Primer detonation

[perpetualn00b]

I've been reading threads on the Dillon 650 for the past few days, and I can't seem to get a good sense of how much of a problem detonating primers is with the machine. I've read that you shouldn't force things when something is stuck, but how easy is it to discern? Are there other precautions one can take to prevent such things from happening? Any aftermarket mods to protect your hands, etc?

I've been reading up on the Dillon 650 and the Hornady LnL for weeks now, and it seems like the 650 is favored much more, but it seems that the LnL has less of a problem with primer detonations in particular. Although it (LnL) lacks the powder check if using a bullet feeder(?)

[Sarge]

Detonations on any press are extremely rare. As far as feel goes, primers are not hard to seat under normal conditions. If a primer is hard to seat then I stop trying. As rare as they are, on a 650, detonations can be quite catastrophic for parts of the press. It seems since the primer seating is so close to the primer magazine that a detonation can set off a chain reaction inside the tube. This appears to usually result in a ruined primer assy and a follower stuck in the ceiling.

I don't know how many thousand I have through my 650 but so far it is not an issue because I don't tempt fate and try to force a primer to do anything it doesn't want to.

And you don't need a powder check if you have plenty of light and pay attention to what is happening on the shell plate. So if the LNL makes you feel better don't worry about that.

Just like anything else I may live to regret saying this but if you are careful and mindful of what you are toying with, detonations or other reloading concerns are generally not that big of a concern.

[jmorris]

I've read that you shouldn't force things when something is stuck, but how easy is it to discern?

I personally have never lit one off in any machine and have used many different machines for 27 years.

There are folks out there that can break an anvil with a rubber mallet. There are also folks that can pick up an egg with the bucket of a 80,000# track hoe.

How much of a worry it's going to be to you depends on what side of the spectrum you fall into.

Edited October 17, 2012 by jmorris

[CocoBolo]

Ok you talking about me, my daddy said I could break a crow bar. When I was in the army I blew stuff up man I love doing that. Now back to the thread.

I have both a LNL and an XL650. First let me tell you I load 9 major, I pick it up I load it, I have smashed an ass ton of primers in both trying to seat them in crimped brass. It has taken me about 30K rounds to lear the feel for the crimped pockets. Neither press has lit one off. The XL650 has about double the seating pressure of the LNL, and I seat them all the way no half way for me I give both a good solid jab on the up stroke till I feel it go totally to the bottom.

Look if you paid $70,000 for a car you would never admit you didn't like it, but you could hate a $5,000 car all day long. So yeah if you bought the best in everone elses opinion well you just going to play the part of the bigget, blue in this context. I don't have that syndrome, I got the XL650 when I bought a gun, and it came with lots of other stuff for $2000. Sold the gun and the stuff for $3000, and kept the XL650 so it didn't cost much. Now honestly the LNL is a great machine in its own right, if I could only have one it would be the LNL, the Dillon is a bit faster once you get it right but the simplicity of the LNL is great. However, it is like an old column shift car I can sit down at the LNL and crank out rounds way faster than you can drop check them, but if you sit down you will get it hung up between 2nd and reverse, but then I've cranked out 60K plus rounds on it in the past 4 years.

I have a bullet feeder it is collecting dust, it just doesn't make it that much better. I grab an hand full of bullet and strat stroking, you know like a three gunner that loads 4 at a time. At times I have to slow down to let the case feeder catch up. See powder check below.

Powder check, I had one for two years never used it then one day I said wtf and hooked it up. well now I don't like loading without it, it actually makes loading much faster since you are not taking the time to look in the cases for powder, but if I hook the bullet feeder up its got to go no room on the Dillon or LNL.

What I always say is without a case feeder LNL, with a Case Feeder XL650 they are both the same price then. The exception comes if you load lots of calibers then the LNL is less expensive. I find the LNL powder measure way superior to the Dillon, and I use it on the XL650 some of the time.

Either is good just get one and start yanking the ram.

I just bought the most expensive new car of my life, I love that mofo. I'm not telling how much I paid, the money was free 0% for 60 mo.

[jmorris]

but if I hook the bullet feeder up its got to go no room on the Dillon or LNL.

that's why I went with the GSI, it's the only one where you get both a pc and seat/ crimp in separate stations but that's only an option on the 650 or 1050 Edited October 18, 2012 by jmorris

[newboy]

I have never had an issue with primers, either.

One thing that is often overlooked, which greatly exascerbates the issue, is to clean the damned primer residue out of the mechanism! All of that yellow stuff that eventually coats the primer filler, the tubes, the primer feeder should get cleaned off regularly.

You could also install a ground strap between the primer filler and the press, and ground. Especially if you live in a dry climate.

[purecharger]

I set off a primer in my 1050 a few weeks ago, loading .45 with recycled brass. As far as I can tell the decapper didn't pop the spent primer out of the shell in station 1, or didn't pop it out fully. Inspecting the case after detonation shows that the old primer walls were still inside the the primer pocket, as well as the structural component of the primer. I should have backed off the downstroke when I felt resistance, but I assumed it was just a hard-to-size case. Since the primer is slid forward before the punch inserts into the pocket, the rest of the nearly full primer tube was safe. My ears rang for hours (I reload in a walk-in closet) and I was scared sh*tless, but theres zero damage to the press. Now when I feel resistance at the end of my downstroke I pause and double check the case about to be primed.

[CocoBolo]

I set off a primer in my 1050 a few weeks ago, loading .45 with recycled brass. As far as I can tell the decapper didn't pop the spent primer out of the shell in station 1, or didn't pop it out fully. Inspecting the case after detonation shows that the old primer walls were still inside the the primer pocket, as well as the structural component of the primer. I should have backed off the downstroke when I felt resistance, but I assumed it was just a hard-to-size case. Since the primer is slid forward before the punch inserts into the pocket, the rest of the nearly full primer tube was safe. My ears rang for hours (I reload in a walk-in closet) and I was scared sh*tless, but theres zero damage to the press. Now when I feel resistance at the end of my downstroke I pause and double check the case about to be primed.

We call it primer pull back, the primer is pushed out but sticks to the decapping pin as you raise the ram the primer is pulled back in. I have only had this with the Dillon dies. My cure and if you search you will find others but I just take the decapping pin to the grinder put a 30 degree slant on the end (estimated by swag) then radius it so there are no sharp corners, then the problem is gone, but there is no such thing as forever and maybe the next time I replace the decapping pin.

The LNL has a different problem, you break decapping pins, no not hard primers, you are loading along at warp a case falls over you don't see it and now with the case lying side ways under the die you pull down on the ram and bend it pretty good, knowing full well it will break you attempt to straighten it, and dang it breaks.

Pull back happens very intermittantly at first then if you let it go for a while you have more and more of them. Like all reloading issues it is best to stop fix the problem and go on, but when you are 950 into a 1,000 you plod on.

.

[Red Ryder]

Detonations on any press are extremely rare. As far as feel goes, primers are not hard to seat under normal conditions. If a primer is hard to seat then I stop trying. As rare as they are, on a 650, detonations can be quite catastrophic for parts of the press. It seems since the primer seating is so close to the primer magazine that a detonation can set off a chain reaction inside the tube. This appears to usually result in a ruined primer assy and a follower stuck in the ceiling.

I don't know how many thousand I have through my 650 but so far it is not an issue because I don't tempt fate and try to force a primer to do anything it doesn't want to.

And you don't need a powder check if you have plenty of light and pay attention to what is happening on the shell plate. So if the LNL makes you feel better don't worry about that.

Just like anything else I may live to regret saying this but if you are careful and mindful of what you are toying with, detonations or other reloading concerns are generally not that big of a concern.

650 is awesome until you shoot that plastic rod into the ceiling, hold your ears, say WTF, and that god Dillon made their primer tube out of thick iron! I still love my 650 but I am a bit softer on the down stroke!

[Solvability]

I have had two detonations in both cases there was no force involved - I suspect the primers were somehow defective only my nerves were damaged.

I am in the 10s of thousands of handloads now.

[Service Desk]

Dunno how many I have loaded, but in the last 5 years I have filled up two 20 liter oil drums with dead primers. Only ever had one blow-up and that was with Federal large pistol primers loading .41 magnums on a 650 Dillon. KABOOM and then WTF was that !

[Scootertheshooter]

I've had 30 detonation in my press, of course they were all at once. As Sarge said s chain reaction and the follower rod broke my light. This did happen without excessive force as well. It was s federal primer but I have put them in upside down and side ways without a kaboom. Scared the pant off me and left my ears ringing

[perpetualn00b]

Is there a pretty good chance of bodily harm if a primer goes off? The prospect of a primer going off in my face (or hand) scares the heck out of me. The only real thing that keeps me from a 650.

Edited October 29, 2012 by perpetualn00b

[DougCarden]

Wear glasses when you are loading or handling primers and you should be fine. If you are loading on a lee salt shaker press and use Federal primers when the instructions tell you not to then you better wear a welding visor, seriously. There is risk in most hobbies we do in life.... :roflol:

Thanks to the internet.....people seem to think that you are going to automatically set off a primer with the 650. Nope, if that was the case they wouldn't be able to sell them due to liability in this day and age...

Read the manual, and get a friend that you "trust" that has one to help you set it up. Then have fun.....

DougC

[PingJockey]

Is there a pretty good chance of bodily harm if a primer goes off? The prospect of a primer going off in my face (or hand) scares the heck out of me. The only real thing that keeps me from a 650.

If you read the manual, don't force anything, and pay attention to what you are doing, you shouldn't have any problems.

[BillD]

I've loaded well over 100K on my 650 and have had two detonations. Both involved S&B .45 brass and Federal LPP's.

I don't use Federals anymore.

[allen13]

The only issue I've had with my 550 was that I crushed the first three primers I ran through it causing the round not to fire. Thats what the RO told me I had done anyway. Has anybody else pushed too hard and damaged the primer so it would not fire?

[perpetualn00b]

From the threads, it seems like Winchester or CCI primers are the way to go.

[Chris Keen]

There's nothing wrong with Federals. I've loaded over 75K small pistol/rifle primers in my 650 without a single detonation or problem, other than the occasional sideways primer.

[rodell]

Is there a pretty good chance of bodily harm if a primer goes off? The prospect of a primer going off in my face (or hand) scares the heck out of me. The only real thing that keeps me from a 650.

No, there's not a "good chance". If you detonate a primer and have followed reasonable safety precautions all that is likely to be hurt is your nerves. If you are worried about hearing damage, wear your shooting protectors.

I wouldn't let this risk keep me from buying a press. As has been pointed out, there's risk in everything.

I certainly wouldn't let it keep my from buying a dillon, where the primers are encased in steel. Some of the other presses around have much thinner magazines.

[granderojo]

A friend lit off a full tube of FED Small Pistol on his 650 loading 40 cal. Same as the others, sent the follower rod into the ceiling and rang his ears, but no harm to him. He admits that he was hurring to get some made.

The Fed priners are the softest of the primers and the easiest to ignite. I've been told that the Fed sm are not always completely round.

I've loaded LOTS of Win lg on my 650 and not had any problems.

Edited November 5, 2012 by granderojo