RCBS hand priming tool blew up in my hand

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Interesting!

Users have reported that the primers in the tray of an Auto Prime can explode for various reasons, some of which include: a cocked primer, or an attempt to prime a case which has a primer already in place, or more than one primer on the punch, or priming a military case with the crimp not completely removed. Should an explosion occur, our tests have demonstrated that safety glasses will normally prevent serious injury to the user if CCI or Winchester primers are used, because the explosion is minimal. Other primers, however, can explode with sufficient force to seriously injure the user, or persons nearby. We do not take any position with respect to the quality or performance of primers available on the market. However, only those primers manufactured by CCI or Winchester are recommended for use in the Lee Auto Prime, and when loading those primers, safety glasses should always be used. No other primers should be used with the Lee Auto Prime.

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1206223755.5838=/html/catalog/primtool.html
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I have three of the RCBS hand prime tools, one set up for small primers that I litterly loaded thousands of rounds of .223 for prarrie dog shoots, the other set up for large primers for rifles with the same head diameter, the other set up for .22PPC as the diameter of the head is quite different. They are very good tools, made by a very good company that is very shooter friendly.

Obviously the stake wasn't removed from the primer pocket. The others have offered great advise, I'd offer the same, call RCBS, explain what happened, listen to there advise...start again.
 
I find this so interesting. The gentlemen had an oversensitive primer go off in his priming tool, and most people are claiming it is because of something he did!

Folks are claiming all sorts of weird orientation things, and that primers have to be hit in a certain way, and that it never happened to them, so it can’t happen.

You can even read the manufacturer's warning about what primers to use in their tools. Which means there are primers they don't want used in their tools. And it makes no impression. :banghead:

You just have to think about the "how and why" that created these warnings. Certain brands of primers detonated in their priming tools!! I am certain that Federal was one of them.

Face it; fulminates are unstable. They will go off in ways that you would not anticipate. And certain primers are more sensitive than others .

Give the guy a break.
 
It was his tone that got the responses, but I guess we may have been a bit tough on him. :scrutiny:

He held up well though. :)

Spanked by a fellow Alabamian, dang. :D
 
Face it; fulminates are unstable. They will go off in ways that you would not anticipate. And certain primers are more sensitive than others .
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Ummmm, fulminates haven't been used in primers for half a century, did you mean styphanates?

I too have crushed primers every which way to sunday. Never had one pop. Apparently it is possible. Since I'm hard of sight, I can't load WITHOUT glasses. They're parked on my nose from waking to bedtime, they've saved my eyes on numerous occasions.
 
Hey, if I had 10 primers go off in my hand, I'd have an intense tone also.

FWIW....I use some Lee equipment, but one of my issues with Lee is the incredible amount of self promotion in his reloading books. IIRC, the same company that owns Federal also owns RCBS. The "safety" of Federal primers may have more to do with being a competitor than being dangerous.

As for jumping on the original poster....too many people tend to jump to absolutes just because they've never experienced something. Look at all the people that ridiculed Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers and flat out called them liars.

In my case, I've mutilated primers about every way possible without issues. I'm more interested in why one would go off without being stuck so it doesn't happen to me. I've never been in a car accident, but I still wear my seat belt every day.
 
i've crushed a primer (that i'm really sure I didn't strike) and had it explode on me (only once, but it happened).
 
Thanks everyone for the responses. I think I figured out a few things since my last post.

The tool I was given by the guy at the gun store after telling him my problem, was a primer pocket uniformer. It's obvious that it was built to adjust the depth of the primer pocket. I looked at the thing and tried to figure out how it was going to make the pocket wider, but the guy assured me if I spun it as I drove it in, everything would be okay.

Today I went back to the same store and asked someone else how I could remove the military crimp from .223. I showed him the tool the other guy sold to me and he says that won't do a thing for me. He says I needed the primer pocket reamer which looks kind of like a star with blades on the outside. That is what I need.

So the day of the kaboom, I ran that uniformer through every single shell until it offered me no resistance. I thought, okay, if this tool can easily make it into the pocket, then the primer should be able to fit too, especially since he said Federal primers were softer than the CCIs I had been using. Obviously, I was mistaken.

I think I'll hold on to the autoprimer since it probably feeds more reliably than the hand tool. Other than a few annoyances, and the safety gate, I guess there's nothing really wrong with the tool. I don't think RCBS can really do anything for me, except call me a putz for not reaming the pockets.

No kidding about the Federals being powerful, I'm still cleaning up glass from that shattered bulb. I don't even want to think what would have happened if I was holding the tool in a different direction.
 
Glad you found the problem! I would however call RCBS- they may replace it regardless... just don't tell them you are a putz. :D

I use the RCBS swager that work WITH the Rock Chucker.. it works great.


Also- more importanty- I think this should provide some warnings to us that primers CAN AND DO go off.... sometimes.. even if smooth, gradual PRESSURE is applied. I usually toss my S&B handgun brass for the same reasons. Unless I get around to swaging or deburring/reaming it with the hand tool.
 
In defense of the OP, how many of us know-it-alls have cleaned the primer compound dust from a pickup tube or other primer-handling tool?

How many of us remember that heat, static discharge, FRICTION and impact are ALL ways that a "class 1" or whatever high explosive can be pushed above its activation energy?

JonnieGrey spoke the truth. He pushed and it went bang. The black thing he spoke of was NOT the large rifle insert, but another, curved, piece. I see the primary legitimate complaint as the failure of a part appearing to and apparently described as intended to prevent flashover to the primer supply.

The number of people posting who did not catch things obviously written in the OP or stated in his subsequent posts is outright embarrassing. Signal-to-noise ratio gets bad from that.

All this talk of how many primers YOU crushed without a bang doesn't change what actually happened. Brainstorming in search of answers is nice and can be valuable, but not when we stop listening and get too eager to hear ourselves pontificate.
 
and was trying to force one in, carefully.
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Thats pure comedy gold.


The tool I was given by the guy at the gun store after telling him my problem, was a primer pocket uniformer. It's obvious that it was built to adjust the depth of the primer pocket. I looked at the thing and tried to figure out how it was going to make the pocket wider, but the guy assured me if I spun it as I drove it in, everything would be okay.

Today I went back to the same store and asked someone else how I could remove the military crimp from .223. I showed him the tool the other guy sold to me and he says that won't do a thing for me. He says I needed the primer pocket reamer which looks kind of like a star with blades on the outside. That is what I need.
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You didn't read post #20 did you?
 
Glad you're OK Johnny, but I'm with Spencerhut. I've been around this for some 40 years and doing it for 30+. I've squashed, mashed, distorted, bent, ripped, torn, and seated primers in every incorrect way conceivable, ( just last night I managed to seat one sideways...that's on its edge...in a 7.62x54r case) but I've never seen one go off. As a kid I used to pop primers Dad dropped on the floor (and some he hadn't dropped :evil:), but it always took a whack with a hammer or some other such blow to set them off.
Maybe you had a super sensitive primer. I've been using the Lee hand priming tool for a couple of decades now and have had no mishaps and no compaints.
35W
 
Well I have mangled many a primer that did not go off too, did one Friday, but I will always remember that one that went off just from thumb pressure in that Lee hand primer. Aside from being spent, it looked like a perfectly normal primer after the bang. So I surely know one can go off without shock, heat, impact, or major deformation on the strike surface.
Oh and my name is Spencer too, so watch it. :)
 
I've stated this before because it's the quickest and easiest way to remove the military crimps.

I've got a vice mounted on the left side of my bench with a VSD clamped in the vice, with a chamfer tool in the drill. With the drill running on slow speed, I can cut away the crimp and bevel the primer pockets quicker than I typed this!!

I've used the RCBS hand primming tool for years with no problems,yet.

I've got "thousands & thousands" of military 223's & 308's and some of the earlier ones have been reloaded several times.

And I agree with the OP, the black curved part of the primming tool doesn't always prevent more than one primer getting in on top of the rod. In fact, I've had 2 or 3 at the same time, but going slow and easy, they will at still "seat".

"If", a case does get stuck, because the primer didn't get seated, I keep an extra decapping rod handy and gently push the primer back into the tool.

UJ
 
Glad you're OK Johnny, but I'm with Spencerhut. I've been around this for some 40 years and doing it for 30+. I've squashed, mashed, distorted, bent, ripped, torn, and seated primers in every incorrect way conceivable, ( just last night I managed to seat one sideways...that's on its edge...in a 7.62x54r case) but I've never seen one go off. As a kid I used to pop primers Dad dropped on the floor (and some he hadn't dropped ), but it always took a whack with a hammer or some other such blow to set them off.
Maybe you had a super sensitive primer. I've been using the Lee hand priming tool for a couple of decades now and have had no mishaps and no compaints.
35W
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Again, what do you guys hope to prove here? I'm pretty sure I didn't hallucinate when I saw this happen. Because it didn't happen to you, does not mean that it didn't happen to me, or others on here. I did not make this up, I promise. You want to kill some time? Stick a bunch of primers in a vice and turn the handle. Let me know how it goes.
 
I don't think anyone thinks your a hallucinating, and I don't see where anypne is being contrary enough to warrant being scolded for pointing out that they haven't had it happen to them. You asked for advice, we tryed to give our best advice. Its that simple. I don't expect everyone to agree with me on any subject, if I ask advice, I'll read the offered advice and either use it or disregard it. No need to assume that someone is picking on you, I certainly wasn't, I was merely stating what my experience has been in the last 45 years of reloading.
 
Actually tried that.

I actually tried crushing Winchester primers in a large vise as a controlled experiment. Flattened them puppies pretty good and made some dust but no pop. I guess you just got unlucky.

Scott
 
I've never had a Winchester kaboom either, but I'm not going to assume that nobody else has just because I haven't. For the next 40 years, I may never have another explosion again, it doesn't change what happened a few days ago.
 
I don't use the hand priming tool. I have one, but never needed it with my 550.

Anyway, I'm wondering if two stacked on top of each other. One maybe slipped or crushed quickly and let the seating pin pop hard enough to make the first one ignite.

When I first got back into reloading maybe 10 years ago, there were some posts on THR about primers chain firing in 550's. The blast shield always held, but it typically blew a hole in the ceiling above the press. I gotta think 50-100 at a time would be way loud. I remember just popping off a muzzle loader cap to clear the nipple on our front porch. Ears rang for 30 minutes.
 
Like they say, reloading is pretty safe until you deal with the primers. It's good to know that the "safety gate" apparently does nothing. I'm sure RCBS would be very interested in looking at what's left of your hand primer and I'm also sure they'll send you a new one. The only primer I've seen go off happened to my 11 year old son using a Lee Loader (hammer type). It startled him a bit and come to think of it I don't think he's used it since then.:D
Since ATK owns both Federal and RCBS you probably won't see them recommending against using Federal primers anytime soon but in this case I think Lee's advice against using them may have some merit. I'll probably still use the Federals I have but that's it. Apparently the crimp on your cases is what set the primer off but would it have happened with a CCI or Winchester? Who knows for sure.
 
Geez.

I've been reloading for over two decades, for numerous calibers and with all colors of reloading equipment.

I had a Federal primer go off on me. Wasn't wearing any sort of safety glasses. Wore an eyepatch for just over a month. My SAC was furious with me. My ASAC thought it added to my undercover look, though.

Have only had one primer go bang on me in the loading process, but it was enough.

One of our armorers at Quantico was curious as to what happened. We too put primers in a vice and squished them. According to one of our resident chemists, steady, slow, pressure isn't what will set a primer off. Static electricity combined with friction during the "pressure" process can do it for sure. Anything inside the individual primer that is out of tolerance can create an unstable environment and contribute to a primer-bang.

I love the analogies of "focus groups of one." I'm a pilot and I once had to do a forced landing because my engine quit on me. As enjoyable as that experience was, what was even MORE enjoyable was hearing from all the so-called seasoned "seen it all, done it all" pilots who'd been flying for decades who told me I'd done something wrong since THEY'D never had an in-flight engine failure.

Let's face it, s--t happens. If it didn't, there wouldn't be the bumper sticker that says "S--t Happens."

Jeff
 
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