I'm tired of having primers go off in my face

J

jflies

Inactive
I know I'm going to get flamed for this purchase but I bought a Lee Classic Loader 9mm kit to get started reloading before I decide if I want a press. It's the kind of kit where you use a mallet to perform all operations.

So I decap a hundred or so cases, then begin sizing and priming them. Everything is going smoothly until on the 8th one I go to seat the primer with the mallet and... BANG. Scared the absolute *insert profanity here* out of me and made my ears ring for a half hour.

At this point I'm kind of scared to continue because I value my hearing, so I put in some earplugs in case I have another "rare fluke". About 5 cases later, BANG... another primer goes off. This time the escaping gases singed my ring finger and left a nice black mark.

So I put on some gloves and continue. At the time I was still convinced that what I experienced was supposed to be rare, or that maybe I was doing something wrong. It wasn't and I wasn't. Again, a primer goes off within 10 cases.

With ear protecting, hand protection, and eye protection, I soldiered on to make 58 rounds, but in that time I had 8 primers go off in the priming tool.

For the record, I'm not doing anything wrong procedure-wise. I repeatedly consulted the manual, forums, and youtube videos to confirm that I am doing it correctly. And honestly, it's not a complicated process to prime the cases and would take some effort to actually do it wrong.

I know a bunch of people have these kits on their shelves but has anyone actually used the 9mm kit? Is it normal to have primers go off while reloading with a Lee Classic Loader?
 
Everything is going smoothly until on the 8th one I go to seat the primer with the mallet and... BANG.
Click to expand...

If the only tool you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail. Only problem is that primers are not nails.
 
I'm using cheap Tula primers...

The whole process has me feeling jumpy about reloading. Once the powder is in and I'm seating the bullet and crimping (by striking the tool with a mallet), I find myself imagining how bad it would be if somehow the whole charge went off.
 
Tula is not considered sensitive. But...

I learned that from doing woodworking. If you are afraid of a certain tool, you shouldn't be using it. You will get hurt.

Get a press. Some of the Lee presses are really inexpensive. Or get their hand press instead.

Pounding on a primer, even indirectly, is dubious at best. I would do it when I am desperate. But you are not.

-TL
 
You are doing something wrong. The Lee brand and others have been around since the fifties. The rod that presses the primer in is wide enough that it should not set off primers. Is yours flat? I would check that pin first. If the pin is indeed flat do you have a shop vise? I have pressed a lot of stuff before I bought a press using a vise.

The whack a moles that I have seen have a recess for the primer for the other steps so pressure is not on the primer.

You are using a rubber mallet......
 
I started reloading like you in 1987. Never had a primer go off with that tool. I used to shoot a match, go home and reload for the next one. So I must have been through a brick of primers before I had the $50.00 to buy the cheapest lee press and dies.

Get a different tool Obvioiusly its not for you. I would quit after the first one went off.
David
 
Either something is amiss with your loader or you are doing it wrong. 'Been loading with whack-a-mole kits since 1985 and never popped a primer. The set that I used in college is all cauliflowered on top because I used a claw hammer most of those years in my dorm and trailer and I have never popped a primer yet, even back in the days of the hammer. Lee Loaders do work and work well.

Get a Lee single stage press and the ram prime if you don't want to figure out the Loader. The single press isn't expensive and works well. I prime most of mine with the ram prime on a hand press now. :cool:
 
If you are too broke to afford a ram primer I have a RCBS one that came with my Reloader 3 that I will never use again. You should be able to find some used 9mm dies for $15 and probably a press for about the same and can get by with the Lee scoops.

Jflies has another thread . He is using range pick up brass and the glocked 9mm are giving him problems sizeing the bump out. To keep using this tool he is going to have to sort a lot of brass and not shoot his reloads in a glock.
 
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Not to criticize unnecessarily, however, I started out in the fifties as a young boy reloading 30-06 ammunition using the Lee "pound it press" and maybe the years have clouded my memories but I don't remember setting off any primers- in fact, I am certain that my folks would have put a stop to it post-haste(neither one was gun oriented and I was mentored by a local gunshop owner).
You have to be doing something amiss.
All that said, spend a very small amount and get a Lee press-whatever one is currently on sale- and as previously mentioned-at the very least, prime the cases with it. You will not have to buy additional dies and you will eliminate the problem you currently face.

Trust me on this one, if you continue to reload you will be adding a whole lot more to your collection over the years.
Remember, rarely does reloading SAVE money-it simply allows you to shoot more and better ammunition.

Hopefully, sage advice from an old reloader.

Gary
 
I've used the whack a mole kit in 30-06 in order to get started in reloading over a course of 2 years using it for a couple hundred rounds of ammo loaded I popped like 2 primers. Every time when I popped one I hit it to many times. I'd always afterwards give it a few wacks and check it, and then repeat and I would use a rubber hammer with light wacks.
 
I have used the Lee kit to load .38 Special ammo and have had a few primers go off. In one case, I had a fleck of crud in the primer pocket. In another case, I used tool wrong having the knurled end down and the dished end up. In the last case, I just hit it too hard. I think I had a total of three pop out of five hundred but all were in the first fifty. Once I got the hang of it, it worked fine. Tedious but it worked.
 
What cases are you using? Some, especially with crimped primer pockets, are tighter than others and would take more force to seat.
 
I have one of those, too.
But there's something about smacking primers into cases that just doesn't sit right.
For about $30, Lee's open C shape single stage and $30 for dies works much better.
And faster.
 
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