Primers wasted

[oneounceload]

Have "reused" primers for over 30 years with no issues, pop then out and put them right back in. It really isn't that big of a deal if you go slow and careful.

[snuffy]

So go back ---years to see foxbat slamming the ram into live primers, then holding his fingers under the shell holder to catch the ejected primer! BANG, OUCH, DAMNIT!:barf:


Well-l-l if it's confession time, then here goes for this topic. Ever wonder how much power a primer has? How about 1½ inches into my quadriceps muscle? Yep, had to have a doctor dig it out while under a fluoroscope in the ER! I did everything wrong that day. I had been given a bucket of old 30-06 shells, had to be 500 in it. Problem was they were ALL primed. They had been in somebodies garage uncovered. I loaded a few, had some misfires, so I was in the process of depriming them.

I was using a punch I made from a chunk of allen wrench, a ¼ incher, turned to a pin on the end that would pass through a flash hole. I made it for decapping crimped primers. I had the shells in a -06 shell holder, hitting them with a hammer, the punch and shell holder on my bench. It was awkward, but I had none go off, so I transferred the shell holder to my right leg.

Well the first one I tried on my leg went off! Didn't hurt much, didn't bleed much, but I couldn't feel it when I went in the hole with a probe. The decapper pin blocked the flash hole, the shell holder acted like a barrel, so I suspect it had pretty good velocity! Made a nice clean hole in my jeans!

At the ER, they immediately thought I had been shot. They took X-rays, the cup and anvil had separated, the cup was 1.5 inches into the muscle. Try explaining to a bunch of doctors and nurses what a primer is! Fortunately one of the male orderlies was a reloader! he said call off the cops, he's not been shot.

It took a while to get it out, the anvil was easy, the cup was hard to get ahold of. Thank God for Novocain!

Now that was 39 years ago, I'm much smarter now. The lesson here is to avoid any sudden, hard hits to a live primer. They DO posses a lot of power. And they're nearly impossible to de-activate, at least now they are. Those primers had been in those 06 shells for years before I came into possession of them, the older primers weren't sealed like they are now.

[Foxbat]

Great story, snuffy! In my case the cap did not hit the finger, just the shock wave did. Still, the doc spent long time digging out tiny pieces of, I guess, explosive stuff residue.

I think it would be bad omen if people reading this thread went away "knowing" primers don't explode when pushed out. Sometimes they don't... but sometimes they do.

[David Wile]

Hey Foxbat,

I don't understand folks like you. You seem to take great joy E-Thugging folks and claiming some nebulous victory that only exists in your mind. Now you make this grandiose statement as if it came down the hill with Moses as the 11th Commandment:

"I think it would be bad omen if people reading this thread went away "knowing" primers don't explode when pushed out. Sometimes they don't... but sometimes they do."

I guess you could also say it would be bad for folks to go away from this or any thread "knowing" that guns don't explode when reloaders use the wrong powder or the wrong amount of powder. Sometimes they don't... but sometimes they do.

Like someone else said earlier, stupid is as stupid does. Yes there are instances where someone has a firearm come apart, but it always seems to lead back to something stupid done by the reloader, and the stupid act usually is related to an overcharge of some powder. Yes, you can make a primer go off if you really work at it. Snuffy described how he drove a primer in his leg: "I had the shells in a -06 shell holder, hitting them with a hammer, the punch and shell holder on my bench. It was awkward, but I had none go off, so I transferred the shell holder to my right leg." I would submit this was not Snuffy's finest hour in reloading. Now, could you tell me where in this thread anyone suggested that live primers be removed as Snuffy has described? Obviously Snuffy's post did not advocate for others doing what he did. He actually did just the opposite.

Virtually every person who said they remove live primers safely also stated they use their press instead their leg, they advocate eye protection, and not a single one of them ever had the problem that you and Snuffy had. I apologize in advance for using Snuffy's name in the same sentence with Foxbat's.

Foxbat, you seem to experience some sort of cyber space orgasmic experience when you make statements like, "LOL! I see you still can't forget that I rubbed your nose into your lies! Twice, actually... " You, however, are the only one who seems to be able to believe what you say. Shoney did not lie, and you did not rub his nose in anything. The only thing you did was to spew out words like you would hear on an elementary school playground. You really need to grow up. This is not your first time at this E-Thugging stuff. You do it repeatedly, and your remarks are those of a childish bore.

Again, grow up.

Dave Wile

[Foxbat]

Instead of using this many words, you could have simply said something like: "Removing live primers is stupid". For this was the subject of this discussion.

As far as Shony's lie - it doesn't get any more true from your support.

So why don't you just grow up?

[GregM727]

For a three cents, removal of a live primer cannot possibly be worth it.

[Citywaterman]

It's simply not worth taking the chance of getting hurt to salvage a component that is only worth a couple pennies. It was a curious question that I'm sure has been asked many times in the past. I'm still new at reloading (about a year now) and I learn something new everyday by reading and asking questions. Thanks for all the responses. Citywaterman

[Shane Tuttle]

You know, I think I'm seeing a very disturbing pattern in the Skunkworks.

Closed.