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Equipment & Gear => Guns and Ammo => Topic started by: wraithen on April 05, 2012, 06:57:24 AM

Title: upside down primers?
Post by: wraithen on April 05, 2012, 06:57:24 AM: So I bought my house, moved in, set up man cave, set up harbor freight table, set up lyman reloading kit. I got clean brass and it's all prepped. I finally loaded primers and tonight I will start my first loads with varget.

My question is how dangerous is it to seat a primer upside down and is there a safe way to undo this mistake? I thought the first time I did it I had accidentally somehow loaded a primer in the chute upside down. I was pretty mad at myself, so I looked at each primer twice as I sent it under my ram to be seated and eventually had another upside down primer. WTH?! By the third one I figured out that the cup that holds the primer would sometimes catch a tiny bit on the shell holder as I brought the ram down. When this happened the spring that holds the walls up around the primer to cup it until it hits the brass made a ting sound. I figured out that the small upward movement of the spring bounced the primer and sometimes allowed it to flip. I even found some sitting in the cup sideways just waiting for me to try to get them to seat :yike:

Now I have 4 shells with upside down primers installed. Just to be on the safe side I crimped the brass shut so I wouldn't accidentally use it. So how dangerous is it for the press to put that pressure on the upside down primer? Is there a safe way to pop the primer back out to still be able to reuse the primer and brass? I'm not sure I like lymans auto feeder anymore now.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: 300rum on April 05, 2012, 07:05:39 AM: I have popped them out using the resizing die before. I wear safety glasses BTW. Or, you can just toss them, brass is pretty cheap.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: h20hunter on April 05, 2012, 07:25:14 AM: Just push 'em out. I to wear safetly glasses while loading just in case. I would also say "push slowly"...never "smack" the primer in or out.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: Heredoggydoggy on April 05, 2012, 07:25:35 AM: I've deprimed lots of live primers with no detonations. The key is to do it SLOWLY. Primers are actually pretty stable, and it takes a quick strike to set them off. Do not try to do it with a hammer and punch. A friend of mine tried that, and it's a good thing he had thick calluses on his fingers! :chuckle:

I only use an RCBS hand priming tool these days. It's so much easier and faster than the old ram method.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: BOWHUNTER45 on April 05, 2012, 07:34:51 AM: Quote from: Heredoggydoggy on April 05, 2012, 07:25:35 AM
I've deprimed lots of live primers with no detonations. The key is to do it SLOWLY. Primers are actually pretty stable, and it takes a quick strike to set them off. Do not try to do it with a hammer and punch. A friend of mine tried that, and it's a good thing he had thick calluses on his fingers! :chuckle:

I only use an RCBS hand priming tool these days. It's so much easier and faster than the old ram method.
Exactely.... I always do mine by hand ...yeah it takes longer but thats the way I always done it ... then check them before I set them in my shell holder before dumping powder into them...Like stated above , just use your full length sizing die and push it out .. :tup: :twocents:
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: h20hunter on April 05, 2012, 07:37:21 AM: By the way.....have we seen a pic or two of the new set up?
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: high country on April 05, 2012, 09:27:33 AM: soak them in some wd 40, kroil.....atf, anything to inert them.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: wraithen on April 05, 2012, 11:23:56 AM: How long of a soak would be considered very safe? I can just throw away spent primers right?

H20, no I don't have pics up of the new house nor the reloading setup. I still need to tweek things and get a little more ocd. I think I'm going to be putting up some shelves above my bench and use clamps to keep the press held in place. It's not an easy bench to use for this. I also think I'm going to remove the drawer underneath where my press is so I can access the nuts easier. Only problem is I have to remove the press to do that.

For you guys that are using the same priming system, is there a better way to get leverage to seat the primer? I've been putting my hip into it to get the primer as deep as I need to (just below flush.) I would prefer to be able to do this while sitting if possible.

Thanks a lot for the advice guys.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: Wazukie on April 05, 2012, 12:03:02 PM: I use a lyman press and the primer thing that is attached to it. It shouldn't take a lot of pressure to get your primer seated properly. Also, you do not need to soak those upside down primers to get them out, just push them out with the de-primer die in the press. It takes a pretty good hit to set them off.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: elkslayer069 on April 05, 2012, 01:59:56 PM: just press them out with the resize die ive had a problem :twocents:
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: Mike450r on April 05, 2012, 02:30:07 PM: I used to run a loader that cranked out a few thousand rounds and hour. Every few hours it would pop off a primer. Made me jump every time but wasn't no big deal. It will push out just fine for ya. And if it did happen to pop in the press it aint going to do nothing but make ya jump.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: high country on April 06, 2012, 02:43:06 PM: if you ever meet anyone who had to go have a primer anvil dug out of their leg......you'll soak em.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: high country on April 06, 2012, 02:44:05 PM: a quick spritz of wd and a half an hour will make it all but impossible to ignite.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: MtnMuley on April 06, 2012, 02:50:13 PM: Just take high countrys advice. 99.999% of the time there will be no problem, but why not make it 100% by taking the time to squirt a little WD40 down there. :dunno: :twocents:
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: KillBilly on April 06, 2012, 03:28:37 PM: I have a whole primer under the skin of my middle finger where two fingers meet. It hurt a little but I never notice it anymore. The doctor said there was more chance of nerve damage removing it than leaving it there. So there it stays.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: high country on April 06, 2012, 03:30:20 PM: ......and I rest my case.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: Heredoggydoggy on April 06, 2012, 08:14:54 PM: WD-40 will kill a primer rather quickly. Recently I made a handle for a knife, (machete, actually) and used some 30-30 case heads for escutions where the screws held the handle on. I wanted the case heads to resemble loaded rounds, so I put a few live primers in a tray and soaked them overnight in WD-40. the next day I popped out the anvils and scraped out the mushy priming compound and pressed the primer cups into the case heads. Looks cool, and perfectly inert! If depriming a live primer spooks you, that's a good way to make them safe and non-explosive.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: wraithen on April 07, 2012, 07:43:30 AM: Definitely getting soaked then. I had no intention of setting them off or trying to remove them. I crimped the brass as soon as it happened just to keep myself from tinkering and to be sure it didn't end up getting loaded. I'll have a whole bunch of dippers now though. Between the brass I messed up and now this I'm wondering what the scrap market is for brass :chuckle:
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: brush hunter on April 07, 2012, 06:55:17 PM: Maybe just pay a little more attention to what your doing in the first place, if your putting primers in upside down, what are you doing when you put in a powder charge? PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO WHAT YOUR DOING WHEN YOU RELOAD!!!!!
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: wraithen on April 08, 2012, 07:57:14 AM: Read a bit more carefully man, I didn't realize while the primer seater was tucked in the case holder that it was flipping the primers. I watched them go into the ram the correct way and watched them come out upside down. I figured out to not try to prime unless I rechecked the primer if I heard or felt the spring that holds the primer in place go twang. Every round I charge is done on the scale and usually triple checked. I like my guns too much to do anything to jeopardize them. My face wasn't that great to start with though so I'm less protective of it. :chuckle:
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: Heredoggydoggy on April 08, 2012, 08:49:29 AM: Just be sure to wear eye protection. i saw a .45 1911 blow up in a friend's hand years ago, and if it weren't for his shooting glasses, he'd probably be blind today! It made a believer out of me.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: brush hunter on April 08, 2012, 09:25:05 AM: Your right I guess I didn't read close enough. Sounds like you have a piece of deffictive equiptment . Do you have a picture of the primer tool your using?
Quote from: wraithen on April 08, 2012, 07:57:14 AM
Read a bit more carefully man, I didn't realize while the primer seater was tucked in the case holder that it was flipping the primers. I watched them go into the ram the correct way and watched them come out upside down. I figured out to not try to prime unless I rechecked the primer if I heard or felt the spring that holds the primer in place go twang. Every round I charge is done on the scale and usually triple checked. I like my guns too much to do anything to jeopardize them. My face wasn't that great to start with though so I'm less protective of it. :chuckle:
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: wraithen on April 09, 2012, 09:56:54 AM: I could take a picture if I ever remembered to. Its the standard one that came with my tmag 2 kit. I believe it was due to the fact that it was small rifle primers (cci br-4) as I didn't once have this problem when reloading my 30-30.

You guys would've laughed at me. For my first reloads yesterday I wore safety glasses over my glasses and thick leather gloves. Turns out I was too conservative with all my loadings in both chamberings. Getting close though. I really like this extra part of shooting. Its a rush shooting your own ammo!
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: high country on April 09, 2012, 07:07:28 PM: Wait till you build your own rifle!
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: wraithen on April 09, 2012, 07:41:51 PM: Haha! My wife will probably prevent that until I win the lotto. Although she has let me buy my 4th gun so far. Started with a pistol nearly a year ago. Soon I'll need a safe.
Title: Re: upside down primers?
Post by: JuryRig on April 13, 2012, 03:16:35 PM: I slowly pop them out with the resizing die. Can't throw away good brass. Don't try reusing the primers though. :bdid: