The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Reloading resize with a live primer?Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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| One of Us |
I have a bunch of cases with live primers in them but I want to run them through my FL resizer. Do I have to fire the primer off in my gun? or will they just push out with the primer extractor pin? ( without going pop) | ||
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| One of Us |
Just back off your decapping pin so it doesn't touch them. If you don't want to save primers just push them out slow. Never had one go off that way yet. Wear eye and ear protection if you're going to push them out. | |||
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one of us |
If you want to remove them then simply resize as usual. I woudl were eye protection. Yet I've never had a live primer go off. If you want to use them then like srose said back off the decapping pin so it doesn't contact. As usual just my $.02 Paul K | |||
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| One of Us |
ok thanks .. I will back out my decapping pin. Im still very new to this and wasnt even sure i could back it out .... thanks. | |||
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| one of us |
depending on the die set it might be just as easy to remove the pin and leave the expander where it is. As usual just my $.02 Paul K | |||
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one of us |
I've pushed out live primers from one cartridge and then used them in another. No problems at all. Graybird "Make no mistake, it's not revenge he's after ... it's the reckoning." | |||
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| One of Us |
There is no reason to decap if you just want to resize the cases. If you do ever need to decap a live primer you will have one of two events occur; The last thing you will ever see is a blinding flash as the walls blow out of your reloading room and the roof falls in to crush you to death OR nothing at all will happen. So far, I'm still alive so it can't be very dangerous!  | |||
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| One of Us |
I wouldn't reuse one that you pushed out. The primer pellet will be crushed and might not fire or may give poor ignition. You might end up with a KER_THUNK | |||
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One of Us |
It's pretty usual for people to do things that are dangerous and not get hammered...just because you've decapped live primers before doesn't mean the next time you do it Murphy won't extract his payment. Knowing that priming compound is impact sensitive and can be unstable is knowing enough NOT to do the thing that people have done and not gotten caught...namely pushing out live primers in a sizing die...I think it is totally stupid and ignorant to do so...no flame or diss intended, but if you do things like this you fall into that catagory of "stay the he** away from me" persons...when it is so easy to just fire the primer and be safe. Think about the scenario you are setting up if the primer does go off...the primer would be firing into a cylinder closed at one end by a screw but still able to act upon the case in the sizer attached to the primer ram...the pressure the primer generates is going to push against the case equally in all directions but also on a moveable piston so to speak...the bottom of the shell case attached to the ram with no telling just HOW much pressure...which depends on whether the primer is a standard or magnum, pistol or rifle. I know what happens when a primed case with a bullet seated and no powder, goes off...the bullet gets stuck part way down the barrel or actually exits in some cases with enough force to make a good sized crater in the ground in front of you. This scenario isn't something I want to happen in a press, inside my loading room with the possibllity of an opwn can of powder close by...NOT to save the few cent cost of a primer...not good economics by ANY stretch of the imagination. Basically a long, wordy treatise meaning "get you head outta your backside" and wake up...to put it un-politically correct and straight to the point. It is YOUR choice to be safe or unsafe...bottom line. Luck | |||
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| One of Us |
Punching out live primers is just plain DUMB. | |||
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| One of Us |
Key word:"impact sensitive".. You can crush a primer in a vise and it won't ignite. It takes a sharp blow to do that. Putting the depriming pin against the primer and gradually increasing the pressure until it drops out isn't what you'd call a sharp blow. And too, if one does pop, what's the big deal?? And please don't try to tell me that your press would explode or whatever. If any significant pressure developed, the primer would be forced down thru the press ram and the pressure would vent that way. Anyone that has ever used a Lee Loader has had a primer pop whilst he was seating it. It's kinda exciting but not really dangerous. Aim for the exit hole | |||
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| new member |
Tried ONCE completly on accident had to clean out shorts it POPPED learned to really check after that.Put the concept of following ALL safety precautions into perspective | |||
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| One of Us |
Nicely put. | |||
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| One of Us |
I'll never forget using an old Lee Loader hand loading set when I was maybe 10 years old. I was loading 44 magnum rounds for my rifle. That priming set up where you place the primer in the priming tool with the spring loaded washer to hold it in place. Next you take your case and place over the primer then take the steel rod placing it in the case. Take a hammer and start tapping the primer in. Now I had already loaded hundreds of rounds this way. TINK TINK TINK BLAM!!!!!!!!!!! My hand was numb and black. The steel rod still in my hand and primer still in the case. My ears were ringing and my Dad was looking at me like he should have never bought this thing for me. So thats when my dad went and bought me a Lee hand priming tool. So can a primer go off YES but it won't blow up your shop unless you set off all your powder. Probably not a good idea to push primers out but yes many have done it without problems. The best thing is like I said before back your decap pin out and size away. Leave the primer as is. | |||
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Moderator |
I have decapped live primers and have never had one go off from doing so. Granted, I do not make a career of it and I put a towel over the ram (see story below) but as long as the case was otherwise empty it can be done safely. I have had a primer go off during loading- a primer got cocked sideways in the dillon (550B) and went off during the priming stroke. Other than it beig loud, startling, and re-emphasizing that safety glasses are a really good idea always there was no damage to anything. The story I do have about primers is my brother and I once tossed a 20 guage shell in the fireplace, the powder burned up after a few moments but nothing else. About 10 minutes later the primer blew, and the cup part shot out and hit my brother in the thumb right at the knuckle. It travelled under his skin for about 3/4"-1". We cut it out with an exacto knife, but his hand was a couple feet away from the fire so there is a bit of force involved. Anyway, for decapping I screw the pin out and bring the case up, the primer will come out before there is a tight seal between the case and the die, but as I mentioned I like to just toss a towel over the press so if one does go off it does not get directed at you. NOW.... Having said all that, we are not even talking about depriming just resizing. I would remove the decapping stem completely so if one ever did go off all the force goes out the top of the die instead of pushing the primer out and elsewhere, and a towel over the ram at least is also a good idea to help keep one out of your crotch IMHO. for every hour in front of the computer you should have 3 hours outside | |||
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| One of Us |
Yep. IF the primer popped all pressure would VENT through where the primer drops out of the press. . | |||
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| One of Us |
Don't touch the primers by removing the decapping pin and you really have nothing to worry about.. a body sizing die also works well in a case like this... if you don't have one, but have another die, based on the same case, but a larger caliber... say a 243 needs to be resized, but you have a 260 Rem Die, you can take the decapping unit out of the 260 and it serves as a body die for the 243... or an 06 and 270 for instance...( ya just need to adjust the 06 die a little higher due to the shoulder of the 270 being a hair higher than the 06...) I use my 338/06 die to bump back the shoulder on my 30/06 cases if I need a body die there.. or a 7 x 57 die to bump the shoulder back on a 6.5 x 57... using your head and imagination can go a long way...without compromising safety... | |||
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One of Us |
Jeez,10 years old was pretty young to start off with ringing in your ears. It must have taken me another 30+ years  | |||
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| One of Us |
I stated younger than that loading shotgun shells for a friend of my dad. He thought me how to load and made me make all his shells. I loved every minute of it and he got lots of shells. Good deal for both of us. He would also take me out to shoot them up. I'm still here after 51 years and have 10 fingers. | |||
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One of Us |
Despite all the traditional mythology, in my experience little or nothing happens when a live primer fires in a sizing die, other than a fairly loud "pop". Likewise, though I have often read about bullets being driven part way down the bore by a primer being fired in a case (with no powder), that certainly is not my experience. I have fired numerous primers in cases containing bullets but no powder, and the bullets didn't go ANYWHERE, not even into the bore, let alone part way down it. That with the .30 BR cartridge, which has a fairly small capacity case, and therefore should have a relatively higher pressure than most larger cases with the same size primer. Still, just to be safe, I wouldn't even have the decapping stem in my dies if I was sizing primed cases...which deed I've done many times. And I always wear safety glasses when reloading, just for drill. But think about this to put things in some perspective. When the Brits used to load cordite as the propellant in their ammo, the cordite was already in the case before the case neck was even formed. I have never read or heard a report of anyone being harmed in that process. It probably has happened that a round or two went off. It is also possible at some time or another someone was harmed. But a case full of original cordite contained a fair amount of gelled nitroglycerine in a nitrocellulose base..... With proper thought and precautions. lots of things which might otherwise be considered horribly dangerous are really pretty mundane. (Passing within three feet of another car at 75 miles per hour, for instance...) My country gal's just a moonshiner's daughter, but I love her still. | |||
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| One of Us |
Well said, AC. Aim for the exit hole | |||
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| One of Us |
Whether it IS safe or not, your description of what MIGHT happen is seriously flawed. Due to the design of the press, no harm can come to you or the press as the bottom of the shell holder has a hole in it, which if a live primer DOES go off when you decap it, it will harmlessly be blown out of the case and down into the ram. Also, I have never seen a primer cause a bullet to exit a barrel, it cannot generate enough pressure to even fully engage the rifling in all but possibly a wadcutter style lead bullet that is under bore size. Now, the craziest thing I've seen was a guy trying to re-seat high primers in loaded rounds at the range with a Lee loader and mallet because they wouldn't chamber in his rifle! | |||
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One of Us |
Personaly I would just load them up and shoot them.. Since they have primers in them, shouldnt they already be sized? AK-47 The only Communist Idea that Liberals don't like. | |||
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