Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mass Primer Explosion

Below is posted a picture of the parts of an RCBS press mounted priming arm, or more correctly, everything that could be found. A member of my family had filled the primer tube from a standard primer pick-up tube. As so often happens the last primer down the tube was left at the top of the tube cocked sideways just a bit. He touched the primer with the little wire clip from the pick-up tube and the whole thing exploded. I questioned him about whether there was any chance he hit the primer with wire clip hard enough to detonate it and he is certain that he did not. He is convinced that a static spark set the first one off. The remainder he is not too sure. Maybe an impact from the first one.

His hand was cut up pretty bad and the large, split part of the tube impacted his leg hard enough to leave a huge bruise in the exact shape of the part.

Anyone have any ideas about what happened? I have used a wire clip thousands of times to turn that last primer to go down the primer tube. I've never given any thought to a static charge detonating a primer.

Here's what was left.

SS

I don`t think it was a static charge.Just my opinion.

Now that is scary! I can think of various scenarios where exploding primers could cause a chain reaction. What about shotshell primers in a tube in close proximity to the powder hopper in a loading press?

I don't know if static electricity could set off a primer. There seems to be a consensus that a static spark is extremely unlikely to ignite black powder, but you never know.

Paul

I'm not sure just what happend here. If contact between the wire and the primer detonated it, then it should have detonated at the top of the tube, well away from the rest of the primers. The flame from the primer should have shot upward, away from the other primers.
If a primer at the bottom of the tube detonated, I can see where that would ignite the rest of them. But not one at the top, separated fromm the rest of them.
I've always used a clean portion of one of my fingers to drop the last primer. Been doing that for about 50 yrs. w/o problems.
I sure hope he was wearing eye protection. E

I stopped using the wire clip and use the plastic rod that works my low primer sensor instead. This way I know the primer pick up tube is completely emptied. Usually where one goes the rest in the column follow.
Does he have carpet in his loading area? Don't doubt the static charge as the cause.

Several years ago there was extensive testing with static elecrtricty in setting off of powder, primers and black powder. and the conculsion was that there is not enough heat generated to set off even the black powder dust. it will however set off gas vapors which does not need heat..

So he had to have poked the primer with the end of the wire to set it off, it only has to scratch the surface of the primer material to cause a reaction....;all you guys stop poking the last primer to set it up right, it will usually righten itself by the time it is needed if left alone.

I think it possible that a static spark did set it off, but perhaps what initially went off was an accumulation of priming compound dust inside the tube. That in turn set off the top primer, which drove itself down forcibly onto the exposed anvil of the next - and so forth.

I am aware of all the experiments to set off reloading components with small static charges. He is very certain that he had not "tapped" the primer with the wire clip. I suppose that a small scratch is possible. I wouldn't have thought that would do it either. He was lucky in that he wears glasses.

He does have carpet in his loading room.

So what set off the rest of them?

SS

wow.....guess I get rid of the paper clip to push the top primer down...small wooden dowel rod I guess...

I think a chain reaction in a primer tube could be set off by either flash or impact. Years ago when I was young(er) and dumb(er) I cooked off a primer on an electric stove. It was head down on the burner, and it bent the heck out of the heating element when it went off.

Paul

I'm inclined to think that maybe there was an accumulation of priming coumpound inside the tube as well. I've gotten into the habit of fluffing up a Q-tip saturated with denatured alcohol and cleaning out the priming tubes after I'm through using them. Sometimes, I clean them out just before usiong them as well just to be on the safe side. it only take a few minutes for the alcohol to evaporate and the tube usable once more.
Paul B.

I wish I could buy an explanation as simple as primer dust but I think it is out of the quesion.

After examining things it is obvious that the initial ignition came from the primer in the very tip of the tube. The part that is "banana peeled." It opened up the top of the tube pretty uniformly. Also the body of the primer was found lodged in the section about halfway from the bottom of the banana-ed section to where the tube parted. The section of the tube that held the primer column is the part that is flattened open.

So I am pretty sure that the top primer ignited. Whether it was scratched or static or some other mechanism that set it off. I just don't see how priming compound could have been built up to that level on the tip of the tube where that last primer hung.

I dunno.

SS

Shouldn't this be investigated by a forensic lab to see if there's a safety issue involved here? There's a lot of factors that come into play with "static electricity", is there not? Some people, I seem to remember reading, just naturally accumulate more of it than others due to not completely understood body chemistry.

That it blew when he touched it with the metal pin would certainly seem to point to a static discharge. Would the pin, because of it's size at the point of discharge, not concentrate the burst onto a smaller surface area, and thereby intensify it?

He's damn lucky he didn't loose an eye!!! Man, that's scary stuff!

Static electrical discharge could be easily bled when the wire contacted the tube before touching the primer. I guess the static charge could travel through the tube to the primer, but it has to jump a gap, I suspect, before it would ( if possible) ignite the primer compound.

It is akin to trying to remove parts in the game Operation...... From the description I assume the odds are the ignition point was NOT spark related.

LOL on the forensic scientist......

The sky is falling, sell all RCBS priming tubes..... Sue the bastads who designed this tool of convenience.....


BTW I have a wire follower I install in my Dillon reloader, and watch it's movement to make sure a primer is fed into the case for every cycle, plus watch the slide bar. My tool also stops the slide after the last primer, so if I notice it not sliding forward I know it is out of primers. The Dillon is long enough to allow my long wire to touch the sides shorting out any static, I believe.

Sorry to see this.....

Allen

Seems that I recall reading years ago about the dangers of accumulated primer dust in priming tubes. Can't remember where or when.

Over the years there has been a steady but rare report of tube
explosions. Some people have placed an additional tube over
the primer tube.
Good Luck!

I bought a Dillon over 20 years ago. His primer tubes have a heavy steel cover tube that screws down over the plastic primer tube. So, I guess there was a concern in his mind. He offered a fix. Which, is why I like Dillon.

Dan

My Dillon 550b uses aluminum tubes with plastic feed lip at the bottom. Must be some other model or the early tubes that were plastic?

Allen

I don't do nearly as much reloading as the most of you do. But haveing been in demolitions while in the service, I take static discharge very seriously!

I have a 1/2" x 6" x 6 foot long steel plate mounted to the front edge of my maple reloading bench. My presses are mounted to this plate and it is grounded.

I use a wrist band (for working on computers) to ground myself to this plate when reloading.

This is just as a safty precaution, but then again I don't use primer tubes either.


Phil

This thread and the one about tubular magazines should be combined. 'Specially the part about how a line of cartridges going off won't damage anything because they are not contained.