I have reloaded many thousands of rounds over the years and find a dud primer once in a while. I just pull the bullet off and decap to see what happened and put the bad primer in my plastic bottle with the others and sell the lot for scrap brass, it does build up over the years and I make some money in the end.
Primer did not ignite. What now?
- Thread starter harbinger
- Start date
- Location
- WMU247 near Edmonton
I do the same thing.
as for waiting for a misfire that may be a hangfire I don't bother. The worst I have ever seen was some very old 38S&W that would click and then bang about half a second later, it was in a revolver so not many safe options there.
In a bolt rifle or semi any time I have ever had a misfire it just gets ejected, or recock the rifle and hit it again, oh it might be a hang fire and cook off but outside of the chamber is not really that big of an issue. If it hasn't fired after 2-3 seconds its unlikely to fire at all.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
The primer is unlikely to fire during the de-capping process, the priming mixture responds more favorably to a sharp impact rather than steady pressure. One of the benefits of leaning to load with a Lee Loader is that you get so many primers popping off when seating, you become immune to it. You learn quickly not to have your face over the cartridge when priming. If the primer does fire in the de-capping process, and I don't ever recall it happening, big deal, it doesn't matter. Put a drop of oil on the inside surface of the faulty primer, and in a few hours it will be all but inert. As an experiment, after a bit of time has passed, put the oiled primer on a steel plate and hit it with a hammer, you might see nothing, or you might see a bit of smoke, but there is no flash or bang.
As for the powder that was in the cartridge, unless the powder comes out in clumps, which it might if heavily compressed. or unless there was partial ignition, I wouldn't throw it away. What you should do though is brush out the inside of the cartridge case to ensure that no powder remains, or when you load that case again it could result in an overload.
If you don't have a kinetic bullet puller, you should get one, but when I have a lot a bullets to pull, such as when pulling FMJs so I can make Mexican Match, I use a pair of plier style wire crimpers. the type with the strippers on the inside of the handles. The stripper "teeth" bite firmly into the bullet jacket, allowing you to pull the bullet with little or no damage other than a couple of pin pricks that are barely noticeable. These crimpers are often found with wide flat handles that tend to line flat on the top of the press, and provide a large surface area so the bullet is pulled in alignment with the cartridge neck.
Last edited:
- Location
- WMU247 near Edmonton
I've had primers flip sideways in the press and I've crushed them into the primer pocket that way. None have ever gone off being crushed.
Chargerguy
CGN frequent flyer
I've done hundreds as well. Never a single issue with my decapping dies.
Ohh good. Its not only me. My worn out pro-jector press does that 1 in 10 primers. I dont use it for primers an more. Odd to see one sideways crushed flat into the pocket
Thanks for the help! I still haven't dealt with it but after my investigation I'm going to call this an improper set of the primer. My daughter was helping me load and using the press for the first time. Up until now I hadn't built a "seating depth of primer" check into my reloading procedure. I figure when the firing pin stuck it it was pushed into the primer pocket just enough to steal that energy just enough for the primer to not ignite.
>270 win 110gr hollow point 54 Gr IMR-4350 and Winchester magnum primer.
Every reloader should have a bullet puller imo.
Kinetic / impact pullers are cheap, less than 20 bucks on amazon.
This has nothing to do with being worn out. hard if not impossible to wear this type of press out with regular lubrication.
The angle on the bottom of the metal strip that pushes the primer cup arm over is too sharp so the sideway movement is a bit abrupt causing primers to flip, this can be fixed.
Kinetic / impact pullers are cheap, less than 20 bucks on amazon.
This has nothing to do with being worn out. hard if not impossible to wear this type of press out with regular lubrication.
The angle on the bottom of the metal strip that pushes the primer cup arm over is too sharp so the sideway movement is a bit abrupt causing primers to flip, this can be fixed.
$20 I'd rather kick in towards more components.
If I ever need to pull enough bullets that I figure I'm hurting if I don't re-use them, I'll bore out a set of pliers to grab the bullet at the top of the press. Meanwhile, it's side cutters, and it goes in the trash.
Kinetic pullers may be cheap, but I already have case holders and a reloading press.
YUP ! Easy Peezy Way to do it ! RJ
Thanks,ill look into it again. I had it all apart and cleaned and lubed everything. It seemed like it was maybe not clicking into the location until late in the stroke so flipping the primer as it clicks in place by catching the edge of it.
But that even should be adjustable.
Ill look into it again. Id love to be able to prime with it. Ill keep an eye on what you said. That would be an easy fix
