Federal Primer Packaging

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tbhupe

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Stirling, Ont
A quick rant after spending 30 minutes picking up small pistol primers off of my shop floor, (still missing 6).
I have struggled with trying to slide the trays out of the cardboard sleeves before but not like today. The labeling doesn't indicate clearly which side is up, on both the box or the individual sleeves. When I tried to slide out a tray of 100, I found that the whole stack (5 trays) had been glued together. While trying to separate the sleeves, the avalanche "started". Once I managed to get the trays separated and put 9 back in the box, I now had to fight with their ridiculous little tabs to get the tray out. This resulted in another cascade of SP primers. I have had difficulties with their packaging before, but never like this.
Is there a trick to overcoming their tab locking system.
Thanks for letting me vent.
 
The Federal tray/sleeves, larger than the competition, have a definite front and back. Artwork on the front, fine print on the back together with the two cutout flaps of cardboard holding the rib running up the back centre of the tray. I've never run into the sleeves getting glued together, although I suppose that's possible. Hopefully if that happens they're at least same-side-up so you can guess which way the middle ones sit by the ones on top and bottom of the sandwich.
 
bertn said:
Not have that had happen to me, I just hate the big tray size, makes it 3 times bigger than needed.
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It's for safety. Federal primers are easy to set off, I believe it was Ganderite who said they're the only ones that go off if he drops one then accidentally rolls over them in his chair.

I have one rifle that'll fail to fire like 50% of the time with CCI primers but always goes off with federal.
 
You must not be able to read..there is no way to open it upside down if you just pay attention..there is no way to confuse the top of the primer with the back..

My father once told me that when you do dum think..you don’t advertise it.
 
Thank you all for pointing out my shortcomings. :)

I double checked the labels on the packaging and the writing on the box was inverse on opposite sides of the carton (1000 cwt) The 100 packs inside were also oriented wrong. Since I couldn't see the tabs until the stack was out of the box (remember they were stuck together)... it was too late. To be fair, I have had this particular box of primers on my shelf for several years so that may have been why they were stuck together. The fact that I was on my 4 cup of coffee this morning probably didn't help either. :unsure:
Moving on, are there any tips on sliding out the trays past the little cardboard tabs or is just muscling them out of the way the only option.
I have calmed down a bit now and await your collective wisdom.
 
Too funny - I was just getting up to open up a case of Federal 215 primers that I received yesterday. So, I appreciated the "head's up" about what could go wrong! So, the case holds 5 boxes. Each box appears to have 10 trays in cardboard sleeves - I had to pry some tabs on bottom side of the cardboard sleeve to slide the tray out of the sleeve - when I pried the tabs back, I could see that I was working on bottom of the tray - as indicated by the writing on these sleeves. The Federal Small Rifle primers, in the "stash", appear to be done the same way - although several have never been opened yet.
 
tbhupe said:
A quick rant after spending 30 minutes picking up small pistol primers off of my shop floor, (still missing 6).
I have struggled with trying to slide the trays out of the cardboard sleeves before but not like today. The labeling doesn't indicate clearly which side is up, on both the box or the individual sleeves. When I tried to slide out a tray of 100, I found that the whole stack (5 trays) had been glued together. While trying to separate the sleeves, the avalanche "started". Once I managed to get the trays separated and put 9 back in the box, I now had to fight with their ridiculous little tabs to get the tray out. This resulted in another cascade of SP primers. I have had difficulties with their packaging before, but never like this.
Is there a trick to overcoming their tab locking system.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Click to expand...

Better make sure you find them all.

This happened to me quite often, and one day I rolled over a primer with my office chair, what a surprise!
 
I guess many moons ago someone somehow dropped a case of primers at the Federal plant and the whole place went up with a big boom. The new big plastic trays were designed to prevent that. The few primers I drop on the floor stay there until I sweep the floor. The sweepings eventually get burned outside in the fire pit. You can count all the snap, crackle and pops !!!!
Pro tip when opening primer containers, go slow, put your baseball cap on backwards and stick that tongue out a wee bit. lol
 
I use a Vibraprime and put the whole box in the tray with those two paper tabs facing up. I push in the left tab and pull the whole tab up, slightly ripping the box so that tab is well clear of the back of the primer tray. Then when I slide the tray out to the right, it doesn't get stuck on that paper tab. I'll post a pic of this when I get home tonight
 
Suther said:
It's for safety. Federal primers are easy to set off, I believe it was Ganderite who said they're the only ones that go off if he drops one then accidentally rolls over them in his chair.

I have one rifle that'll fail to fire like 50% of the time with CCI primers but always goes off with federal.
Click to expand...
Id start with checking your bolt / firing pin.
I exclusively use CCI primers 34s, 41s, BR2, BR4 and 450s. 20,000 rds at least loaded and not 1 failed to go off in 15 years
 
Suther said:
It's for safety. Federal primers are easy to set off, I believe it was Ganderite who said they're the only ones that go off if he drops one then accidentally rolls over them in his chair.

I have one rifle that'll fail to fire like 50% of the time with CCI primers but always goes off with federal.
Click to expand...
I used to find them harder than other primers, but that was a couple of decades back. I haven't used them since.

Something else than just a rant going on with the OP on this one though.
 
bearhunter said:
I used to find them harder than other primers, but that was a couple of decades back. I haven't used them since.

Something else than just a rant going on with the OP on this one though.
Click to expand...

They seem to be the softest primers on the market.

There is even a warning in the Lee reloading tool instruction, advising not to use of Federal primers.
 
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