Reloading mishap - all primers detonated (pics to follow)

Hi all,

Have been reloading 9x19 for a short while now (~1200 so far), partly thanks to the help of some of you on this forum.
Have a Lee Loadmaster that has been after a LOT of tinkering reliably (95% or so) loading the ammo, used a wide collection of cases; Geco, Finocci, Blazer, Speer with N330 and up until this very memorable day CCI primers.

Today I bought a 1000pcs box of Federal. Don't think I have all the manuals for the press but I think it did say somewhere about not using Federal primers... risk of explosion... long story short idiots learn by own mistakes.

I had perhaps 100 or so primers left in the tray, loaded the tray 200 at a time, when on the upstroke (primer insertion)... BANG! Smoke, <deleted> flying eveywhere, my first thought was that a full case with bullet went off.
Thankfully I was smart enough to use some heavy duty goggles at least... though this time "well, I'll miss them most once I lose my eye or something".
Goggles helped, although I don't think I was hit.

As I was saying, upon primer insertion one of those bastards went off because it was being pushed in so that it was tilted, and eventually pressed halfway-flat and went off. The icing on the cake is that ALL primers in the tray went off in a chain-reaction. The tray vanished in a myriad of pieces.
I found the primer that went off because it was the only one still in the press, the rest are empty primer cups scattered around.
LUCKELY the nearly empty powder hopper got away easy and the powder never went off, but it is riddled with primer-impacts, like little dents all over.

Long story short - gave a bit of a scare, ears ringing, but I'm ok. Haven't seen myself in the mirror yet but both eyes work, he he.

pro tip: use those <deleted> earmuffs as well as a full face shield. And DONT use Federal primers in a Lee press!!!
Going to return the Federal primers to the store, and go back to CCI, as well as invest in an extra sizing die that will center the cases in the priming stage.

PICS TO FOLLOW SOON

They will laugh at you at the store if you try to blame the primers.

Click to expand...

These (federal) primers are specifically not recommended by Lee, plus - oh the irony - I asked for CCI and they had none so I said "OK I'll try Federal, as long as they don't blow up" and the salesman said "no, of course they won't". That was about an hour ago.

From that 1000pcs CCI primer box I used up I had MANY that went in sideways - were pressed flat on a case where the old primer wasn't popped out properly... etc. NO ISSUES.
Federal however seems to be a tad larger than CCI because many cases seem to cut off a tiny burr on some primers.
Plus all the issues with CCI were related to either powder grains stuck in the index wheel, or some speck of dirt stuck in the priming mechanism, or that bar that keeps the case inside the index wheel not being tightened enough.
I figured all that out on my first 1000 rounds I loaded, so this time the press was tuned right and ready to continue loading. The only difference this time were the primers.
Also, the cases that never had any issues with primer size - Geco cases, fired twice, hence not tight primer holes at all - suddenly started "shaving off" tiny bits of metal from the Federal primer cups.
In other words, Federal is sized wrong and it is MUCH more sensitive than CCI.

You should be able to feel a cocked primer going in kicking & screaming, and stopped forcing it right there.

Click to expand...

In a 5-stage progressive press? You know how unique every stroke is? Some primers go out with a "click", some don't. Some cases go trough the sizing die easy - some don't. Some new primers get pushed in with a "click"... about 1 in 4. Plus two other dies (powder-trough-expander and seasting-and-crimping dies) to make other various resistance on every stroke.
So no, unless you use a separate primer you won't feel every primer being pushed in as easy as you describe it.

"Prime" suspect:

One loaded cartridge was hit by a primer cup:

What's left of the primer tray and feeder:


Ps:
Otto, yeah exactly :banghead:
My mistake, I'm paying for it.

I don't object to the obvious here - a primer is designed to fire on impact. A crushing of any primer will cause one to go off, in this case Federal is much more sensitive. But what amazes me is that ALL primes went off in a chain reaction... every single one. Both inside the tray, and inside the tube going from the tray, and if you think about it once a primer is fed from the tray it is separated by a plastic arm (that pushed it under the cartridge) and upon insertion is pushed upwards away from the primer feeder. So that explosion traveled about 5mm over air, in and trough an already closed gap where the primer came from, and ignited all the other primers.

Something to think about.

What I will get is a sizing die to place it in the empty slot over the primer, so that every case gets adjusted and centered and doesn't get a primer fed into a pocket that is out of place.

And people complain about the size of the Federal packaging.

Click to expand...

Makes me wonder what the great idea behind so much sensitive chemical is. Yes they did come in a horribly over sized package, but from what I just experience I can not see how even that kind of packaging would prevent the whole box from going off.

I hope your ears stop ringing by tonight or tomorrow. That's a heck of a lot of primers going off at once.

Click to expand...

He he, they ring as much as they would after a long night at a club
Just goes to show how much protective gear is important.