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Removing reversed primer

J

John Hill

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While priming with a Lee hand held auto priming tool, I got one primer inserted upside down. Logic tells me that I could just run that piece of brass back through the depriming die but I worry that because the depriming pin may ignite the primer when it pushes on it. Obviously, I would wear proper eye protection. What is the proper procedure for removing reversed primers?
Thanks
John
 
I have done that a few times
Wear real safety glasses and gloves
Move anything away from the press that could cause issues
Push it out very slowly with a decap die

The folks that tell you squirting WD40 on the primer to deactivate it are wrong, I tested that.
All test primers sprayed with WD40 fired
 
Sorry to say that I've done that a time or two myself. I learned to slow down a little bit, and switching to the new square-shaped Lee Auto Prime seemed to help also. Frankly, to me it wasn't worth the risk of getting hurt or damaging something, so I just crushed the top of the catridge case with a pair of vice grips and threw it away in the trash.

Regards,

Dave
 
Water. Wet the primer and push it out in your resizing die as usual. H2O won't contaminate the case.
 
Had it happen just the other day. Ran the stem out maximum in the depriming die and gently pressed it out. No problems. Wore safety glasses. Paid more attention as I was priming cases. Was using a old Lee Auto-Prime. Possibly worn out. Will have to try the new one.
 
Although I have not reloaded for almost 20 years, this happened to me on rare occasion. I know little about primers, but what I do know is that back then, a gentle steady push in the decapping die did not cause the primer to go bang. It seems to be that primers react to more of a sharp blow than a gentle push. If you are going to remove it rather than safely discard it, go slow and wear safety glasses.
 
The first reloading I ever did was 303 British on a Lee Loader. You use a hammer to knock the primer out and then hammer the case down onto the primer. Those large rifle primers are loud!!! But the explosion was not very energetic. Good bladder control is recommended. By the way, I highly recommend you wear protective glasses of some type while loading. All of my reloading friends have had a small mishap of some sort with primers. My regular glasses are semi-safe (no side shields) and are all that I need for shooting or reloading. A friend of mine has the original Dillion 1000 and has had the primer tube chain detonate 2 different times while mostly full. The bladder control is completely lost even though there is a steel shield around the tube. There was no true shrapnel but primer cups and anvils were bouncing off the ceiling in all directions. In a typical reloading press, if the primer is upside downs and it detonates, it is facing away from you, just be sure loose powder has been cleaned up. Ivan
 
On the newest Lee "Ergo" primer, the square lid tends to push out of the way and then primers go where they want in any way up manner. The cover can be held in place on one side with the black spring paper clip. So when priming very large batches of cases, it becomes necessary to pay strict attention to and inspect a second time. I expected better engineering from Lee at $35! I've gone back to the original model. I would expect a recall in the not to distant future. Ivan
 
Just gently press it out....no need to deactivate it...it has to be struck pretty hard to go off...I've done it a number of times in 0ver 40 years of reloading. I have also re-inserted them and they all fired no problem.

Randy
 
I absolutely agree with growr. I've never heard of a live primer, whether positioned correctly or reversed, that ignited when being pressed out slowly and carefully with a regular decapping die. I'm sure it's happened, but not to me or anyone I know, and we've removed live primers many times. And if it did happen, with safety glasses and potentially problematical items moved some distance from the press, I don't see how it could be a big deal.
 
I push them out in the sizing die. I figure since they don't detonate when pushing them into place, they aren't likely to do so when pushing them out. It takes a pretty good lick on the anvil to set one off. So far I haven't managed to unintentionally detonate one. (Knock on wood!)
 
Remember, you pushed the primer in with a ram . . . so you can push it out with the decapper even though it is narrower.
 
Double-O-Dave said:
Sorry to say that I've done that a time or two myself. I learned to slow down a little bit, and switching to the new square-shaped Lee Auto Prime seemed to help also. Frankly, to me it wasn't worth the risk of getting hurt or damaging something, so I just crushed the top of the catridge case with a pair of vice grips and threw it away in the trash.

Regards,

Dave
Click to expand...

blujax01 said:
It's worth a nickel - I throw it away.
Click to expand...

*Magic* said:
If it was me I would leave it on my bench as a reminder to slow down just a little! or throw it out!
Click to expand...

I agree with these guys. Why bother? For goodness sake, it is one piece of brass and a single primer...throw it away! :rolleyes:
 
Because the primer can be safely removed and I hate throwing away perfectly good brass. The primer I could not care less about.
 
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