I made a mistake......

[Creedmoor]

I had one go off while decapping once. It really was no big deal. At that point, there is no powder or bullet in the equation. It was just a cap going off. Not even really that loud.

I've never had one pop off when de-capping, seating is a different matter.

My older brother and one commercial reloader that hits the shows like Tipton, Muncie and the shows up North have had primers pop running Dillon 1050's,
The Commercial loader also had bad housekeeping with cleaning up spilled powder. He will openly tell you all about how stupid it is to run progressive machines with raised anvil primers, no lid on the powder measure and then add poor powder cleaning. He just about burned his shop down. He sold blackened reloading equipment for months after than fire.

 

[Creedmoor]

Go slow as you deprive you will be fine, but why waste them.....loaded 'em & choot 'em

Thats a mute point.

 

[55fairlane]

Thats a mute point.

Damn auto correct

 

[Creedmoor]

Damn auto correct

I have the same problem, lol

 

[Elcardo]

Appreciate the responses ....been net crawling too and seems the same there with a split of folks saying choot em or decap em .....
Guess I'll roll 10 or so leaning towards the min charge side and give it wa whirl ....
I don't reload for self defense rounds so just plinkers anyway
I'll be sure to post the results later in the week
Thanks again

 

[92FSTech]

I've decapped and reused literally thousands of live primers and never had one pop. A friend died recently and left a bunch of questionable reloads for his wife to dispose of. She gave them to me and I pulled them down for components...I was at it for weeks. Just take your time and be careful and you'll be fine. If one does go off, it'll basically be like a cap gun (assuming you don't have a bunch of unburned powder and other flammables lying around to sympathetically ignite). Not something to get super worked up about.

IMO it's safer to decap the live primers than it would be to run ammo loaded with small pistol primers in an AR. If you've ever ejected a live round from a chambered AR, you can see the dimple from the free-floating firing pin on the primer...the only thing stopping a slam-fire in that design is a shortage of inertia combined with the strength of the primer cup. I wouldn't want to take chances by narrowing that margin with pistol primers (pistol primer cups are softer than their small rifle counterparts..I confirmed this during the recent shortage when I could find any SPP and loaded up some .38s with SRP...my 640 wouldn't reliably set them off).

ETA: a Lee universal decapping die is really handy for bulk projects like this.

 

[JohnKDM]

I have been in two de-millers businesses in my life, I also reload in my home or shop. Its quite safe my friend, you do you. But don't say its not safe because its just not true. The dies that all of those machines I've watched run were no different that whats available to us.

Do you feel safe seating primers with a raised anvil that when seating those primers get "armed" when they get seated?


One is much more likely to have a primer explosion when seating a primer than punching out a primer.

Ever reloaded using a Lee Classic Hand Loader? LOL

Have deprimed a lot of live primers with no issue, going slow and careful. I put them in marked empty primer boxes and save them for fireforming. Just don't store them loose in a can or jar!

I started with Lee Loaders in my young teens and set off more than one trying to seat primers in milsurp cases without first removing the crimp - before I learned to do a better job removing the crimp. Loaded in my bedroom. At 13yo, I had a Savage Lee-Enfield and seven cases, which taught me about case head separations. My mother developed a twitch, tho, especially after the beater bar in her vacuum found one in the carpet and set it off.

 

[snapping turtle]

Federal primers and a Dillion auto press. Primer feed tube went flying. Guys cat who slept around the table was not seen for two days

 

[Cynical]

I've done it at least a 1000 times I know of because the wife and I went down to Indy because Cabelas had 20 percent off for ladies day. I bought 5000 what I thought were SPP and they were SRP. Went to a match and my pistol had multiple FTF. Getting home, I figured out the problem. My inability to read, and pulled all the bullets and deprimed them. I had no problems.

 

[Creedmoor]

Federal primers and a Dillion auto press. Primer feed tube went flying. Guys cat who slept around the table was not seen for two days

Which press?

 

[DadSmith]

Started priming a bunch of 223 and after the first box of 100 I realized I'd grabbed the wrong primers and had installed cci no.500 pistol primers
Segregated those and finished priming with the correct primer but I'd rather not de-prime these if I don't have to
Anyone ever pulled this bone head move? And if so did you load em up and run them? These will be running through my ar15 .....kinda worry about potential slam fire or something .....

I've never used SPP in a rifle, but I've used SRP in pistols with no problems.
Load them up and try it. Then report back here your findings.
Doesn't hurt to experiment a little.

 

[Cynical]

I've never used SPP in a rifle, but I've used SRP in pistols with no problems.
Load them up and try it. Then report back here your findings.
Doesn't hurt to experiment a little.

Didn’t work well for me with my S&W M&P (by accident) which is why I had to pull so many bullets. It will work in my Smith 15,19,66 but only single action.

 

[billybob44]

I've decapped and reused literally thousands of live primers and never had one pop. A friend died recently and left a bunch of questionable reloads for his wife to dispose of. She gave them to me and I pulled them down for components...I was at it for weeks. Just take your time and be careful and you'll be fine. If one does go off, it'll basically be like a cap gun (assuming you don't have a bunch of unburned powder and other flammables lying around to sympathetically ignite). Not something to get super worked up about.

IMO it's safer to decap the live primers than it would be to run ammo loaded with small pistol primers in an AR. If you've ever ejected a live round from a chambered AR, you can see the dimple from the free-floating firing pin on the primer...the only thing stopping a slam-fire in that design is a shortage of inertia combined with the strength of the primer cup. I wouldn't want to take chances by narrowing that margin with pistol primers (pistol primer cups are softer than their small rifle counterparts..I confirmed this during the recent shortage when I could find any SPP and loaded up some .38s with SRP...my 640 wouldn't reliably set them off).

ETA: a Lee universal decapping die is really handy for bulk projects like this.

ETA: a Lee universal decapping die is really handy for bulk projects like this.
^^^THIS is one of the few Lee tools that I have=+100...Bill

 

[DadSmith]

Didn’t work well for me with my S&W M&P (by accident) which is why I had to pull so many bullets. It will work in my Smith 15,19,66 but only single action.

He used SPP in 5.56 I think it will be fine.

 

[Cynical]

He used SPP in 5.56 I think it will be fine.

I was addressing using SRP in pistols cause I did it on accident I didn’t work well for me. I would never try the reverse of using SPP in rifles because of the softer primer cups and the the way higher pressures. I’m no expert, just going on real world experience.

 

[Creedmoor]

Federal primers and a Dillion auto press. Primer feed tube went flying. Guys cat who slept around the table was not seen for two days

Years ago, Mike Dillon would tell his customers not to use Federal primers or other raised anvil primers in his machines. I will use them on my 650's and 1000 machine but not my 450 or 550 Dillons.
When feeding them with a 450 or 550 Machine when dropping the primer into the primer cup the anvil can catch the plastic and the end of the primer feed tube and flip it upside down or sideways. Thats when the problems can happen.
The early 450's and 550'd came with aluminum primer tubes with a machined price of brass on the bottom to index in the feeder mechanism. Then it went to plastic and that's when the problems started, when some tighten down the cap that holds the primer tube in the pipe magazine you can easily over-tighten the plastic end and shorten up the primer exit and it then can create problems with some primers flipping.
Thats what I know about using certain primers in Dillon machines.

 

[Creedmoor]

He used SPP in 5.56 I think it will be fine.

I've used then in a few cases from 221 Fireball and smaller. Same with using
punched out primers from Talon Industries, Fireball and under has worked well with lower pressure smaller cases. I blew a few out not long after I bought them with loading 223/5.56 range ammo.
I just assumed they get squished and smaller diameter when they have been seated more than once.

 

[snapping turtle]

Which press?

Dillion 550. Dillion replaced the tube and sent two along with an update manual stating not to use federal primers. The original manual said nothing about that. (They sent two in case we did it again)
poor cat took many months till he ended up in that window near the press in the sunshine.
We only use federal in The single stage press now and we’re only using federal sat that time because of a primer shortage and they were all we had.

 

[Creedmoor]

Dillion 550. Dillion replaced the tube and sent two along with an update manual stating not to use federal primers. The original manual said nothing about that. (They sent two in case we did it again)
poor cat took many months till he ended up in that window near the press in the sunshine.
We only use federal in The single stage press now and we’re only using federal sat that time because of a primer shortage and they were all we had.

The cat thing lol
In my first home I used to test loads in the basement. One day I busted off two rounds of 300 win mag. A few seconds later one of my wife's cats flew around the corner and ran upstairs. End result, deaf cat and very angry wife.
Dillon used to be very open about not using high anvil primers, but like you said I've never seen it in print.
I had a conversation with Mike geesh 30+ years ago at the creek about this problem.
If you ever see the old Dillon primer magazine tubes with the brass bottoms buy them. They can be sugged down unlike the newer plastic ones. If I think about it I will snap a picture of the old ones today when I'm in the shop.

 

[two70]

First off, it’s extremely unlikely.

Second off, with eye and ear pro there is no consequence if it does pop.

It really is no big deal.

I agree that it is unlikely, however, I know someone who popped a primer while trying to decap a live one.

The eye and ear pro didn't do a whole lot for his hand.

The trip to the hospital to remove fragments from his hand wasn't life threatening but still kind of a big deal.