Basic Reloading: Priming Issues

[bligrigs]

My first batch of reloads, I didn't seat the primers deep enough. About 5 of 100 shells I loaded actually fired. The rest of them took several strikes and were inherently different in charge and pressure from one to the next. It was an expensive lesson as I loaded all real nice Hornady and Speer slugs. But at least I got to spend the whole day at the range =)

[vanable123]

WHY TAKE THE RISK of blindness. or A hospital visit to save 1 brass COM- ON- MAN TOSS IT do you want to have to tell everybody at the hospital how you tried to save a 2 bits by pressing on the explosive primer

[W857TYWH408576NW0348]

best idea is to heedlessly look into the cartridge (as close as possible) whilst banging the primer with a small hammer.

[Lvduggo69]

The worst thing is spilling 50 primers and not cleaning them up right away , and have the wife vacume them up. Talk about full auto, and no pussy that night. ;(

[4x4American]

thanks for the video, it was helpful

[aff1690]

One thing that can make removing primers easier and a bit safer is a universal decaping die. The reason i say that is a universal decaping die is designed so you don't have the resistance of a full length sizing die. The resistance of the full length sizing die can make it difficult to know how much pressure is being applied to the primer. They are inexpensive and worth it because you can use it for all your calibers.

[ammosmith]

@aff1690 Excellent point! 

[EazyslashD]

is there a way to take those primers without that tool?

[ammosmith]

@EazyslashD Not safely.

[danbowkley]

@EazyslashD I did an experiment a while back: primed a case, then applied a drop of Breakfree CLP to the primer and let it sit about five minutes. Then I chambered the case in my AR-15 and pulled the trigger. Click. Waited a couple minutes just to be safe, and deprimed the case. Of course this is anecdotal evidence and your mileage may vary, but it did work for me.

[CREvoTheGreat]

cant u just spray some wd40 into the primer to deactivate it then take it out?

I've read wd40 kills primers dead in their tracks.

[ammosmith]

@CREvoTheGreat A test was done a few years ago and the oil didn't deactivate the primers.

[pcblah]

@CREvoTheGreat dump them into a bucket of oil... leave it for a week... if you are reusing the brass... yay dots :D ...

[mitchellcorp]

Thankyou

[mitchellcorp]

i'll give you your due you are cluey on reloading.i get a indent on my primers when installing them(rcbs hand primer) should i reface the factory made primer pin .  CHEERS

[ammosmith]

@mitchellcorp Yes or call RCBS and have them send you a new one.

[Diraphe]

@mitchellcorp Make sure you dont have the priming pin upside down.  One end is rounded, you want the flat end to make contact with the primer.

[teachagmech]

@mitchellcorp the rod inside the priming tool may be turned upside down. One side has a rounded end and the other is flat. Make sure the flat side of the rod is facing up(contacting the primer)

[mitchellcorp]

can you tell me....WHY...you put the primers in before you full length resize?............full length size them while depriming and then prime and powder them,then put the prodgie in .TO EASY.............and safe.

[gagiva1]

reload more ammo and kill more american.

[benner2000]

Does anyone know a good place to sell once-fired 9mm?

[ammosmith]

@benner2000 Wideners. Google it and then there's G.I. Brass.

[benner2000]

@ammosmith Thank you.

[fierwall5]

@benner2000 go to your local police shooting range and ask them they were boght with tax payer money they would be cheap if not free

[fonitrus]

if you are trying to save money on the primer then dsregard this advice. if you are trying to save the brass and reuse it then put some WD40 in a jar and soak the bullet + primer in it. This will ruin the primer and you can remove it safer. Still wear safety glasses but at least you have minimised the risk of detonation if not removed it alltogether. (wd40 is known to kill primers but you can never know when murphy will sneak his hands into your reloading studio and attemt to kill you.)

[romansten9]

I appreciate your videos, but I must be missing something here. Why are you de-priming an inverted primer in the first place??? Are you trying to save a penny or two? I'm about as frugal as a guy can get, but it seems like a lot of trouble to save a case or a primer. Why can't it be disposed of???

[sonick808]

sideways is the worst. it's happened 3 times to me in probably 20 years. 2 times OK with delicate needle nose work on the edge of the primer, and 1 detonation while attempting the needle nose. The time it detonated i was hastier than usual and pissed off, so it goes to show that patience pays off. It took at least 5 minutes to extract each sideways primer, maybe longer.

[sfliberal]

So true. I just did an inverted primer in a .38 Spl case this weekend and had to *GENTLY* push it out.

I tried reinstalling the primer in a new round, and things seemed to work just fine. However, is this generally a safe thing to do? I'm not talking personal defense, I mean just range fodder.

[WisdomVendor]

the trick with being safe with primers is to never press quickly. They detonate due to sudden changes in pressure. You can put a primer in a vise and apply loads of pressure if you do it very slowly and it won't detonate. ALWYAS press them very slowly.

[osip7315]

its the speed of the impact that detonates primers, if its real slow, theres no chance of detonation

the other thing is they have signifcant amounts of lead in, i don't risk the dust or breathing the smoke and have had good results with the lead free pmc which are actually russian

[lawlpally]

9 times out of ten my gun will fail to fire a primer that already is dented. i also wouldn't feel comfortable carrying around a live round with a dented primer for very long. the cost of primers isn't (yet) high enough to justify this method. i prefer to neutralize the primer and then decap it and use a new one. you lose 3 cents and no limbs or eyes.

[dills2403]

i was wondering how you remove your crimps from the 223 primer pockets i would like to see a video addressing this subject i was wondering if i need to buy this rcbs swagger die

[500SWMAGOPERATOR]

I have reloaded 1000's of rounds of .223 ammo that have had crimped in primers. I use a lee universal decapper die to decap. The stem in this die seems to be stronger then the stem in my RCBS resizing die. Then I use the RCBS swagging tool. If you try to reprime without swagging the primer pocket it will be difficult or in some cases deform the primer. Repriming will be much safer if you swag first.

[1bad65truck]

Depriming an inverted primer the way you did is just fine ,,,if you can't do this ,,,you need to find a different hobby...

[ammosmith]

The only time it gets really dangerous is a primer going in sideways...this usually jams the case in the shell holder and loosens th epriming compound lead styphanate. This compound is impact sensitive. Depriming it if just inverted is fine but wear safety glasses at all times. A hand priming tool with 50 primers will detonate all the primers if one goes off and that is a big explosion.

[BigH6pointOH]

@ammosmith In this case, I'd just safely dispose of that shell.

[jehovahuponyou]

I put the primer in the hull with the powder, that way you get sure fire detonation of all the powder. This works because all firing pins are long and slender and they are able to work their way through the primer pocket hole and find the primer no matter where it is. Also if the target is a lil further away, carry some powder and trickle it through the hole in the hull.

Winkasnotickia has this info.

Also the primer doesn't have a damn thing to do with head spacing.

Happy Hunting...LOL

[RackEmPunk]

Every single round that I've loaded for the past twelve years has had it's primer pocket uniformed.

Not uniforming is not an option for me.

Sinclair and Redding both make excellent uniformers.

[SKIPPYISAAUSSIE]

Good god man

You dee capped a live primer . The safest way to get rid of a dodgy primer in my view is to put he case in you chamber of your rifle or pistol . Go outside and let it off in a safe direction and then start again or put a drop of mineral oil , metho , degreaser into the primer to kill it . NOT to run it in my full length die and pop out a live one . I prefur to de cap dead one's and sure as hell not live one's .

But i am not a prest so each to there own .

[Dp908]

On my norma 6.5x55 swede brass the primers always seat all the way but they still pooch out a little bit and piss me off x10. My primers always have scratch marks on them if I cycle my loads through the mauser. Also crunched one in sidways in my lee autoprime and had to beat it the rest of the way in witha punch and safety glasses, then re-size and decap. PITA I tell ya! lol

[ammosmith]

Sounds like the brass needs to have the pockets uniformed. I have a bunch of 6.5x55mm Norma brass and I had to uniform the primer pockets.

[Dp908]

Yeah, I have the SAAMI specs for the primer pocket depths, I'm going to get me a primer pocket uniformer soon. I enjoyed the video on the 500 BPE by the way. I'm a cartridge collector and now I'm on the lookout for one!

[Buffalowdown]

2:03 lol

Good video. Thanks for posting.

[kilamin]

i had a primer cap go off in my eyes like 5 inch away from my eyes and they are better then ever xDD

[ammosmith]

You're lucky. I had a friend get a primer anvil stuck in his face. No vision loss but he wasn't happy all the same.

[wallenba]

I have had that happen when using my Lee safety prime on my turret press. What I do is dip a tooth pick in mineral oil, let it drip into the cup and set aside for a while, then decap. The primer is scrap but I feel safer doing it this way.

[jsm666]

Thanks for this! I recently had a Press-mounted primer arm that absolutely refused to seat the primers (despite pockets being cleaned) & left the case stuck in the shellholder. I put the case & shellholder upside down in a vise & tapped the primer in with a very broad punch (broader than the primer seating widget on the press). I should add that I had on safety glasses, earmuffs, lab coat & a bucket of water for fires, as I assumed from the start that it was going to go off. (It didn't.)

[bullitt1668]

thx for the vid!

[stryctlyb]

I had no idea you could get a reversed primer our without setting it off with the decapping pin ive probably thrown away 5 improperly charged cases... ill have to try that next time

[Gungeek]

I have had all those problems while reloading...

[ammosmith]

Me too. I fine this problem can happen to even the mose experienced handloader. Progressive presses can also contribute to this issue as well. Lee progressive presses are highly prone to priming problems.

[koolmike79]

very good video. I'm preparing myself so I could start handloading my ammo. thanks and god speed...

[ammosmith]

Thanks! And God speed to you too.

[djsintek]

I was priming 357 cases when i realised i was doing so with normal small pistol primers and not magnum... is that a problem? Can i deprime them and chuck 'em? what should I do? I dont want to throw away the whole case.

[trentj81]

i would have just chambered the shel wif the primer n fired it off n started again, id rather remove em dead than live

[ammosmith]

No, you can decap it, just move all other prmers and powder clear in case of a primer detonation. The primer is still good, but I wouldn't use it in a semi auto though. A drop of oil will neutralize it for sure. Break Free will do the trick in about 10-15 seconds. It sucks to have to do that because then you have an odd lot.

[bddc201]

When I have that problem (upside down primer) I de-activate the primer by putting a drop of oil in and setting it aside for a few days.