That makes at least two of us and one other.
Around ten years ago, a cousin of mine was reloading some 44 mag, using Federal magnum pistol primers. For some reason he didn't seat all of them flush.
He was using an RCBS JR press, with a primer feed tube and a bottom swing arm primer pick up.
After loading all of his cases with powder and seating the bullets, he noticed that some of the primers were seated proud.
Without giving it another thought, he proceeded to try and seat the primers again, using the primer arm seater with the cartridges inserted into the slot of the shell head holder at the top of the mandrel.
The results were catastrophic, to say the least.
Luckily he wore glasses which were certified safety types. He needed to wear glasses for vision as well as work purposes.
When the cartridge was ignited, it came apart in lots of little pieces. Luckily there wasn't a die in the press and the bullet just went straight up through the hole in the top.
There was all sorts of damage around the press, several tiny pieces embedded in his face/chest/glasses.
Nothing penetrated very deep, including the bullet, which barely made it through the sheet rock on the ceiling. The noise scared the hell out of his family and his dog never entered his reloading closet again.
OP, you were lucky. My first guess would have been a dangerously light sear setting, but if there wasn't a firing pin strike indentation, the primer is the likely culprit.
I must say though you would have had to have slammed that bolt home pretty hard for even a sensitive primer to ignite.
Sorry B, I was typing before reading all the posts. That's pretty much what my cousin's components looked like but on a larger scale.
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