F. Guffey said:
He said he did not test Federal primers, he said Federal did not donate primers to be tested.
Tom-C, who used to work with the NRA, said he saw a video of the test, so presumably the test happened. I just don't know when he saw it or when it was conducted.
In the first edition of Modern Reloading (1996), Lee he says only CCI and Winchester primers are safe in the Auto-Prime (or other Lee tray-fed tools). In that edition priming is a separate chapter (5) starting on Page 65. On page 67 he writes: "We have been accused of playing favorites, taking handouts and simply being unreasonable. None of these are the case." So it sounds like nobody provided them with primers for testing.
Lee does reference a discussion with retired CCI employee Dave Anderson in which Anderson explained that the basic lead styphnate (alkaline hydroxide of lead styphnate) used by Federal was more prone to sympathetic detonation than the normal lead styphnate used by CCI and Winchester (among others). (P. 66 of first ed.)
In the Second Edition of Modern Reloading (2003), priming is incorporated into Chapter 2, starting on page 48. On page 50 Lee writes in underlined bold type: "
This Information Has Changed Since The First Edition Of Modern Reloading." He then goes on to print a list that contains the following:
- CCI and Winchester small pistol primers and Remington large and small pistol primers (2½ and 5½) are safe for use in the auto-prime with 100 primers in the tray.
- Use a limit of 20 per tray for Winchester large pistol, magnum large pistol, and magnum large rifle primers.
- Use a limit of 10 per tray for Winchester large rifle primers.
The following sentence appears by itself after the list with the above information:
"DO NOT USE FEDERAL PRIMERS IN A LEE AUTO-PRIME."
Then in the next line Lee says: "Any primer not listed above has not been tested and so you must assume they are unsafe." I take that to mean the statement not to use Federal primers was actually to be considered part of the list, and that it had been tested and found unsafe, but that primers like Tula, Wolf, S&B, PMC, RWS, and so on are the ones that had not been tested and that must be assumed to be unsafe. I think the formatting has caused confusion there, but I do not read it to mean Federal was not tested.
There is no mention I can find of failure to donate primers for testing by anybody. Again, the First Edition suggests that nobody donated anything.
In the Second Edition, p. 51, Richard Lee mentions that John Lee had got a primer to go off in an RCBS Posi-Prime. He says: "They copied the Lee Auto-Prime, so it's basically a good design. However, it's not foolproof. Someone can and will unwittingly use it wrong and it will explode. Use a little common sense. Handle the priming tool as a loaded gun. Do not point it at anyone and certainly not at your face."
Like many, I loaded lots of Federal primers in an Auto-Prime and never had a problem. I was blissfully unaware of the warning at the time. Since then, I went mostly to a progressive press for handgun loading and to single primer seating tools for rifle and handgun test loads. However, this is just anecdotal evidence. Between myself and my family, we've taken literally thousands of airplane flights and none of us has ever been in a crash. That does not mean I should believe airplane crashes cannot happen. That's always the weakness of any anecdotal evidence, like my experience with Federal primers in the Auto-Prime.
Lee claims to have had multiple letters from lawyers whose clients had not followed his instructions and had accidents. He has explained that the instructions warn not to use Federal or any primer not listed. He says, thus far, that has always been the end of it, meaning they've never heard from a lawyer whose client was using CCI primers.