.

[John Heiter]

Shred,

Thanks for reopening this one. I understand duck's argument that he's done it 70,000 times with no problems. My guess is that he probably uses roughly the same seating pressure on his hand primer with the same primers every time so it's unlikely that he will have one go off. The problem comes in when something unusual happens like some debris in the primer pocket or an out of spec primer or if someone else trys this technique with a different primer/seater, etc. Anyway, that's all I'll say on the issue because mine is just one man's opinion. FYI, I just got my response from CCI's "ask an expert" link on this one. Here's my message to them and their response.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: John Heiter [mailto:JHeiter@dis.umsmed.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 1:53 PM

To: cciexpert

Subject: Hand priming

I have a friend who loads on a progressive press who has been having trouble with high primers in his loads. To correct the high primers, he has been taking the loaded rounds and manually seating each primer to its final depth in a hand primer. The idea of manually seating a primer under a powder charge and bullet just seemed like a bad idea to me from a safety standpoint but he says he's done it a bunch and it's ok. I'd like to get an expert opinion on this.

Thanks,

John Heiter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John: Finishing the primer seating process with a hand primer is like "French kissing a Rattlesnake", yep, you can get away with it, but not for long.

Shoot Straight!

Coy Getman

CCI/SPEER Tech. Service Coordinator

800-627-3640 ext. #5351

Fax: (208) 799-3589

[dillon]

I am specifically aware of one customer that has detonated a 45 ACP cartridge while attempting to reseat a primer. The cause is that powder leaks down through the flash hole, filling the space between the top of the anvil and the upper cavity of the primer pocket. Upon reseating the primer, there is no place for the powder to go, so the compacted powder compresses the primer anvil against the priming compound, igniting the primer. In this instance, the case split and the die above the case was destroyed. A similar problem happens when a loaded cartridge gets stuck in a chamber and someone attempts to remove it by placing a rod in the barrel and beating the cartridge out of the chamber. The impact of the rod pushes the bullet back into the case, forcing powder through the flash hole, compressing the primer anvil into the priming compound, igniting the primer. I directly know one individual that did this, suffering wounds in his abdomen from brass shards, along with starting a fire in his gun room. The wife of a benchrest shooter was killed while helping her husband remove a stuck round from his rifle. Upon ignition the case exited the chamber at sufficiently high enough velocity to wound her terminally. I also know of a customer that stuck a case in a headspace case gauge, and set off the round. No injuries in that instance, But I persoanlly will never put myself in that position. Either get your progressive machine adjusted to properly seat primers, or else deprime your cases, reprime by hand, then proceed to load the cartridges.

[the duck of death]

I reseat using VV 320 in 40SW for IDPA/USPSA and Titegroup in 45LC CAS. As the gent said passsing the 12th floor, after jumping off a 20 story building, "SO FAR SO GOOD".

As for asking for the opinion of the manufacture, how many competition shooters use VV 320 w/180gr bullets in their 40SW? A combination that is not listed in the VV reloading manual. It's a combination that I use in a Glock who doesn't want you to shoot reloads.

My cowboy load in 45LC is TG W/200gr bullet and a case full of grits. Hard to find that load listed by Hodgdon.

Reseting the primers consists of pushing the primer fully into the primer pocket, that's all, not to hammer it in, just making sure it's seated as it should be.

The origional question was how to prevent problems with a light striker spring, this eliminates that problem. Use it or not, I have not had any problem reseating primers nor have I noticed the sky falling.

[cr10x]

Ya Know, I was going to try to say something constructive to convince you but you seem to be unwilling to listen, even to dillon and Coy.

So, if I may be so bold as to ask; when you die or go blind or so injured you can't shoot; can I have your guns and reloading equipment? A simple response on the list with a witness and dated document would be appreciated so I will have a chance against whatever other heirs may be left. Thanks

Cecil

[EricW]

And so concludes another happy thread on BE.com...

[Patrick Sweeney]

Thank you, Eric, for taking care of this during my brief absence. I used to hand-seat. I had a round go off dropping it into the ammo bin of hand-seated rounds. I do not hand-seat any more.

I hand-seated ammo at the World Shoot. I had to depend on borrowed ammo, to salvage my trip. I hand-seated the ammo with shooting glasses, ear muffs and kevlar-lined gloves on. I must have looked quite the sight, in my hotel room in Guayaquil.

As soon as my 1050 is set up, the last of the hand-seated ammo will be fired through my 625 and 25-2. Then no more hand-seating.

That one has done a dangerous thing for many iterations over a long period of time does not make it any less dangerous.