Wondering if anyone has had primers explode when reloading at the bench. If so please explain how it happened and all contributing factors.
Reloading in THE BARRACKS??Once in 1965. Second floor of my barracks at Ft Bliss. Loading my .222 using a Classic Lee loader. The little metal rod went into orbit, my roommate near had a heart attack. I was just worried if the CQ or OOD had heard it. I escaped unharmed. VERY careful after that.
I'm still.using the depriming punch that came with the LEE Loader for that very reason.Well, I did buy a little cheapo LEE single-position press for use with a depriming die to keep the primer dust out of my sizing dies.
My biggest batch so far was 230 cases. With the LEE decapping punch and hammer it gets old fast. Hence the APP.I checked out the LEE APP. Quite a gizmo. I'd assume once you get it all dialed in it will work OK and speed up the operation once you have it set up.
In the LEE manual is speaks of the Federal primers as one tough dragon to tame. Federal is the only primer company that uses a more refined priming compound and is the reason that they are more bricilent, at least at higher temps. They are not as good as the others in extreme cold though.Not me personally but a close friend set one off with his LEE pro 1000 progressive using federal primers. In turn the whole tray of primers went off. Fortunately he was wearing glasses that saved his eyes but his face was peppered pretty well. The manual for the LEE pro 1000 specifically cautions against the federal primers. I have no idea if that warning existed at the time.
Warning at the top of page 4.