I had a dangerous situation that I wasn't sure how to handle

[Gunnels]

I had a situation come up the other day that was scary and I didn't know how to handle. I was reloading 9mm on a Lee Turret press. When I finished reloading a round I realized that the primer was only partially seated and the priming seating arm was jammed up so it wouldn't move out of the way. So I had a fully loaded round in the press. I couldn't remove the round from the shell holder because the partially seated primer was preventing sliding the round from the shell holder. I couldn't remove the shell holder because the primer seating arm was stuck in the bottom of the shell holder.

I am interested in hearing from the veterans as to how I should have handled this.

[g.willikers]

It sounds like the primer feed mechanism would have to be loosened from the press and pulled out of the shell holder.
That should free the shell holder and round.
Once out of the press, pull the bullet and powder, then either remove the primer or reseat it.

[Lost Sheep]

Originally Posted by Gunnels

I am interested in hearing from the veterans as to how I should have handled this.
(edited for clarity)
I had a situation come up the other day that was scary and I didn't know how to handle.

I will see what I can do. I do have a question about your narrative

Originally Posted by Gunnels

So I had a fully loaded round in the press.

Was the loaded round truly finished, as in charged with propellant and bullet seated?

Originally Posted by Gunnels

I couldn't remove the round from the shell holder because the partially seated primer was preventing sliding the round from the shell holder.

I wonder if it is not the primer, but the priming arm's stem?

Partially seating primers happen sometimes and can prevent sliding the case out of the case holder. The solution is usually to just finish seating the primer. If there is no powder in the case, this is no more dangerous than normally seating a primer.

If there is powder in the case, the only danger of ignition is if granules of powder fell through the flash hole and jammed up against the anvil, creating more pressure than a "clean" seat. Drape a heavy (damp) towel over your press, wear eye protection (which you should have been doing all along anyway) and put on ear protection. Do you have a fire extinguisher handy? Whether you warn anybody else in the house is up to you. Finish seating the primer.

Originally Posted by Gunnels

I couldn't remove the shell holder because the primer seating arm was stuck in the bottom of the shell holder.

Before trying to fully seat the primer, make sure the primer seating stem is in proper position (that is, the priming arm all the way in).

If the priming arm is jammed tight, that is one thing. If the priming arm can be wiggled, you might be able to wiggle it loose.

I have, on occasion, seated a primer sideways in the primer pocket. Seated fully, the primer was deformed and squished all the way so the case came out of the shell holder with no resistance. If I can deform a primer that badly, you can see that they are hard to set off if you crush it slowly. If a primer is hit with a sharp, fast impact, it is very easy to set off. But even the Lee Loader (the one driven by a mallet) has a pretty good track record of seating primers without setting them off.

If a primer does go off in a loaded round where the round is not confined (as in a gun's chamber) the results may be spectacular, but not particularly ballistic. The bullet usually stays about where it is. The case often splits, sometimes ripping a few shards of brass. These shards can come out at some velocity and have sharp edges, so draping a heavy towel between you and the round is appropriate. Primers are kind of loud, especially close by and in a closed room, to ear protection is advisable if there is any chance of the primer igniting. Eye protection goes without saying.

I have no clue as to why the priming arm is stuck. Got pictures?

Lost Sheep

[Gunnels]

The round was a fully assembled cartridge with primer, powder and bullet. Ultimately I was able to get the primer fully seated and was able to remove the bullet. I was scared as heck seating the primer is a live round. I had to press pretty hard. I wasn't sure if I should have done something differently.

Thank for the replies.

[spacecoast]

Not directly related to the OP's situation, but I've also noticed a high primer from time to time in my loading process. Because I use a hand press and dippers, I usually process 50 or 100 rounds at a time. When I fill a case with powder and set it down with the others, a high primer is easy to detect (at that time) because the round doesn't sit level. Then it's an easy matter to dump the powder and reseat the primer (with the proper press configuration, of course).

[Lost Sheep]

Spacecoast, be careful about any powder that made it through the flashhole. I suggest checking primer seating BEFORE charging with powder.

Gunnels, how did you manage to charge the case, seat and crimp a bullet without noticing the stuck priming arm?

Object lesson: NEVER proceed with loading if ANYTHING takes an unexpected turn. Assess, correct and proceed.

I hope my words are not taken as harsh. They are not intended to be, but merely concise. Bumper-sticker style. You can even paste them on the wall above your press' location.

Good luck.

Lost Sheep

[Wavslave91]

Gunnels, thanks for the post. I'm just getting into the world of reloading and look forward to people that have these problems. You learn more from mistakes and mishaps than from success stories. Lost Sheep, thank you for the input! I will take it to heart as I venture into the world of reloading. Dennis

[NWPilgrim]

Originally Posted by Lost Sheep

Spacecoast, be careful about any powder that made it through the flashhole. I suggest checking primer seating BEFORE charging with powder.

Gunnels, how did you manage to charge the case, seat and crimp a bullet without noticing the stuck priming arm?

Object lesson: NEVER proceed with loading if ANYTHING takes an unexpected turn. Assess, correct and proceed.

I hope my words are not taken as harsh. They are not intended to be, but merely concise. Bumper-sticker style. You can even paste them on the wall above your press' location.

Good luck.

Lost Sheep

Ditto! If you kept going after priming with a stuck primer arm then you are going too fast and not paying close enough attention.

My number one rule in reloading is always be willing to stop everything and make corrections. Never press ahead if something looks different or weird. Examine and assess until you fully understand what is different and why. "Strange" is rarely good in reloading ammo.

Could you not have pulled the bullet with pliers? Remove die, run cartridge up into empty die hole, grab bullet with pliers, lower ram to pull bullet. I would then unbolt the press and dump out powder. Then reassemble press and die and reseat the primer.

I agree there is little chance of the primer going off, BUT you just had one weird thing happen you do understand, so doing something like that is more risky than normal, in my book.

[grumpa72]

Right or wrong, but I had a similar situation with my Lee and all I did was to slowly press the primer in, wearing proper protection of course and it was successful. I do recognize that there is a bit of heightened risk here but, in my case, I removed the powder measure and was wearing glasses and hearing protection.

[spacecoast]

Spacecoast, be careful about any powder that made it through the flashhole. I suggest checking primer seating BEFORE charging with powder.

Lost Sheep -

Thanks, will do in the future. With a hand press, the "feel" for primer seating is very very good, so I've only noticed it a couple of times in almost 20K rounds, and I would never force things beyond what is a reasonable amount of seating pressure.

[JimDandy]

More and more, I'm convincing myself to just hand prime the brass away from a press.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

I prefer to hand prime myself... as part of case prep...

[Blindstitch]

In the scenario above I would have probably used a manual puller or visegrip and removed the projectile and then pour the powder out leaving myself to deal with primer by itself.

The way I was taught to reload many years ago may vary from others here but I do a batch process for priming and then focus on single rounds.

I use a lee hand prime and prime the case and usually if the primer isn't deep enough it won't come out of the hand prime but some times it does so I check the primer depth against a flat surface. If it doesn't sit flush then it goes back in.

I'll prime 10-20 cases and then individually measure 1 amount of powder, pour it into the casing and press the projectile in. This way I don't have a bunch of casings full of powder waiting for a projectile. Then if something happens and I need to stop for some reason I always come back to only primed cases.

[cheezhed]

I know that some people do not like to do this but I clean my primer pockets.
I used to occasionally get high primers or have one pop while I was seating them with a hand tool but since I engaged in this practice I have not had a problem with primer seating for over 16 years. With my turret press I find that seating the primers separately speeds up the turret operation as it is one less thing to do as you crank the handle. You will find a system that works for you.

[GP100man]

I covered mine with a peice of pipe with a cap so if it went off it would`ve been contained & pressure vented downward. Eyes/ears & heavy gloves were used , I even clamped a small peice of 1/4" plating in place ,"just in case"

1 time was enuff for me ,I went back to single stage & hand primer !

[Nick_C_S]

It was a crummy situation for sure, and I'm not sure how I would have handled it either.

But here's one thing to keep in mind:

Had the round detonated, the bullet wouldn't have taken off like it had been shot out of a gun; on the contrary. The case would have breached and violent eruption of burning powder would have occurred. By "violent eruption," I mean just short of an "explosion." It would have been loud. There would have been brass flying (most likely). But after the smoke cleared (literally), the most likely probability is that you would have come out of it pretty much unscathed and would be around to load another day. This is assuming you were wearing your eye protection - as you always do.

Oh, and the bullet - it would have been laying on the ground, near the press, with some flash marks on it; but otherwise able to be reloaded (not that you would).

[pathdoc]

I have gone backwards from a press to a Lee loader (yes! and I prefer it!) - which means my loading cycle is deprime-resize-prime-recharge-seat, with a live round at the end of each cycle rather than as a batch job. As I know I don't get a second chance at these things once I've dumped the powder and seated the bullet, so I make sure I check each primer flush before I dump the charge.

[Quadpod88]

this may sound really stupid, mainly because i have never reloaded a round.
couldn't you just take the round itself out of the casing with pliers?
it wouldn't eliminate the risks, but maybe reduce it quite a bit