Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles What happens if you hit a primer with a hammer?

It will go off and little pieces of metal go everywhere with enough force to stick in things....don't ask!

Used a Lee Loader as a kid over 10 seasons and never saw one go off. But then again I never simply put a primer out and whacked it with a hammer either. Judging from the comments here, my childhood prediction as to outcome was right on.

That may be part of the problem

Why would one do that? Do you think it is like the caps you played with as a kid?

Thank goodness my Dad spent some time educating me in the fact that guns and bullets are tools, and dangerous tools when used incorrectly, and not toys to be played with.

The question itself notes a lack of sense.

In the stupid invincibility of youth my brothers and I used to find the largest nut we could. We'd then screw a bolt in about halfway through the nut. We'd tear the red part of matches off and fill the other half of the nut with it. Screw on another opposing bolt and tighten it, squeezing the match heads between the bolts until we didn't dare to tighten them any more.
We'd then take the device out to the paved road and throw it down. If it hit right the match heads would explode and the bolts would go flying with incredible force.

We stopped doing this my brother had one of those big bolts nick his ear on it's way to who knows where.
Amazing we lived through childhood.