NEVER tumble cases with new primers.

TimSr, if I selected 10 cases to test primers and after firing them with no powder and no bullet I believe it would be safe to assume the primers were good to go if during the test all the primers fired.
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I didn't think there was any question as to whether the primers would still fire, but yes, that would answer that question. I thought the question was whether media in the flash hole would allow the powder to ignite.
 
Tim, the point to firing the cases was to get rid of the primers, because I wouldn't load those cases if they were the last primers on earth. That's how seriously I take my safety measures.

Everybody has their own level of acceptable risk, and I will throw away a few dollars worth of primers and there is no chance that I would put powder in on top of an occluded case. It's unpredictable. I don't like unpredictable.
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I don't think we have any disagreement in safety measures. I think we just have difference of opinion in our assessments of the amount of risk involved.

If the OP's desire is to deprime and reprime, I would not save the primers either, nor would I fire them first.
 
With what some have said, why do we even need primer holes. The primers should be able to blow through the brass.
I will agree that the round will probably fire 99% of the time but it only takes once to jam a bullet into a barrel and another round to turn the gun into scrap.
Or injure the shooter or a bystander.
Loading a round with debris in the primer hole is an unsafe practice.
But if you take all the safety factors away, you have changed the flame as it enters the case and will delay, retard, stop or partially set off the charge resulting in poor performance.
If your happy with your reloads giving poor unreliable performance then lets all go back to guns that has matches to set them off.
My opinion, its worth what you paid for it.
But so it those that say "Just fire it".
 
I'm betting they'll fire just fine. They may be "stuck", but that primer will blow them out, ignite the powder, and clean that media right out of the gun along with the rest of the residue. That media ain't "superglued" in.
 
I've fired many many 38 and 9mm cases with corn cob media stuck in the primer hole. Absolutely no problem. I would only worry if your tumbling media was pumice or some other hard grit.
 
Many who tumble brass after sizing to remove case lube have probably fired rounds with media in the flash holes. I think the altered flame can be an accuracy issue in precision rifle ammunition, for the flip side of the reason deburring flash holes helps consistent ignition, but in normal pistol target loads using Bullseye or some other quick powder for handgun accuracy levels, it seems unlikely to be an issue. I would avoid all the slow spherical powders with any suggestion of possible weak ignition, though. H110/296 isn't the only one that can stick a bullet if the ignition isn't adequate.

That said, good primers have enough power to fire wax bullets and the plastic and rubber primer-fired bullets, so a low mass piece of media that wasn't jammed in place is going to blow out rather easily. Of more concern, IMHO, is why the cases were spotted to begin with. That suggests moisture was present. Was it present before or after the pull down? Are these primers reliable or possibly moisture contaminated?

I would just decap them and start fresh.
 
I went ahead and clogged 10 flash holes pretty good using a punch on the inside as a stop and smaller punch in the primer pocket to pack the corn cob media into the flash hole ( all done by hand no hammer or anything )

These are 45acp cases and I also loaded 10 correctly

All cartridges are

230gr LRN
7.8gr HS-6
Fed LP primers
Win cases , trimmed
medium crimp

I will shoot them all over my chrono and see what a difference if any there is . I'll likely just load one cartridge at a time to reduce any possible chain events

Thinking maybe Monday I'll hit the range if not next weekend . Other then DON"T DO IT , any extra safety precautions I should take . I will have to be holding the firearm . It will be my XD45 compact that I use .
 
I think the main threat would be firing a live round into a stuck bullet. If you are shooting one at a time and making sure a hole appears in the target each time, I wouldn't expect a problem. If you don't get a hole or dirt doesn't kick up, do check the bore for a stuck bullet.

I'll be interested to hear what the chronograph says, but if you have time, please record the individual velocities of with and without the clog so we can see if intermixing clogged and unclogged has any effect on velocity SD in that small powder space.
 
List me in the group that lost their mind and did not clean out the media fromt he primers.

Not too many, some I was able to get out, some not, I was not interested in finding out so I just deprimed them.

Now its built in that I use an old trim tool to clean the hole when I clean the primer pocket.
 
My 2 cents - If you tumbled in corncob media, then fire the empty rounds to spend the primers. Then proceed to reload. That's it - 2 cents worth.
 
I have seen a definite difference in rifle performance with media in the flash hole.
I dont know about pistol ammo, but big differences on target and chrono with rifle.
I just got done resizing about 100 30-06 brass that I got from a friend with this same problem. I say live and learn. Deprime and make em right.
 
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The only thing dumber than what you did is some of the answers in this thread. Pistol ammo is fairly pressure lame. Rifle ammo is not. The military refused to put foreign material in their ammunition powders to allow tracking where it came from. The reason was it introduced an instability factor.
 
"It Ain't Rocket Science"

A primer, by itself, has enough power to push a plastic bullet out of a case for indoor target practice.

Do you think it really cares about a few grains of walnut stuck in the hole?
 
It is neither the power or pressure that we ask from the primer -- it is the flame and the consistency of it. Media stuck in the flash holes is absolutely a concern. If one doesn't agree it is a concern, that's a waving flag about their attention to detail and the quality and care they put in to what they are building. THAT ammo is perfect for them and wouldn't ever be allowed to leave my load bench.

In my experience...
Some corn media is FAR MORE obnoxious is this regard than other media, fully depending on the size of the media bits. The stuff I am using currently is far more of a problem than better, more expensive media, which is easily dislodged with a quick tap.
 
"It Ain't Rocket Science"
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I disagree , How powders are made to burn and at what rates they burn is very much like rocket science . There ignition and how consistent that is . Is very important and can effect the way the powders burn . As Unclenick touched on . The very slow powders could have a issue if there were a delay in ignition or a magnum primer acting more like a standard primer because of a clogged flash hole . Maybe even more so in the perfect storm of a revolver with it's cylinder gap bleeding off pressures while at the same time you have poor ignition . In those cases you may not keep the pressure up enough to keep the slow powders powder burning .

Side note : I will be running my clogged flash hole test tomorrow so I'll post results when I get back . The other thing that should be noted is in the test where I placed a few pieces of media in the primer and fired that into water . Those were Winchester LP primers which are used for both standard and magnum cartridges . That leads me to believe they have a little more power ( for lack of a better term ) then other manufacturers standard primers .

In the next test I run I changed to Federal LP primers which I believe are just a standard primer . I did so because I did not want the Winchester LP "magnum-ish" primers to give a result that may other wise not happen with a standard primer .
 
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Metalgod, I'm looking forward to seeing your results, especially regarding the range of velocities s spreads.I'd really like to see this same test run with cards, punched out pieces of poster board. It.would also be interesting to see the test run with heavy foil.

The concern I have is simple. It's not a question of whether it will ignite the powder in a few rounds. My question is whether or not I could tumble a million primed casings, everything from .25 acp up to 700 nitro, and not find patterns of failure that can be shown to be caused by clogged flash holes.

Maybe it's been discontinued, but some shotgun primers were made with foil seals on the flash holes. The concern was that powder could sift Ingo the primer cavity and cause inconsistencies in ignition.
 
If my test show a large enough difference . I'll likely do more test and ask here for suggestions of what types of test would be relevant . I'm a little bummed I don't have a revolver of any type . I'd really like to try the test in a firearm that bleeds gas of to see if it would make a difference .
 
Your test seems to be as scientifically sound as you can make it. Of course run a batch of identical rounds fired under the same conditions as a control.

The only thing I'd like to see changed is to use, for example, a .357 with a mild load of a slow range powder. Large case, small primer, challenging ignition needs. If you will find swings, that's a good test. I'd like to see the test in a contender, so no variations could reasonably be caused by other issues.
 
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