Reloading Safety

[zhunter]

This should be interesting. I have not in the past, but in light of a recent thread, I think I will start.

Mods

Please move this to GENERAL RELOADING from Dillon reloading

Thanks

[Merlin Orr]

Nope..but I do wear readers.

[Carl]

This should be interesting. I have not in the past, but in light of a recent thread, I think I will start.

Since I have the "old Eyes" problem, I found some safety glasses that have the "bifocal" made ito them. Just the ticket for me!

Carl

[nhglyn]

You bet I wear safety glasses. See: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=44446

[zhunter]

You bet I wear safety glasses. See: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=44446

YOUR thread is what prompted this poll!!

[AlamoShooter]

big set of readers +1.50 -= 17 years with out a problem, I figure my # is up

[Keith]

Up until 5 weeks ago I always wore glasses so I always had them on while loading. Since the Lasik I have been wearing safety glasses while running the Dillons. It just didn't seem right to not have glasses on while doing that. That and the fact that I have had 2 or 3 primers go bang while seating them kinda sealed the deal for me.

[Merlin Orr]

Has anyone here ever had any press besides the 650 explode the primer tube? Is the primer kaboom a problem that is confined to the 650 only?

[GentlemanJim]

Back in the 1980's a friend in Los Alamos NM Blew up the primer tube in a 450

He was not hurt , the outer tube was very expanded and it put an impressive hole in the roof of his tin shed.. he did say his ears rang for a week!

The primer had not seated and he forced it..he was loading 45 auto

Jim

[TreblePlink]

I didn't vote because there was no choice for "regular" glasses which in my case are large and suitable for shooting and reloading.

Back in the 1980's a friend in Los Alamos NM Blew up the primer tube in a 450

He was not hurt , the outer tube was very expanded and it put an impressive hole in the roof of his tin shed.. he did say his ears rang for a week!

The primer had not seated and he forced it..he was loading 45 auto

Jim

[zhunter]

I didn't vote because there was no choice for "regular" glasses which in my case are large and suitable for shooting and reloading.

Back in the 1980's a friend in Los Alamos NM Blew up the primer tube in a 450

He was not hurt , the outer tube was very expanded and it put an impressive hole in the roof of his tin shed.. he did say his ears rang for a week!

The primer had not seated and he forced it..he was loading 45 auto

Jim

Any Glasses will Qualify.

Vote if you feel the need

[RogerT]

I've been reloading for 30 some years, but mostly on single stage presses, Lee Turret and Dillon SD or 550.

Once, when seating a Berdan rifle primer on a RCBS Rock Chucker I have had the primer go off, and in that case it was not more than a loud bang and a little ringing in my ears for a while.

I have never before heard of one primer setting off all the others. It must be a 650 specific issue?

[tightloop]

reloading since 1977, never a problem...no I do not wear glasses...but do not have a 650 either...

dillon 1000, 550B, two SDB's and rockchucker...

[Flatland Shooter]

Years ago I was the company man on a drilling rig. The company policy was "wear safety glasses". A rule that was not strenuously enforced. An older floor hand, who refused to wear safety glasses, tore into a set of tongs with a small sledge hammer to change out the slips. On about the third wack he stepped back and grabbed his left eye. That was the last time he ever saw out of it.

Big time believer of safety glasses ever since. All my prescription glasses are ordered with polycarbonate lense.

I've never had a primer go off while reloading (Rock Chucker and Dillon 550B), but why take the risk?

Bill

[HSMITH]

I know I should but I don't..........

[1911user]

My normal glasses have decently large polycarbonate lenses. I switched to that lense material when shooting indoor matches a decade ago.

[Nik Habicht]

Brian convinced me to --- there's a pair of safety glasses in the bullet tray of each press right now; that way I remember to put them on.....

[wsimpso1]

+1 on not voting because there was no space for regular glasses.

In my case, they are impact resistent glasses with good eye coverage, not some of the modern tiny lenses. They don't have side shields, and maybe they should.

I have several experiance comments:

I have personally aproximately 15,000 rounds using the RCBS or Hornady hand held tool or the Bonanza Co-Ax bench tool. I have loaded several thousand more on my Hornady LNL Progressive. I have decapped several hundred live primers from military cases - these primers were arsenal crimped - with a slow shove of the handle. No primers ever fired accidentally under any of these circumstances;

In all types of priming tool, I have occaisionally found myself with the primer stuck when part way into a case and elected to stack additional force to the tool rather than disassemble the tool with the primer caught somewhere. My thought was and continues to be that I would rather that primer fire with the mouth of the case pointed away from my face, my glasses squarely between my eyes and the potential fragments and gloves on my hands than have it fire during disassembly of the tool. I do a slow, progressive squeeze during this operation. No primers have fired under these circumstances either;

I spent four and a half years working as a product engineer for Remington Arms. We had a handloading room in the Ilion test lab. We handloaded proof and function rounds for Custom Shop guns that used non-standard ammo, as well as for the 7mm version of the XP100. At Bridgeport we handloaded huge amounts of ammo in support of ammunition product development and testing. These handloading rooms were stocked with catalog items, and we just did not have accidental firings. Between the two job sites, we loaded somewhere around 100,000 rounds during my time with them.

My conclusion? Properly done, accidental firing of primers is quite rare. Still, Blindness Is Forever, so I insist upon eye coverage of everyone in my shop when I am loading ammo.

Billski

[XD Niner]

I think it is obvious to all that having eye protection is safer than not wearing it. Safe behaviors should be ingrained to be most effective. I urge all to begin wearing eye protection whether you've ever had a bad expereience or not. It should become as much a routine practice as safety with a firearm.

[Mr. Chitlin]

Since I am an OF, I use safety glasses with the bifocal "cheaters" built into them and I wear them every time I reload.

When I first started competition shooting back in the late 80's, a friend and I both bought Lee Pro 1000's and started loading. A few weeks after he started loading, he had a primer go off in his Pro 1000 and set the whole primer feeder off. There were ~90 primers in it at the time. It exploded directly at his face, and the only thing that saved his eyesight was his prescription glasses. They were ruined. He also had primer parts and the bits of the plastic primer feeder that embedded into his face and upper chest (went through the shirt). From that day on, I will not reload without safety glasses, and anyone that uses my machine has to wear glasses.

I have only popped 1 primer since I went to the 650 about 6 years ago.

[KAL]

I never used to wear them at all.

But Just got a bunch of new presses and got rid of the XL 650. Within the first 20 pulls of my newly acquired RL 1050 had the whole mag tube go off.

Seems that the primer bar was not shimmed correctly and it caught the edge of the primer setting it off and chain re-actioning the whole tube. Wasn't pretty.

12 years of loading on a 650 with no kaboom then switch to 1050s and had one right away.

Funny thing is I wasn't surprised!! I kind of almost felt like it was going to happen. First time I bought a used press and I said to myself I want ears and eyes on because I don't know what this thing will do yet.

Talk about a self fore-filling prophecy. I now have 2 RL 1050s and 2 Super 1050s and will always wear at least glasses if not ears too.

[mobocracy]

Any time I work with primers I wear them. I want to load today, but I want to see *forever*.

I also wear glasses with whatever the "best" impact rated polycarbonite lenses I can get from the eyeglasses place, but I'm not convinced they're "good enough" to stop a bit of metal accelerated by a primer explosion, so I add on a pair of safety glasses over them.

I keep thinking I should wear muffs, too, but haven't gone that far. I do wear them when occasionally decapping a bad live primer (which I hope is deactivated by a healthy shot of WD-40).

[bgary]

My normal glasses have decently large polycarbonate lenses. I

+1

[urnsrus]

Maybe it is divine intervention that I ran across this thread. Only two weeks ago, a cold winter day here in Indiana, being bored, I headed to my shop and began to load. Normally, I wear my cheaters and that is all, however after loading about 50 rounds, I glanced down to see my safety glasses and thought, you know....I really should put them on.....I did, and guess what....the very next load exploded. Was on a Dillion 550. Trust me, from this point on, I will wear proper protection.

[Chris Keen]

Been loading on a 550 for years, never had anything blow up yet!