Yoder Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Yesterday I switched my powder drop from my old Lee setup to the Hornady powder drop that came with the press. I got the insert so it flares and drops powder at the same time. I got the case flare looking good and dialed the powder drop to 4.7 gr of Titegroup for my .45 ACP rounds. It worked great. Deviation was maybe +- .05 gr over ten drops. I started loading rounds one at a time, checking the OAL which was 1.26 and very consistant. The last round I loaded I re-sized/deprimed. Next stage inserted primer. Now I don't remember if this felt smooth or was difficult. It may have been a small primer .45 case and I'm using large, or it may not have seated or it may have seated fine. I honestly don't remeber what happened. I indexed to the next stage to drop powder and flare the case when I heard a primer pop and then a loud bang. Then the powder hopper with almost a full pound of powder burst into flames and looked like a rocket engine with two ft of flames coming out the top. I immediately took off to find a fire extinguisher. I tore through all the cabinets and couldn't find it. I filled up a pitcher with water and ran back downstairs. Luckily the powder burned out without catching the ceiling on fire. I dumped water on the powder hopper since it was still on fire. Looking at the carnage I think the primer did not seat into the round and when the slide went back to pick up the next primer it went off blowing the 100 primers stacked on top of it. It blew apart the primer tube and it shot out of the saftey shroud. The blast shield tube for the primers is right up against the plastic powder hopper on the down stroke. It doesn't touch it, but why would you point a potential pipe bomb at a plastic tube filled with gun powder? I sent Hornady an email and they are sending out replacement parts right away for free. I still want to talk to someone in tech support and explain what happened and see if I can get them to take some kind of action to prevent this from happening to others. I don't expect they will do anything, but it will make me feel better. Here's what I recommend to prevent this from happening to you if you have this press: 1. Be more diligent than I was about sorting brass. This could have been caused by trying to smash a large primer into a small primer .45 case. I honestly don't know. I'm cleaning all primer pockets and this will ensure they are uniform and the correct size. 2. Keep a fire extinguisher somewhere near your press just in case. 3. Install a blast shield between the top of the primer safety shield and the powder hopper. I'm going to use aluminum coil stock to protect the plastic hopper. 4. Ground your press. A couple people told me this was a good idea. I don't know if static electricity was the cause ( I doubt it) but this couldn't hurt. 5. Make sure nothing flamable is over your press. Luckily my ceiling was drywall and didn't catch fire. Here are some pictures: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFlowers Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Yoder, Other than the seat of your pants.... Are you okay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butterpuc Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I've never heard of this happening before. Thankfully you are ok and you didn't burn your house down. That's crazy, but from a safety standpoint I don't keep a fire extinguisher near my reloader either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmj3 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I've never heard of this happening before. Thankfully you are ok and you didn't burn your house down. That's crazy, but from a safety standpoint I don't keep a fire extinguisher near my reloader either. Me either, but I will be getting another one to keep there now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan N Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Wow, that is a freak accident, but obviously a possibility. Glad your OK and that the damage appears to be contained and minimal(compared to what it could be). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RammerJammer Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Unbelievable. Its awful but I would love to see a video of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GForceLizard Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 (edited) Glad the damage was minimal. If you set off a primer during seating into the brass it shouldn't blow the whole tube. The primer slide is forward at that point and not under the primer stack. So I don't think that's what happened. My guess, on the full upstroke the primer is suppose to fall flat in the primer slide. It didn't and on the downstroke you crushed the bottom primer in the stack and it chain fired the whole tube. Bad luck that it ignited your powder. I put a little plumber's tape on the bottom of my primer tube to give it a tight fit. Mine fit loose and can creep up if I don't have a good friction fit. P.S. Keep the lid on your powder drop. Edited January 24, 2014 by GForceLizard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EEH Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Have to ask,,Did you have the powder hopper cap on ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ak_tech Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Wow. Glad you and yours are ok. I have never heard of anything like that happening. And to top it off it was a hopper full of tighgroup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 ok - side question... what type of fire extinguisher would work well on powder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onagoth Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I keep an extinguisher on every floor of my house....in the rooms most likely to experience a fire (ie, kitchen, furnace room, laundry room). As it turns out, my reloading bench is only 10 feet from an extinguisher. Glad to hear your ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 ok - side question... what type of fire extinguisher would work well on powder? Same question for me. I'm stopping by Lowe's on the way home to get one. Glad the damaged wasn't any worse than it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98sr20ve Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 You could take some Flashing and Put it around the 1/2 of the powder measure that is touching the Primer Tube. Then if it happened again it would be less likely to penetrate the plastic hopper. Or move the powder measure over one station. Then it would have some distance to protect it. Of course you would essentially loose one station as a result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiker88 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Glad you're okay. I have a fire extinguisher "near" my reloading table. I'm going to clamp it on the table itself tonight when I get home. BTW, I'm glad to hear Hornady's taking care of you after what happened. I have LnL AP myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshxdm9 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 ok - side question... what type of fire extinguisher would work well on powder? you would want a fire extinguisher with at least an A & B rating. This the a is for wood fires and the B is for chemical and gasoline types. If you found an A B C the C is for electrical fires. Same question for me. I'm stopping by Lowe's on the way home to get one. Glad the damaged wasn't any worse than it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrawandDuck Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 (edited) I do not believe the typical ABC extinguishers like you find at Lowe's is best or even work on gunpowder....the pressure will blow the powder everywhere....I read somewhere that WATER works best on gun powder. Typical fire extinguisher robs the fire of oxygen but gun powder does not operate that way......I'm sure a beer would work also as I usually have some of those close at hand. Now if the powder was to ignite other things in the room the ABC type of extinguisher might come in handy. Edited January 24, 2014 by DrawandDuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brassaholic13 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 My friends make fun of me for priming in one step, then going back and adding powder/bullet/crimp on the next step with my Dillon 650. Guess after I show them this, they won't be laughing at me anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoder Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 Just to answer a couple questions: The lid was on top of the powder hopper. Not just for safety, but I worry about consistant powder drops. I think if a crushed primer was the cause: I crushed it, never seated it in the brass, then it went back under to pick up the next primer and went off blowing up the whole stack of 100. Either that or the primer shuttle hit one going back. It blew up on the down stroke. I wouldn't blow a fire extinguisher directly on the burning powder. It might blow it all over the room in an awesome fireball. I'm thinking to use it to put out anything that catches on fire. I have to look for something other than the dry chemical type. They make a huge mess. Maybe more than a small fire. I'm going to use some aluminum coil stock and make a shield around the side of my powder hopper. I wish I had a video too. I scared the crap out of me, but it looked pretty bad ass. Imagine a 2 in diameter rocket engine blowing 2ft flames out of the top of your reloader. It actually sounded like a blow torch. Hornady just shipped all the parts I asked for and some others they thought I might need. Their customer service is really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 We have a firefighter that shoots with us. The next time I see him I'll ask him what type of fire extinguisher works best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
63expert Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 If the PTX is being used then station 3 will be OK. I keep an extinguisher mounted to my reloading bench on the end opposite of the press. Not really sure about how the primer tube detonated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 We have a firefighter that shoots with us. The next time I see him I'll ask him what type of fire extinguisher works best. Probably halon. Takes away the oxygen. I have a small reloading room so I would mount mine outside the door. Evacuate the room and hit it with halon so you don't die along with the fire. One thing to keep in mind with any extinguisher is to mount it somewhere away from where you suspect a fire might be. Sitting it next to your powder and primers probably won't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bajadudes Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 WOW, not much else to say but that. Glad you did not get hurt. Soon you will look at the pictures with friends and have a good laugh. The wife must have thought it was pretty cool eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blind bat Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Halon was outlawed years ago, but there are plenty of fire supression systems on the market that do the same thing. Probably orders of magnitude more expensive than a fire extinguisher but it might qualify for a homeowners insurance discount. http://www.epa.gov/ozone/snap/fire/qa.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Appel Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 ok - side question... what type of fire extinguisher would work well on powder? I'm told that water is your best choice. As far as I know, gunpowder does not require an outside source of oxygen. Oxygen displacing systems will probably help prevent the spread of the fire but may not put out the burning powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noylj Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Wow. Can't even imagine how you did it. One primer going off is simply not enough, yet it happened, you say. Did you have the TOP on the powder measure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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