WOW, that was something I was loading some primers in some cases today for my .223 and I had one primer that wasn't seated all the way in so I give it another slam and it fired, I'm betting I'm not the first guy that had this happen to him.

A buddy did that once while I was sitting in loading room with him. He was loading for his Mini and I was looking the rifle over when the primer popped.

Neither of us knew WTF for a second, both thought the "unloaded " gun went off. Figured out it was just the primer he had wedged between the case and primer holder.

When seating primers I've never given one a first slam, let alone a second.

Yeah, slamming isn't good for seating primers, which is why I don't use the priming "system" with Lee Loaders anymore, even when I use the loaders themselves. Had a Large Rifle primer go off when I was 13 when using the Lee Loader for my Mosin-Nagant, and never wanted it to happen again. And it hasn't!

I use an RCBS hand priming tool and always point it away from me and I wear safety glasses.

I had one go off on me in an old Ç-H press. A small piece of metal about the size of #12 shot had gotten in the primer cup somehow. It was spooky and you can bet to this day I make sure the primer cup is clean before I start.

Yea,I found that I to had a small shaving of a casing in the primer cup, and I did slow down on my loading now, I was doing the second set of one hundred loads and I just wanted to get done with them.

Just slam that sombeetch in there...

++
If that doesn't work the use a Hammer and beat it in

Riverrider,You must be a real idiot posting a photo like that, a primer has less of a bang then a firecracker....

I think I deserve credit for being able to post a pic.

The least you could do is consider the notion that once in a great while, some oddball will make a half-assed effort to post something to bring a touch of humor into a discussion.

If you doubt the power of a large rifle primer, I'd suggest that you NOT smack one with a hammer to find out, like I did when I was 11 years old.

For anybody who hasn't done it, take a primed empty case, put it in your rifle and fire it.

For full effect do this inside with no hearing protection.

Oh yeah, warn the wife before you do this.

Afterwards remove the bolt and look down the barrel. It will look just as dirty as it looked after your last range session.

The experience will give you more respect for the amount of power contained in that tiny primer.

Outbackandy: I am certainly happy you were NOT injured!
My friend was using his Lee handpriming tool to re-prime about 500 45 ACP cases while he and his wife and two daughters were watching T.V. one evening a few years ago.
At a tense moment in the movie they were watching his priming tool "lit one off"!
I guess it was really loud and in the confines of their T.V. room.
There were screaming crying girls running in every direction for a while - and again luckily no one was injured.
I have been reloading centerfire Rifle cartridges since I taught myself to do so when I was 12 years old - I am now 69 and I have never had a primer detonate on me as I was installing them (a couple hundred thousand rounds?)!
No, you are not the first, but I tend to think your incident did NOT need to happen.
NO slamming nothing, when I am reloading.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

LOL.

Good suggestion..... I think...

One time to be careful is if you are seating primers in brass that has had the primer pockets crimped. When you ream the crimps out sometimes little bits of brass can fall into the priming arm cup and when you seat the primer the piece of brass indents the primer like a firing pin.

I've made it a habit to make sure there is a die in the press so that if the primer blows it won't come up through empty hole In the press into my face.

Good idea. I was using a RCBS hand priming tool and had a hundred primers go off while gently shaking the tray to flip the primers. No one has figured out what really happened and RCBS made it right but it sure got my attention. Wrecked a pair of new jeans, scorch mark on the right leg and bruise under the scorch mark. Fingers of my right hand stung for about a half day. I found another piece of the priming tray last week.

The 'tap-in' method which is used by those little Lee Loader sets is the only "system" I have seen which involves that kind of sharp impact when seating primers. Fortunately it is also a very safe and contained method - probably the most contained since the primer is fully enclosed when it is being seated. And I have had 'several' primers go off when using Lee Loaders over the years.

AS far as I have been able to figure, you could get into trouble in two ways with them: once if you have unprotected eyes above the case mouth (where the primer explosion is released between the case neck and the primer seating rod...the tolerances being quite small there); the second could potentially happen, and this would be the bigger concern, if you had a quantity of primers exposed nearby which could be detonated by the ignition of the one inside the tool parts.

Open primers are certainly nothing to trifle with. 30 years ago my 'foolish curiosity' caused me to pursue a controlled experiment whereby I 'discovered' that primers in an otherwise empty case will propel themselves out of the primer pocket with sufficient force to penetrate cardboard boxes. Knowing that, I later disposed of perhaps 40 primers from old ammo by placing them in a soup can which was buried in soil with only the open end exposed skyward. When a crumpled paper 'wick' finally burned down and the primers went off, the sides of the can were perforated and the can bottom was well protruded.

While I don't load 'varmint ammo' by the thousands as some do, I have somewhat unconsciously made it a habit to load primers 20-30 at a time into primer trays anymore, even when I'm priming several hundred cases. Knowing what they can do.....


But back to the Lee Loader incidents, after a few 'surprises', I developed a method where I would hold the priming rod near the mouth of the case so I could gauge the seating of the primer with a few light taps and then stop. It seems that continued taps after the primer is fully seated is what causes Lee Loader 'surprises'.

I use the Lee Auto-prime hand tools. In the interest of safety I only put 20 primers at a time in the tray, usually. My max is 25 at one time if I am loading lots of 50 or 100 cases.

Something I have only noticed with the tool set up for the small primers: once in a while a primer will bounce up on edge on the seating bolt and try to seat sideways. I caught a couple before exerting much force. That seems a good way to induce a discharge. Now I visually inspect for proper presentation before I give the handle a squeeze. It just takes a split second to check.

Scott,
It sounds like you had an exciting experience. I am glad you came out okay.

Thanks, I came out fine. I will say RCBS was great to work with in trying to find the cause and they replaced the hand priming tool with the bench tool that takes standard shell holders and refused to let me pay the difference.

Reminds me of high school.....hit a rifle primer on the stage /gym ,with my buck knife...during a quiet assembly....holy crap sounded like a 357 teachers went bizerk.....we played innocent and they never knew....
Bet they still wonder what happened...

Primers do pack some punch and deserve respect. One of my rifles is a 4mm RF which uses only a primed case to propel the lead BB. 800+ fps and it is not quiet at all.

The anvil is a potential hazard to the eyes in case of unscheduled detonation, and differentiating from powder, that is what it does. Detonate. Boom. Don't be puttin' on your 12 year old kid costume and grab the hammer.

Been loading since '72 give'r take, never had one pop on me. Did let my ex distract me once and I seated one upside down. No problem, it was her ammo anyway.

I do not use hand priming tools. The only "priming system" I use is on a MEC900G for loading shotguns. Otherwise, it's old school-in the Rockchucker-one at a time in the ram. I put a seat die in the press before the fact. My eyes are more important than the hobby.

Only experienced it once.... Many years ago with one of the old Lee Loaders tapping it in to seat the primer on a .303 British case. Didn't get hurt but decided I didn't want that happening again. Nowadays I have a small single stage Lee press mostly used for depriming and priming. Do the priming with a Lee Ram-Prime because I like the feel of it as you are seating the primer. Used to use a Lee hand held auto-prime also but eventually started doing it all with the ram-prime. No more slamming for me.

Never had one detonate while priming but did not notice primer in a case i was annealing case doesn.t have to get real hot before it will wake you up.

Set one on the vise and snacked with a hammer. Sumbitch was loud. Wife was not hapoy.