Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Problem ...yes or no

I wonder if Yondering is ........Yo I'm pondering !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best way to do that is put a #9 bird shot in the primer seater for additional fun...

Thank you for some comman sense.

Having the round loaded or not doesn't make the primer any more or less likely to go off. Some of you guys really are a bunch of old ninnys.

I did say "use appropriate caution". That doesn't mean to be terrified and never do it. If you're the kind of person who can't trust themselves not to hammer on a primer at the press maybe you shouldn't do that.

When a piece of newly primed brass comes out of the priming tool, the first thing that happens is my index finger slides over the head of the brass and new primer. If it is not seated correctly I catch it immediately, not after I’ve primed a tray full of brass. Don’t remember who I learned that from, but I’ve been doing it so long that it’s automatic. Don’t even have to think about doing it.

I don't believe I would try to seat a primer on a loaded round deeper. If it is a bolt action just load and shoot them and use a primer pocket uni-former on the next reload cycle and they should seat ok.

If the primer pocket is defective (too short), I don't know that trying to use a press would work if you tried it.

However, this talk of re-seating a primer on a loaded round reminds me of some interesting history. In Hatcher's Notebook, Gen. Hatcher set off some loose rounds, I believe .45 ACP and perhaps .30-06, under a cardboard box. I believe he was trying to put to bed the "Hollywood myth" of throwing loaded rounds into a campfire and killing or wounding everyone in proximity, (Funny, that image reminds me of more than a few threads here on our "campfire"!)

If I recall correctly, he used a battery to heat up and "cook off" the primer. Also if I recall correctly, none of the bullets penetrated the box because so little pressure was generated in the case before the bullet left the case. I also recall some brass fragments being a result, but none with much energy. I wonder what a round held only by a shell holder, i.e. not in a die, would do if one managed to function the primer of a loaded round when attempting to re-seat it?

I'm certainly not advocating the practice, but it might not prove quite as devastating as we imagine. I'd darn sure be wearing "eyes and ears."

I'd have more definitive information, but my Hatcher's is in remote storage.

What I do with virgin brass is I neck size only on the first firing and I prep the brass before loading it. I uniform the primer pocket, deburr the flash hole, chamfer and deburr the case mouths. After the first firing of the brass I bump the shoulders .001 back each time I load them.

Just thought I'd let everyone know that I shot the loads with the slightly raised primers this morning. I shot a 5 shot group that measured an honest 1/2" in my original 1962 Rem700 BDL with it's original 20" barrel and wood stock. Although that rifle has always been pretty accurate, that's the best group that I've shot with that rifle in a many years. So I guess that answers my question whether shooting those loads were safe and worthwhile to shoot. Thanks to all of you that replied to my original question. Ben