Primer question
- Thread starter Dano4734
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condor bravo
New member
The proper way is just what you suggested, just go slow and easy. I've never heard of one going off that way. Wear glasses just in case and back away from the press some.
I did two of them just this past weekend. I have a universal decapping die staged on my single-stage. I noticed a couple case mouth splits (small) that I missed during previous reconditioning/handling.
You just have to wear eye protection and go slow. I've never had one discharge and I've done it probably a couple hundred times over the decades.
BTW, I also reload the primer into another case. They have all functioned properly up to this time.
You just have to wear eye protection and go slow. I've never had one discharge and I've done it probably a couple hundred times over the decades.
BTW, I also reload the primer into another case. They have all functioned properly up to this time.
One tip that I have often suggested and it works for both priming and de-priming live primers:
Take a large bath or beach-sized towel, folded over a couple times and cover the press and potential "blast zone" if you have any worries about a discharge, as the towel will contain the small blast. I suggest the towel for a person's own psychological benefit--
Because almost no matter how HARD you attempt to prime, as long as you are using proper tools and the primer is actually situated in the cup... (or in this case, depriming slowly with any regular sizing or decapping die), there will be no detonation and no blast.
I suggest the big towel so that you can OVER power the operation, proving to yourself with hands-on experience of your own that primers are extremely well designed for us and they detonate when a proper firing pin tells them to detonate, but not often when we use proper tools at the bench.
No, I don't keep a huge towel at my bench, but it is a suggestion I make that offers hands-on experience to take away some of this mystery.
Take a large bath or beach-sized towel, folded over a couple times and cover the press and potential "blast zone" if you have any worries about a discharge, as the towel will contain the small blast. I suggest the towel for a person's own psychological benefit--
Because almost no matter how HARD you attempt to prime, as long as you are using proper tools and the primer is actually situated in the cup... (or in this case, depriming slowly with any regular sizing or decapping die), there will be no detonation and no blast.
I suggest the big towel so that you can OVER power the operation, proving to yourself with hands-on experience of your own that primers are extremely well designed for us and they detonate when a proper firing pin tells them to detonate, but not often when we use proper tools at the bench.
No, I don't keep a huge towel at my bench, but it is a suggestion I make that offers hands-on experience to take away some of this mystery.Decapping live primers isn't as dangerous as it would seem . Primers are designed to ignite when a firing pin hits it from the outside , slowly pushing from the inside distributes the pressure around on the anvil which bears on the outer edge of the cup.
Go slow and it wont fire...hit it hard and it might. I once decapped 500 live ones and none popped , I even re-used the primers and all fired .
Wear glasses , ear protection and don't look into the decapping die ....just in case .
Gary
Go slow and it wont fire...hit it hard and it might. I once decapped 500 live ones and none popped , I even re-used the primers and all fired .
Wear glasses , ear protection and don't look into the decapping die ....just in case .
Gary
All these "go slooooow" comments creates the mental picture of some B rated western and the cowboy carefully handling nitro glycerin or something.
I guess I have been lucky and have been holding my mouth just right for years and hundreds of cases. I press live primers out with a universal deprimer with the same effort and vigor I do with spent primers.
as for making a live primer inert with oil or solvent, good luck with that. I have soaked primers for days and they would still go pop between a hammer and anvil. Perhaps not as strong as new, but still a pop.
I do admit this thread has me thinking I need to do some playing around to see if I can get one to ignite during normal depriming by snapping the press handle as hard as I can.
I guess I have been lucky and have been holding my mouth just right for years and hundreds of cases. I press live primers out with a universal deprimer with the same effort and vigor I do with spent primers.
as for making a live primer inert with oil or solvent, good luck with that. I have soaked primers for days and they would still go pop between a hammer and anvil. Perhaps not as strong as new, but still a pop.
I do admit this thread has me thinking I need to do some playing around to see if I can get one to ignite during normal depriming by snapping the press handle as hard as I can.
Interesting . I've deprimed my share of live primers and I don't think I've ever considered reusing them . 2.5 to 3 cents lost each time . Oh no how will I eat tonight when I'm wasting that kind of cash lol . So you saved your self maybe 3 bucks over the "decades" . What will you do with all that wealth you've saved ?
Failed to fire:
New rifle, new ammo; 5 our of 20 rounds failed to fire. I measured the 15 fired cases and the 5 failed to fire rounds. I was impressed. The 5 that failed to fire had been offered to ever shooter at the range with a 30/06 rifle, a wild guess would be there were at least 5 attempts at firing the failed to fire rounds. AND THEN? The 15 fired and 5 failed to fire came to me that afternoon. I pulled the bullets, measure the weight of the powder, case and bullet; I removed the primers and then reinstalled the primers back into the case. After installing the primers I chambered each case one after the other in one of my M1917s (with killer firing pins)m pull the trigger and each primer was crushed and then fired. I was impressed with the old M1917 because the primer had 'zero' protrusion.
And then there was that story about the reloader that was pulling bullets in a crowd, something went wrong. His hammer head was blown into small pieces, I suggested he was pulling a bullet on a case with a high primer; after that someone suggested he was using a shell holder in his inertia bullet puller; and that can only happen on the smallest of cases. I suggested using rubber 'O' rings to keep the case centered on the smallest of cases.
F. Guffey
New rifle, new ammo; 5 our of 20 rounds failed to fire. I measured the 15 fired cases and the 5 failed to fire rounds. I was impressed. The 5 that failed to fire had been offered to ever shooter at the range with a 30/06 rifle, a wild guess would be there were at least 5 attempts at firing the failed to fire rounds. AND THEN? The 15 fired and 5 failed to fire came to me that afternoon. I pulled the bullets, measure the weight of the powder, case and bullet; I removed the primers and then reinstalled the primers back into the case. After installing the primers I chambered each case one after the other in one of my M1917s (with killer firing pins)m pull the trigger and each primer was crushed and then fired. I was impressed with the old M1917 because the primer had 'zero' protrusion.
And then there was that story about the reloader that was pulling bullets in a crowd, something went wrong. His hammer head was blown into small pieces, I suggested he was pulling a bullet on a case with a high primer; after that someone suggested he was using a shell holder in his inertia bullet puller; and that can only happen on the smallest of cases. I suggested using rubber 'O' rings to keep the case centered on the smallest of cases.
F. Guffey
And then there is a group that claim the firing pin strike drives the case forward with 'such'
force the case shortens between the shoulder/datum to the case head .005" and I said I was impressed because I measure the fired and failed to fire cases and could find no evidence the case shortened by being hammered with firing pins even with at least 5+attemps. F. Guffey
As above, I pop 'em in a gun and just fire 'em. Doesn't happen very often anyway. Sometimes if I am skeptical of some old ones I'll load a few in some cases and pop 'em off in a revolver to see if still work before using the rest of them. I pop them usually in the basement ... I alert the wife first of what I am doing of course! It's not that loud that you have to wear muffs either.
While I do not recommend it at all, I wanted to see what it would take or if you could fire off a primer backwards (ie with the pointed object going to the De-priming end)
As precautions I got heavy gloves, ear protection as well as goggles.
It took a sharp nail and a good blow to get one to go bang, so yes they will go bang but it takes serious provocation.
Personally wh9ile I had done a de-prime with a sizing dies in the past, I have no issue with it doing it slowly
I do like the towel idea. Another layer of safety.
As precautions I got heavy gloves, ear protection as well as goggles.
It took a sharp nail and a good blow to get one to go bang, so yes they will go bang but it takes serious provocation.
Personally wh9ile I had done a de-prime with a sizing dies in the past, I have no issue with it doing it slowly
I do like the towel idea. Another layer of safety.
Although primers don't have that much force behind them compared to a loaded cartridge . I don't like the idea of depriming a live primer in a sealed sizing die . I have a Lee universal decapping die and it's internal diameter is larger then a 45acp case . This means if a primer goes off when using it there will be no pressure build up and it will just vent out the bottom . I may be wrong but as far as injury goes I feel quite safe doing it with the universal de-priming die .
I have R. Lee's book on modern reloading, I also read the part that covers primers. I agree with R. Lee, the primer is not something a reloaders can get careless with. I have never thought the ideal of digging a primer out of my navel would be entertaining or amusing. Because R. Lee was not an impulsive responder he put more thought into his answers.
R. Lee suggested the primer pushes it self out of the case when struck, he included speeds of exit at about 500 fps. And then there was the shooter, writer of gun related articles and reloader that thought carrying his ammo to the range in plastic baggies (was cute); and then he had one of those 'and then' moments. H dropped a baggie full of pistol rounds. The rim of one case struck the primer of another round and the primer launched itself up and into the inside of the leg of the reloader. He came very close to bleeding to death before they got the blood shut down.
I will not say I wore out my Lee auto primers because I still have them; I did not agree with Lee when it came to Federal primers. When installing primers with my Lee equipment I do not double clutch the handle.
F. Guffey