Loaded round stuck in shell holder because primer not seated

[fguffey]

I don't have a press mounted bullet puller,

As long as I can lower the ram with a case in the shell holder I can remove bullets, as has been said earlier, clamp onto the bullet with pliers etc. and then lower the ram. I would not suggest you get your feet involved and then there is a chance the case could be pulled out of the shell holder when the rim is stripped etc.

I have made efforts to set off primers, I worked with Lee Auto Primers for as long as 2 hours and nothing, I then moved to the RCBS Auto hand primer; it took me over an hour to set off a primer, I was disappointed in my Federal primers.

F. Guffey

 

[berettaprofessor]

I've had this happen a number of times (usually with crimped 223 that I didn't ream out enough), and used either of the two methods suggested (prime on the press, or pull it out). I don't have the concern about seating primers on a live round, because it only happens when I'm using a hand primer to primer a bunch before loading them. So I've finished priming by moving to a press, but usually, I just pull out the primer with pliers; vise grips aren't needed, I just used pliers, and, surprisingly to me, they come out either very little force, even when I've really squeezed on my hand primer.

 

[Sunray]

Just put the shell holder back in and push the primer in the rest of the way. Isn't really as big a deal as it appears.
The resultant noise from a .22 in a fire is a loudish pop. Isn't really terribly loud. About the same as a hunk of pine popping.

 

[jmorris]

I also feel using a kinetic bullet puller with a press shell holder on a regular basis to remove bullets is not a good idea.

Even a worse idea when the primer could come in contact with the shell holder and if it couldn't, it wouldn't be stuck in the first place.

The best idea is to pull the bullet from the case in a non kinetic way, dump powder then re seat.

The worst would be to try and force it in more as a loaded round.

 

[MEHavey]

put the bullet/shellholder back in the press. (no die/empty press)
run the ram up to where bullet itself (not case) is exposed
grab bullet/lock-on with pair of (needle-nose) vise grips
lower ram and the vise grips come down against the press to pull the bullet

empty case of powder and resize/deprime as usual.

 

[jmorris]

This thread made me think about a 30 year old movie scene.

And proves you can find anything on the Internet.

 

[Englishmn]

Call your local bomb squad and have them dispose of it.(put it outside your house before you call, sometimes they like to detonate stuff in place.) Buy another shell holder.
(If your going for absolute safety anyway.)

 

[docbrown]

Use a press mounted bullet puller to pull the bullet, dump the powder and then you can try to finish seating the primer. I would NOT try to finish seating the primer with a loaded round - too much room for it to go off. That's my $.02 worth.

 

[Walkalong]

As long as I can lower the ram with a case in the shell holder I can remove bullets, as has been said earlier, clamp onto the bullet with pliers etc. and then lower the ram

I have done this. Works great for that one or two rounds that got messed up somehow.

 

[Walkalong]

Ammo outside of gun chambers isn't as dangerous as some folks, and especially the movies, would think.

 

[FROGO207]

So many have schooled you on their way to do it. Safe or not you decide with your mind. I would pull the bullet on the press, dump the propellant and gently remove the primer with the decapping die as I resized the case. NOW you look at the primer hole and see if it has a crimp. There are crimped 9MM cases out there and you should be looking for these as you sort the brass to be sure you do not get one in your progressive press. I know-----I just added another step to it.

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

This happens all the time. Do what the posters in messages 2 & 3 say.

 

[pert near]

This happens all the time. Do what the posters in messages 2 & 3 say.

+1

 

[GW Staar]

Posts 2 & 3 only if you know for sure nothing is in your primer pocket besides 1 correctly sized primer.....if not....

and I had that happen once. I took the die out of the press. Ran the press arm all the way up. The bullet was sticking up enough to get a pair of needle nose vice grips around it. Then I just lowered the ram until it pulled the bullet. Once the powder and bullet was gone, put the sizer die back on and slowly pushed out the primer. Worked great for me.

Additional thought. if the bullet doesn't stick up high enough, drill a hole through the bullet side to side. Stick a wire coat hanger through it. Bend the hanger as needed to strap it up and over the mouth of the press....and again lower the ram.

 

[Jenrick]

I'll say that if I can't pull the bullet, I'm just going to toss it into the "bad round" bin. If you don't already, you'll eventually collect a buckets worth of bad rounds. For a bad round with a live primer and powder, I just let them soak in Kroil for a day or three (usually until I remember to take them out when I have another bad round). The oil will deactivate the primer and the powder, and it's basically an ugly oily paperweight.

-Jenrick

 

[jmorris]

Ammo outside of gun chambers isn't as dangerous as some folks, and especially the movies, would think.

I agree but you wouldn't want the energy of a .22 short going off at an arms length as the case is going to blow like popcorn and it would only take a tiny sliver of the brass case to ruin the day.

That said, I have done things much dumber that what we are talking about here, I don't remember the exact age I lost my invincibly but I was already old enough to know better.

No reason to take unnecessary risks.

 

[RealGun]

I dunno, folks....if primers are not known to detonate while priming, given any reasonable technique, how are they so fearsome when trying to fully seat the primer in a loaded round, trying to clear a shell holder?

 

[FROGO207]

My thought there is SOMETIMES they do go off when priming. So with propellant and a bullet stopping up the exit for hot gasses I personally would not take the risk. A quote comes to mind though. "Do you feel lucky punk."

Also I do not feel that soaking a loaded round in anything will positively make a round inert. So don't depend on this method. FWIW I have always been able to take apart whatever I make.

 

[pert near]

Combine ideas. Soak in Kroil (or liquid wrench); put in press;cover with a bucket; duck down; slowly, softly seat primer 'til it comes out of shell holder. Throw round in garbage. ...

 

[RealGun]

Combine ideas. Soak in Kroil (or liquid wrench); put in press;cover with a bucket; duck down; slowly, softly seat primer 'til it comes out of shell holder. Throw round in garbage. ...

To be totally safe or at least worry free, buy a new shell holder...but who is going to do that or even want to trash a bullet with pliers? Okay if you have a casting pot for lead.

 

[fouled bore]

Looks like a lot of different ways of thinking here, thanks for all the different replies. I never felt like it is a safe practice to try and seat a primer on a loaded round so I put it back in the press and ran it up through the turret opening and grabbed it with side cutters and pulled the bullet. I dumped the powder and finished seating the primer to get it off the shell holder.

 

[Walkalong]

put it back in the press and ran it up through the turret opening and grabbed it with side cutters and pulled the bullet. I dumped the powder and finished seating the primer to get it off the shell holder.

Excellent!

 

[sbwaters]

No way seat.

A collet bullet puller fits in the press and is good to have around the shop. Works like the pliers but keeps everything human out of range while pulling the bullet.

Then dump the powder. Finally, deprime with a de-priming die.

 

[jmorris]

I dunno, folks....if primers are not known to detonate while priming, given any reasonable technique, how are they so fearsome when trying to fully seatthe primer in a loaded round, trying to clear a shell holder?

There have been folks that have set primers off tying to seat them in empty primer pockets.

Put a powder charge in the case and let powder dribble down in the flash hole between the primer and bottom of the pocket, then try to compress the powder/primer into the same area and you are asking for Murphy to come for a visit, either him or Darwin.

 

[Malamute]

Im curious. Ive not had a turret press. Were you using it sort of like a progressive, put shell in, do every step without removing shell until done? I thought the idea of turrets was to save time changing dies, not so much to use them like a progressive? Do one individual step on every case, advance to next die, do that step to every case, etc. So used, it would be impossible to repeat the mistake, as you would be inspecting each case and primer each step.

The Lee hand priming tool became my favorite for most priming on single stage presses. Ive not had any high primers of any sort make it past the priming stage with the single stage/Lee hand prime tool method, or with single priming in a single stage RCBS press. Every one is visually and feel checked when using the Lee tool, or the single stage press. With the Dillon 550, Im maybe a bit overcautious, but if a primer doesn't feel like it seated correctly, I stop that step, pull the case and check it. I check all rounds loaded on the Dillon also before assuming they are all good and boxing them up. With being suspicious of odd feeling rounds, Ive kept it to zero real problems of rounds making it to a gun. The occasional cases with really tight primer pockets get culled. They aren't worth the time to mess with to get primers to seat below flush. Ive used batches of culled loads with extra tight primer pockets and shot them up and just left the brass or dumped them. Maybe my priorities are wrong, but I tend to run the Dillon about 300 rds/hr. Ive never just tried for top speed at the expense of being super careful all steps work to my satisfaction, like visually checking every charge also.