syme71 Posted December 25, 2004 Share Posted December 25, 2004 I'm reading through all the reloading manuals I bought (inlcuding the one included with the Dillon I just bought). They all state never to decap a live primer for obvious reasons. My question is, if you make a mistake in seating a primer -either too high or low, how do you get it out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spook Posted December 25, 2004 Share Posted December 25, 2004 You can neutralize it by dropping a little oil in the case on the primer and the (yes) decap it veeeeerrrry carefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Larry Cazes Posted December 25, 2004 Share Posted December 25, 2004 How do you seat a primer too low? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted December 25, 2004 Share Posted December 25, 2004 My question is, if you make a mistake in seating a primer -either too high or low, how do you get it out? You don't. Go dig some loose change out of the couch, then throw that primer and brass in the scrap pile...you will be money ahead (and safe). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harmon Posted December 25, 2004 Share Posted December 25, 2004 snap the primer off in the gun, then decap this doesnt apply to revolvers or single shot pistols as you probably wont get the action closed,,and if you did with a high primer(in a revolver) the cylinder probably wouldnt turn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted December 25, 2004 Share Posted December 25, 2004 (edited) Of course, you can always don safety goggles, ear protection, fill a bucket with sand and one by one drop the primed cases into a chamber and discharge them into the bucket with the muzzle a foot to 18 inches away from the sand (I am a stickler for safety in my basement). I did that last year on a hundred+ pieces of carefully prepared .223 brass after priming them with small pistol ;-) -- Regards, Edited December 26, 2004 by George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dream Posted December 25, 2004 Share Posted December 25, 2004 The safe thing is to toss the brass and move on, if it is a high primmer why not put it back in the station to seat the primmer and push it down, thats what i do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 why not put it back in the station to seat the primmer and push it down I really hope that you are only doing that with empty cases and not fully charged and capped rounds. I know two people who have spent a few painful minutes of their lives tweezing brass shards out of their hands from doing that with live rounds. Those types of mistakes are definitely discards. -- Happy Holidays, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dream Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 OH definitely empty primed cases Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syme71 Posted December 26, 2004 Author Share Posted December 26, 2004 How do you seat a primer too low? forgive my ignorance folks. I'm a new to all this. I've read as much as I can and wanted to make sure I understand what to do in any of the unforseen siutations I'm sure will come up once I get started (still waiting for a couple of parts to arrive). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 OH definitely empty primed cases Alrighty then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 How do you seat a primer too low? forgive my ignorance folks. I'm a new to all this. I've read as much as I can and wanted to make sure I understand what to do in any of the unforseen siutations I'm sure will come up once I get started (still waiting for a couple of parts to arrive). Don't apologize for not knowing. In your case, at the beginning, pitch the components. My other suggestion for when trouble rears it's head ---- think it over 2-3 times before taking action. Read the manual --- and re-read it when there's a headache. Come ask us, or call Dillon, or an experienced friend or acquaintance..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Not that you should ever try it, but I know that I have done at least 3 times. All of those where about me being stupid and tiered and not intentional. Every time I've done it it was a clear sign that I need to stop and go to sleep. No a single one went boom. That however does not mean that the 4th one won't. I wear safety glass when I load and so should everyone else. Vlad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Ellis Posted December 28, 2004 Share Posted December 28, 2004 Repeat after me, "I will not try this ever. Not in this or the next lifetime. Not even on a triple dog dare." I came into possession of 400 rounds of .45 that had been in a flood. Wore out my arm in pulling the bullets. Disposed of the powder in an unsafe but entertaining way by igniting the stuff in a cat food can. To get rid of the primers I took a piece of wood, drilled a hole all the way through then counterbored another hole so the brass would set in. Hammer and punch to simulate a firing pin and away I went. Things were going well until one went off with a very noticeable 'BANG'. PAIN! My fingers! Count them! Ten! A good number! Apparently one small speck of powder was lodged in the flash hole and when the primer lit, it lit the powder. This blew the primer out of its pocket, up the punch, then slamming the punch and primer through my fingers. Result was a few blood blisters but nothing broken or blown off. What I should have done with these rounds was use them up in a controlled environment. Probably a 'draw, fire one' drill. Dealing with possible duds, squibs, and weak rounds would have been no problem. Don't ignite powder in any container. Too many variables too mention. I now spread waste powder in a wide area in the backyard. The first rain will take care of it. Primer in upside down? Trash it. High primer in an assembled round? Trash it. High primer in an empty case? Attempt to reset it with the press having no powder or primers in it. And always use safety glasses and hearing protection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted December 28, 2004 Share Posted December 28, 2004 High primer in an empty case? Attempt to reset it with the press having no powder or primers in it. Why is resetting a primer in an empty case more dangerous than setting a primer in an empty case during normal loading process? No entiendo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin c Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 High primer in an empty case? Attempt to reset it with the press having no powder or primers in it. Why is resetting a primer in an empty case more dangerous than setting a primer in an empty case during normal loading process? No entiendo. For that matter, why should reseating the primer in an already loaded round be more likely than an empty case to ignite? Probably not, unless you speculate some obstruction in the primer pocket that might block proper seating, and at the same time make crushing and igniting the priming pellet against the anvil more likely the next time the ram hits it. Not that likely, I'd guess, since you've presumably fired the case safely beforehand, and have just decapped it with a through-the-flash-hole decapping pin. I think what gives us pause is mainly the thought of the hairy consequences if a loaded round actually did go off with various bits of unprotected human anatomy in close proximity, regardless of the relatively low probability of that actually happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogerT Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 One reason for a high primer to ignite when reseated is that the force needed to press it in deaper is larger than the initial seating force. This I have experienced when seating primers with the Lee hand primer tool. An assembled round with a high primer MAY have part of the powder charge in the primer pocket and thus impossible to seat deaper without crushing the powder. In all, I've been stupid and thoughtless and tried a couple of times to reseat high or slightly canted primers on complete rounds. I've been lucky I guess, nothing happenend and sometimes I succeded to reseat them, sometimes not. Be careful out there, RogerT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dillon Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 Having worked at Dillon for over 20 years now, I have heard and seen almost everything that can go wrong while reloading. I have had one customer that discharged a 45ACP cartridge while reseating a primer that hadn't been seated properly. Powder(W231 in this instance) had leaked into the primer pocket thru the flash hole, taking up the room where the primer was supposed to go. Reseating the primer compressed the anvil into the priming compound, causing the primer, and everything above it to go boom! In this instance no one was hurt, but the size die was blown out of the top of the frame(RL450). I know of at least six or seven commercial loaders that have suffered various degrees of eyesight and bodily damage due to depriming live primers. the problem is not when A primer goes off, the problem is when the solitary primer that goes off sets off the 327 other deprimed live primers that have accumulated in the spent primer cup. This much shrapnel shatters even safety plastic, ignites the full primer pickup tubes setting on the bench, blows live primers under your skin (priming compound is very toxic ), sets the garage on fire, causes cateracts, sets shop aprons on fire, and lots of other mean, nasty stuff. At a minimum, dump the spent primers out of the cup, and fill the cup with water. That way any flash won't reach any other live primers in the cup. BTW, don't store powder on a shelf above the top of the primer magazine, and don't install flourescent lights directly over your reloader. (lecture mode OFF) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 Dillon rocks! Nothing like "been there, seen that" for good information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 (We really need Dillon to contribute a new topic to the "Hell I was there!" forum.) I can't say I have never de-capped live primers (then re-used them) or re-seated high primers in loaded cartridges. Anybody with a RF100 must have been tempted to de-cap upside-down primers. I don't attempt any de-capping of sideways/crushed primers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.40AET Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 (lecture mode OFF) I was too busy taking notes to notice that you were lecturing. As always, thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syme71 Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 and don't install flourescent lights directly over your reloader. what's the danger with flourescent lights? also, do the decapped (used) primers pose any danger? if so, what methods do you use to dispose of them safely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 and don't install flourescent lights directly over your reloader. what's the danger with flourescent lights? also, do the decapped (used) primers pose any danger? if so, what methods do you use to dispose of them safely? They break easy. I have some plastic sleeves (light condoms) on the tubes over my bench. Got them at Home Depot. Gun springs can break them too. Protection can't hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD45 Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 I would like to add my Lee Loader story. I was fifteen years-old and had brought my newly purchased .270Win. loader to a friends house. We just had to try it on his bedroom dresser right away. Hammering the primer home was tough, and light taps failed to seat it flush. So I hit it harder. Next came a loud bang and my friend was in shock saying "WTF did you do?" The decapping rod made a deep mark in his ten foot ceiling and bruised the heck out of my fingers. I'm very fond of Lee Loaders but I tell everybody I can to buy the hand-priming tool and skip the method in the kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syme71 Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 and don't install flourescent lights directly over your reloader. what's the danger with flourescent lights? also, do the decapped (used) primers pose any danger? if so, what methods do you use to dispose of them safely? They break easy. I have some plastic sleeves (light condoms) on the tubes over my bench. Got them at Home Depot. Gun springs can break them too. Protection can't hurt. thanks for the tip on the bulb sleeves. I think I'll try and go one step further and see if I can put a plexiglass cover. this forum is a great resource. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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