First primer detonation.

Always keep them pointed away from your face. If something feels off stop and check out why.

I cant say I have. Ill bet that woke you up.

25 years with a Dillon 650 and I have never set off a primer. I have never hand primed.

I've never had one detonate, but I have shoved a few in crossways. And upside down.

Armored farmer said:

I've never had one detonate, but I have shoved a few in crossways. And upside down.

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Oh I have definitely mutilated a few primers over the years due to incorrect orientation, none have ever gone off on me through.

I keep waiting for the legendary whole tube going off at once and putting a hole in my ceiling.

Oh yeah. I’ve detonated a few. Piece of tumbling media in the flash hole fell out during resizing and fell right into the cup. I’m usually hauling butt when reloading I’ve been doing it so long. It doesn’t hurt anything. It’ll make your butt pucker though.

Rule of thumb, never force anything .... if it don't feel right, stop...

I prime off press because it gives you a good feel for pockets that are loose or if one is hard to seat. No way to get that type of feel on a progressive press or any press really because the leverage is so great. Never set one off but I've had a couple start wonky but could tell and removed the offending case. I just use a simple cheap lee bench prime screwed to an old cutting board, works for me.

Maybe you just had a tight pocket and squeezed a little too hard. What brand primer was it?

Exploded one in my old rcbs press, back when i was still in highschool. scared me so bad i flipped my stool over.....never had it happen with a hand primers, but again ive already gotten the reinforced lesson on stoping when somthing feels odd.

Federal primer? They contain Nitro.

Oh I have definitely mutilated a few primers over the years due to incorrect orientation, none have ever gone off on me through.

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For testing purposes only I have put a few in sideways with my Lee hand primer then had to smash the bleep out of them to get the case out.
No bangs yet.....

You said you had an issue with a 5.56 case. Did you remove the primer crimps?
Attempting to prime cases with the crimp still in place does not work well....
Lots of .223/5.56 brass has crimped primers.

Is it a crimped primer pocket where the primer was forcefully pushed then snapped to a kaboom? I’m guessing a NATO cross is the culprit.

My mantra is “If it’s too tight, it ain’t right”.

Even after swaging with my RCBS swaging die there are some 5.56mm brass that will resist like crazy. I toss them into the recycle can.

A fellow trap club member arrived at the clubhouse with a big, thick bandage on three fingers. He discovered(the hard way) that live 209 shotgun primers can detonate while depriming.

Obturation said:

I prime off press because it gives you a good feel for pockets that are loose or if one is hard to seat. No way to get that type of feel on a progressive press or any press really because the leverage is so great. Never set one off but I've had a couple start wonky but could tell and removed the offending case. I just use a simple cheap lee bench prime screwed to an old cutting board, works for me.

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I can feel tight and loose primer pockets on my Dillon 650 presses. Have you ever primed on the press with a progressive?

The ONLY thing going on when you're priming on a 650 is the priming.

Obturation said:

I prime off press because it gives you a good feel for pockets that are loose or if one is hard to seat. No way to get that type of feel on a progressive press or any press really because the leverage is so great.

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Odd comment in a thread where the OP popped one using a hand-held tool.

Maybe I'm just not very strong, but I've never had difficulty feeling significant differences in primer seating on either my LCT or Dillon 650. It's not as though any other operation is happening on the press during the primer seating.

Rich 10mm said:

I’ve been reloading for about 10 years on and off and just suffered my first primer detonation while re-priming.

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When you say "re-priming," do you just mean putting a primer in a case that had been previously fired and then de-primed? Just regular reloading primer seating?

Primers go off from jolts, not from smooth pressure applications. How did you get the jolt?

Texas10mm said:

I can feel tight and loose primer pockets on my Dillon 650 presses. Have you ever primed on the press with a progressive?

The ONLY thing going on when you're priming on a 650 is the priming.

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Got it. Nope never primed on a progressive. I have primed on a single stage though and don't get the same feedback than I can with a lever a quarter the length on a hand priming setup. I'm sure some guys develop a feel for priming on press, it's just not for me.

ATLDave said:

Odd comment in a thread where the OP popped one using a hand-held tool.

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I don't think it's odd to mention that's how I prime too and why.

Obturation said:

I don't think it's odd to mention that's how I prime too and why.

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Bob: "I had a problem using method X."

Joe: "That's why I only use method X. I don't want problem. You can get problem using method Y. You should use method X."

Joe's comment is odd.

I started with a Lee Loader, have used 3 hand priming tools (didn't care for them; 2 Lee and a Hornady), "stock" priming on 3 presses, a ram prime (my favorite for many years) and now use a Lee Bench Prime. I have used a good variety of manufacturers, both domestic and imported. The only time I had to change my skivvies (had a primer pop) was with the Lee Loader. But with a little thought I was able to alleviate unwanted primer "explosions". I chamfered primer pockets just like I did for military brass and made sure the priming assembly was not binding and clean.