When loading, it's inevitable that you will occasionally drop a primer. Some reloaders don't seem to worry too much about it if they don't find it.

When that happens to me, all activity around the load bench stops until I find it. I don't rest until every primer is accounted for. I hate surprises, especially the ones that might go BANG if they get stepped on or get sucked into a vacuum hose.

How many reloaders out there can be certain that they don't have live primers lurking on the floor or in carpet around the load bench.

Not really a problem. They won't go off either by stepping on them or being sucked up by a vacuum. You'd have to purposely hit one with a hammer on a hard surface.

Having said that, when I realize I've dropped one I do look for it, but more from the miserly view point that I want to use it (3-4 cents). "LOL", as the kids say).

El Cheapo, Hank M.

I also stop loading to retrieve a dropped primer.
I've started keeping a 5 gallon bucket sitting on an overturned milk crate under my press - so that if I drop one it lands in the bucket and never even makes it to the floor. I spend a lot less time searching for them that way.

Excellent idea.

In almost every circumstance, you are correct. Primers, however, are explosives, and remote as it might be, there is always the possibility of a shock setting them off.

I've dropped more than a few but usually manage to find them, I do spend time looking for them but sometimes they just hide too good in a workshop.

The only misplaced one I can ever remember going off was one that got stuck in the tread of my work boot and went off as I shuffled along the concrete floor one day.
,,but no telling how long that primer had been stuck in there.

I'd have to say that I do stop and search until I find it. Not because of the bang or the $.03. It's because I hate ending up with 99 rounds loaded, and for sure don't want to break open another box to even it out. I like the bucket idea!


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I also look for a lost primer. That takes less time than going to the primer container and grabbing one extra primer. I like to load 100 at a time, and it would also bother me to close the lid on a box of 99 cartridges.

When you're retired, and load as a hobby, stopping to find a stray primer is just part of the process.

I used to hate dropping a primer also and trying to find it. Also dropping bullets and casings. But i discovered something that really helped me. I had an old bed sheet lying on the bench I was going to tear up into rags. I took the bed sheet and spread it out on the floor under my press and sat my stool on top of the sheet. Now when I am reloading and when they fall they hit the sheet and stop, no bouncing and rolling around on the concrete just reach down and pick it up and no more crawling around the garage floor with a flashlight on an Easter egg hunt.

I absolutely look for lost primers. Having one go off unexpectedly would be a bad day. Keeping the area around the bench neat and swept goes a long way.

If I were loading in a spare room that could be accessed by pets, children, etc, then finding the missing primer would be completely, 100% necessary.

I'm one.

First, my reloading bench rests on a concrete floor so there's no carpet or run to harbor spilled powder, dropped primers, primer dust, etc.

Second, my reloading bench and all other furniture in the room has a pressboard skirt that reaches all the way down to the floor so there is no place for a dropped primer to go that it is not visible.

Third, I don't usually primer cases at my reloading bench, but at a dedicated station off my utility room that likewsie has hard surface flooring, hard surface work area and skirts around the bottom of the bench.

Fourth, since I reload in batches of 50 or less, I am able to account for primers individually. If I'm reloading 50 cases, I pull enough of the primer tray out from the sleeve to reveal 50 primers and put them in a tray. If I end up short a primer or surplus a primer, I immediately know it and have a very small space (under 15 square feet) to look or it.

In my youth, I often lost primers, but have altered my procedures and how I build my reloading furniture to make sure it pretty much can't happen again.

Uh, yes they will go off in a vacuum cleaner. Ask me how I know. I'm thinking there's more than enough static electricity going on in there to light a live primer.

They don't go off easy but you sure don't want to steep on one barefoot. Boy if anvil is up facing the ceiling you will cuss ask me how I know this?

I vacuum them up all the time. They don't go through any impeller in my cheapo vacuum cleaner that resides under the work bench. If one ever did go off, which they haven't, I wouldn't get distressed or worry about it.

Funny this thread came up. I batch load and have just spent the last two nights priming about 1500 cases. I use a Hornady hand priming tool. I open the box of primers just enough to expose 2 rows of 10 primers and dump them into the tray. I shake one in at a time and look down into the shell holder to make sure it is in there, then seat the primer. I do this while I'm watching TV. I check every single one so I'm not worried about crushing a primer. And I never have more than 20 primers in the tray at any one time.

So if they fall, they fall right onto the carpet and I pick them up and put them back into the tray. But I wouldn't just leave one lost.

I never wasted much time looking for dropped primers. Never had one pop in the vacuum until I got a hand-me-down Kirby. Now I look a little harder.

I once found a live primer after my dog ate it, contrasted very well to the surrounding material...

On the rare occasion I've dropped a primer I have "dropped everything" () until I found it. It just happened yesterday. Fortunately it was a large rifle primer - pretty easy to find.

When cases are ready for priming I put them in small plastic bins that hold either 50 or 100. So it has been pretty easy to tell if I missed one. I don't like having partially-used primer packages around. However since I just started loading some lower-volume cartridges (such as .270) I think I'll be dealing with sub-100-case priming sessions quite frequently.

OR

I do believe the Kirby runs everything through an impeller, which was my first thought about primers blowing in vacuums. My vac just pulls the primer against the dirt bag. The Kirby may be vicious than a kinetic hammer.

I don't load on carpeted floors and I don't worry too much about losing a primer. Stepping on a primer will not set it off, that's not how they work. Of course you are free to obsess over a lost primer, I just don't.

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I too stop and look for it.After 1 or 2 minutes,if I haven't found it,I get my high tech lost primer retriever;an old broom.99.99% of the time,it turns up from under some place in the loading room(these primers can sometimes roll a pretty good distance and hide pretty well);it is satisfying to find the missing 1% and by the same token keeps the floor clean!
Qc

I use coffee cans to store my pistol empties and loaded shells so when I reload the cases I always have an odd number. I don't bother to look for dropped primers. The cost of a primer doesn't have anything to do with the cost of my next meal and one monkey don't stop the show. Larry

Maybe I've seen too many episodes of NYPD Blue, but that right there is funny. Intended or not.

It's not the pennies or the fear or explosions that bothers me....
As others have said, it's that odd number of loaded cartridges sitting there staring at me!

When loading, it's inevitable that you will occasionally crush a primer when it doesn't seat right in the primer feed. Some people are not particular about the actual number of rounds they load, so when that happens, they load 99 and forget it. Some people want to load exact numbers of rounds. In that case, they have to open another pack of primers.

I like to fill my ammo boxes... no more... no less, so I long ago forgot about trying to keep even component counts. I just keep the primer feed full and only count my rounds.

There are some things that I could lose sleep over though.

One of those is knowing that there are little bits of explosive laying around my shop that if set off at an inopportune moment, could at best cause me to **** my pants, or at worst cause me to saw my hand off.

Dropped primers always seem to find their way back somehow. I usually call my wife to find them. She has eyes like a hawk. If I don’t find it right away I move on and find it when I’m not actually looking for it. I worry about it but it’s not like stepping in dog ****. When that happens the planet stops spinning and everything floats off into outer space except the smell. That smell just seems to follow you around for the rest of the day no matter what you do to hide from it.

My reloading room is also where I store my fishing gear and also reload shotgun shells. One has to be very careful on how he goes about searching for things.

A small #22 dry fly hook or a #12 treble hook on my indoor/outdoor carpet is not what you want to find, sweeping your hand across it.

I usually use a wooden or plastic ruler on edge to find things.
A broom just scatters things and makes for a larger search area.

I usually put all the Shotgun pellets spilt, from #9 lead to BB steel along with fishing leader and all the
spent pistol and rifle primers that did not make it from the tray to the garbage box, into a small cup
which is transferred to a coffee can.
Sorting through all this for one primer is sort of silly but I also like to have 50 or 100 rounds in a box
and not one short. I say it is peace of mind. My wife would say I'm cheap.

You guys are killing me! I dropped a primer 3 reloading "sessions" ago, and have spent a total of about an hour searching for it. I have searched on hands and knees probably 5 or 6 times. Now after reading through this, it's gonna be 7 times!

I used to drop primers occasionally. Now, since my purchase of the Lee new model primer tool, I am afforded greatly expanded opportunities to crawl around on my hands and knees!

I've opened a primer sleeve upside down more than once. I don't worry about 'em too much except during the Great Primer Drought of '09. I spent more time looking back then.

I have lost my share of primers on the garage floor. I frequently blow it out. If I don't see it shortly after I drop it then it remains in place like a land mine. Makes for fun when waking in the garage barefooted.

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My floor usually has 3-4 primers on it after a loading session. I just sweep them up and throw the small ones in the garbage. The large ones I reuse because I know they are LP primers. The small ones could be SP or SR, I can't tell the difference. I suppose they would still work if I switched them but for 10 cents I'll just use the right primer.

Now if you start talking about cases, well that's a whole nother ball of wax.

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