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**Mal H** · January 11, 2006, 01:33 PM

It's not totally a question of pounds (force), a primer requires a certain speed of impact as well, and I don't know exactly how fast that speed needs to be.

To illustrate, if you slowly push a firing pin shaped object into a primer in a normally primed case, it will not go off, the primer pellet will crush and the pin will eventually pierce the primer cup. In reality, you have exerted considerably more force on the primer than a hammer/firing pin does. Yet with the speed of the hammer coming into play the primer will go off.

So the bottom line answer to the original question is - it depends.

January 11, 2006, 01:33 PM	#5
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,949	It's not totally a question of pounds (force), a primer requires a certain speed of impact as well, and I don't know exactly how fast that speed needs to be. To illustrate, if you slowly push a firing pin shaped object into a primer in a normally primed case, it will not go off, the primer pellet will crush and the pin will eventually pierce the primer cup. In reality, you have exerted considerably more force on the primer than a hammer/firing pin does. Yet with the speed of the hammer coming into play the primer will go off. So the bottom line answer to the original question is - it depends.