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

That may be part of the problem

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.

You can also break the head off of a strike anywhere match and put it in a fired .22 LR case and seal the end up. You can lay it on an anvil and hit it with a hammer and it will make a noise about like a .22.

If you want more noise, you can take a .38 special case and fill it with match heads, seal the end and hit it with a hammer. For a LOT more noise, you can listen to your Dad telling you how stupid that was, as he drives you to the hospital emergency room to get the brass fragment dug out of your leg.

Anyone ever been talked to disrespectively and loudly by an angry Dad, all the while having him add insults and negative comments about your intellegence, or lack of same?

1-7:
Sounds like the voice of experience.

B.I.F.

NO! Not with my Dad...Talking was NOT part of the punishment cycle..

If my leg had not been bleeding pretty bad, I think my Dad would have duplicated your Dad's punishment method.

I guess he learned pretty early that you cannot beat the stupid out of a kid.

I had a primer go off once while pulling a bullet in an RCBS "kinetic" puller puller.

I was pounding it on the concrete floor of my basement.

the primer embedded about 3/8" into the 1" subfloor above me.

Talking was a fundamental part of my Dad's punishment cycle. It occured in the pre-arse-whuppin' stage, the arse-whuppin' stage, into the "just for good measure" arse-whuppin' stage, continued in the "in case you ever think about doin' it again" arse-whuppin' stage, and wrapped up with a good loooooong lecture in the post-arse-whuppin' stage.

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.

I've had a couple go off while priming cases with the Lee Loader.... nothing but a fright at the noise..... definitely wouldn't out right hammer one... without the influence of the kicken chicken that is....

We used to shoot off .22 cartridges by balancing them on the muzzle of a pellet gun, held up over our heads, 'til one of us perps held his hand too close and had his fingers lacerated by brass fragments. Cue in on 3 ten year-olds scattering for home. I thought I was ok for a while, until the phone rang...

It's starting to make sense that the old man didn't let me have a .22 for a few years after that.

I've used Lee Loaders quite a bit, and had a primer go off in my first one, for the 7.62 Russian, when I was 13. Made a nice noise but didn't even drive the priming rod back out of the tool. No doubt it would have, but the hammer I used kept the rod inside the tool.

Haven't had one go off since, even when decapping cases with live primers. Takes a pretty good whack to make them go bang.

I tend to agree with John Woods (Aussie Gun Writer): Drinking beer is a better use of time.

Back in junior high my buddy thought it would be a good idea to try this. One whack with a hammer and the primer went BANG!! The anvil of the primer lodged in his head in his eyebrow. MAN did he bleed. Walked him into his house and had to try to explain to his mom what happened. That was not the end of our escapades however. In high school we built CO2 cartridge bombs. Fill them with gun powder, use a waterproof wick and seal with candle wax. It'll blow a toilet clean out of the floor. Don't ask....

Chuckle....sure made my mother excited when I was 14 and loading .308s. If you didn't get the case perfectly centered over the primer, BANG. Made me jump the first time. Dad came in, saw how the priming operation worked and noticed how heavy the metal die on the Lee Loader was and quit worrying after that. Mom never did get used to it. I never even felt anything on my hand, the Lee system contained the primer quite well.

Contained gases (pressures) can be amazing. 1- 2"x8" stick of Emulsion has approx. 6 million horsepower upon initiation. I wouldn't be messing around with even little things.

I was about 10 years old and wanted to see what made shotgun shells work so I cut one apart with my pocket knife right where the brass base meets the cardboard. Dumped out the powder, picked out the wad and shot. I lit the powder with a wooden match and watched it burn.... hummmm..nothin to spectacular, kinda neat effect. Had to see what the primer would do so I turned the brass base upside down on the concrete floor in the garage, got a center punch in one hand, centered it on the primer, gave it a wack with a small hammer...ouch!!!!!!!....at the supper table mom asked what happened to my hands..... told her I cornered a big grey squirrel in the garage, when i grabbed ahold it chewed my hands up pretty bad.. told me I was an idiot........

An ignited primer has enough force to push a 240 grain cast bullet out of the barrel of a 6 inch S&W 629 44 Mag that was mistakenly �dry balled� (uncharged).

A .22 LR will go off if you vacuum it up with a vacuum cleaner.

I guess it sort of depends on how the internal parts are made, but on the old upright we had, I know for a fact that it would fire a .22.

She was right. Anybody knows better than to corner a grey squirrel.

My "accidental discharges" happened with the. 308 Winchester. My experience mirrors yours exactly. Nothing more than a little ear ringing....