Public Service Announcement-Primer explosions at the bench can be preventable, or they will be ugly🙈

Amanda4461

Amanda4461

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Just a moment of being in a hurry to finish the install of a free-float tube on my Colt HBAR, resulted in an explosion scattering debris from 2 Dillon Large Primer tubes, holding 100 new primers each.
My dumb self has a vise on two tables. Only one has primer tubes hanging near the vice. Guess where I was standing?
Primer rack is belly-high. Vice is 6 inches higher. Colt is almost completed, in the big vice across the room, so to hurry up, the Dremel is used to cut the sling swivel off the front sight, and sand it down. The Float Tube has a sling swivel, already mounted. The tube won’t fit if I don’t cut the swivel off the front sight.
Swivel gets cut off in 10 seconds. Grinding the stubs down takes long enough, and produces mucho sparks. Two primer tubes do their jobs, since the primers blew straight up, and straight down, knocking 4 loaded tubes off the rack to the concrete floor. One is now missing a cotter pin, and one a Dillon plastic tip. All 4 have all, or 95% of good primers.
Shrapnel was embedded in 2 eight pound powder kegs that were stored below the primer tubes. Parts of the twisted, mangled aluminum tubes are on the floor.
The two tubes that blew, were shrapnel bombs. I had 7 pieces penetrate top of my left hand. Xray attached. Some are Anvils, others are the primer body. Plenty of blood. Sounded like a 10 gauge in my ear. LuckyI had polycarb safety glasses on, but I needed Kevlar gloves.
Wife responded. When I asked her to get my Clotting Agent out of my range bag emergency FA kit, she grabbed a chest seal kit and stuck it on my hand. It did stick well, stopping the blood flow from my punctures.
We will be attending a SheepDog Rescue class as soon as possible🤕
Doberman never woke up. He hears gunfire often.
Hand Surgeon in the works.
Would have taken 2 minutes to swap the AR to the little vise. I had the gas tube lined up, after fighting the tube alignment to the front sight, and didn’t stop to assess the danger.
Only things I did correctly, was wear eye protection and have an IFAK.
Dillon will see some of their handiwork. They worked to remove mass, or I may have received worse punctures, in more deadly places.
50 years of reloading, and I do this because I rushed a rifle accurizing job, and didn’t organize my workbench properly.
I hope this saves someone else a trip to the ER, or worse.

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Wow. Glad you're OK, mostly.
Improvised chest seal application, I like it.

So, sparks from the grinding set off the primers? And you had sympathetic ignition of other primers? Do you know how many detonated?
 
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Glad you're ok. Storing primers next to the powder might something you want to think about, unless those are metal powder magazines. Hot shrapnel will fly though the plastic.

The only times I've blown a tube the explosion was completely out the end of the tube. I'm not sue why the tube turned to shrapnel? Was it plugged on the other end?

Count yourself very lucky. Get a lottery ticket!
 
You know, some say a welcome mat is all the invitation a vampire needs to enter your home.

Between that and the sweet sweet blood trail you made up to the mat, I’d be careful.

In all seriousness I’m glad you’re ok. That could have gone worse. I have my father’s voice inside my head telling me things like “just take the short time to do things right instead of right now”. A voice I often ignored to similar results as yours.

I don’t ignore him often anymore.
 
georgel said:
Wow. Glad you're OK, mostly.
Improvised chest seal application, I like it.

So, sparks from the grinding set off the primers? And you had sympathetic ignition of other primers? Do you know how many detonated?
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200 blew up👀
 
Geez…hate you got injured, but glad it wasn’t worse👍

The one step in the reloading process that causes the hair on my neck to stand is priming cases…still…after 35+ years.

Primers are pretty much blasting caps, but on a smaller scale and if I were going to get in a hurry, at all, the priming step would be at the bottom of the list. I’ve used the both the APS strips and the hand primer with the tray attached, but now, I only use the hand primer without the tray attached. It’s a bit more tedious/time consuming, but having a tray full of primers, oe even one, detonate a couple feet from my face/neck/chest ain’t something I want.

Thanks for having the guts to come on here and post about your mishap…it may cause one or more folks to think and possibly avoid what happened to you, or worse.
 
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Dale Gribble said:
Geez…hate you got injured, but glad it wasn’t worse👍

The one step in the reloading process that causes the hair on my neck to stand is priming cases…still…after 35+ years.

Primers are pretty much blasting caps, but on a smaller scale and if I were going to get in a hurry, at all, the priming step would be at the bottom of the list. I’ve used the both the APS strips and the hand primer with the tray attached, but now, I only use the hand primer without the tray attached. It’s a bit more tedious/time consuming, but having a tray full of primers, oe even one, detonate a couple feet from my face/neck/chest ain’t something I want.

Thanks for having the guts to come on here and post about your mishap…it may cause one or more folks to think and possibly avoid what happened to you, or worse.
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My wife told me she now realizes why I wear safety goggles when hand-priming. The Dillon doesn’t slow priming down, ut I only load handgun ammo on them.
I started using my Bonanza Co-Ax primer tool, since it has much better feel and leverage than my Frankford Arsenal hand primer, and is much easier on the arthritic hands.
 
Catfish said:
Why in the Hail were you grinding metal anywhere near your powder store? You are lucky to be alive man.
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The powder didn’t concern me much. It truly is a fire hazard, but not an actual explosive. Two jugs were penetrated, and I just removed the hot fragments and taped them up.
The primer tubes were installed there years ago, before the recent vise install. I never stood back and saw the potential, mainly because I only used that small vise for 1911 and AR15 trigger work, or for my weed eater when i change out the cord spools. Yesterday was a wake-up call.
 
I am glad you are ok. And you just might get internet-famous for a minute that X-ray showing the primer parts in your hand :)

Reminds me of one time at work I went out to the shop and one of the guys has a brush axe in the vise and was sharpening it with an angle grinder. That's bad enough on its own, but the shower of sparks was cascading over a plastic gas can right under the vise. Sometimes you get wrapped up in your task and don't even notice the train tracks, much less the train coming at you.
And he got mad at ME when I made him move the can.
 
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georgel said:
200! Was the second tube also ignited by sparks or by the first tube detonating?
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Can’t prove it, but appeared to be a sympathetic detonation.
Didn’t matter much, the effect was the same.
Dillon primer tubes have a cotter pin holding the primers in place, after the tube is filled.
The opposite end is a colorcoded plastic piece, that picks up fresh primers from a primer flipper. The open end shows the inside of the priming cup. A spark has found a friendly place, and kaboom🤯
Simple to see, had I looked at the plot plan of my bench, that I should have kept my primers in my gun safe room. Each tube holds 100 primers. I had 3,000 primers of different sizes and types hanging near that bench.
As I found out, lots of tnt🤕
 
So sorry this happened, but I'm glad it wasn't worse - it sure sounds like it could have been. And thanks for sharing the story, it should make anyone reading this be a little more careful.

I never keep primer tubes loaded. I only load them right before I am ready to run the press, and then I typically only load one tube, then dump it straight into the press. I have not done this because I was concerned about safety, I just use the tube-loading process as a short break from pulling the handle. I will continue to operate that way.
 
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rodell said:
Glad you're ok. Storing primers next to the powder might something you want to think about, unless those are metal powder magazines. Hot shrapnel will fly though the plastic.

The only times I've blown a tube the explosion was completely out the end of the tube. I'm not sue why the tube turned to shrapnel? Was it plugged on the other end?

Count yourself very lucky. Get a lottery ticket!
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Plugged with a cotter pin. That is how Dillons contain the fresh primers.
 
Ouch! Glad it wasn’t worse. What was the range from tubes to hand?
 
Damn Brother! Really glad it wasn’t worse. I need to be better about wearing my safety glasses when reloading.
Is now a bad time to ask if you want to buy more primers from me? 🤪
Heal up and don’t take anymore shortcuts.
 
rodell said:
Glad you're ok. Storing primers next to the powder might something you want to think about, unless those are metal powder magazines. Hot shrapnel will fly though the plastic.

The only times I've blown a tube the explosion was completely out the end of the tube. I'm not sue why the tube turned to shrapnel? Was it plugged on the other end?

Count yourself very lucky. Get a lottery ticket!
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I think the tubes did their job. Lightweight metal that ruptured rather than attempt to contain the explosion. Which is also why you don't store powder in rigid structures, like a safe. It's the containment that makes things worse, drastic increase of pressure, heavier, more dangerous shrapnel.
 
Hate to hear of your mishap. Glad your injuries are not more serious. Thank you in the extreme for sharing your story. I've been reloading for long time and haven't had any primer detonation incidents. Reading your story provides great incentive to continue my run.
Next time I'm setting up to reload I will remember this post and double check my bench surroundings and certainly remember to take enough time to be as safe as possible.
THANK YOU very much for the reminder. Hope you heal up rapidly.
 
Glad your injuries weren’t any worse. Thank you for the reminder about safety and complacency. I imagine, at some point in time we all have been in a situation that was way more dangerous than what we perceived at the time.
 
I read of a reloader who finger flicked a primer tube to dislodge jammed primers and had them detonate in the tube, presumably from accumilated priming residue. I know I've gotten complacent after 50 years of reloading. We're handling potentially unstable stuff. Glad you are ok Kerry.
 
Anyone clean their primer tubes? Read about something similar on a Sig forum.
 
"Honey I blew up my hand!"
OMG! We have to get you to the hospital!
"Take some pics first so I can put em up on CFF....."
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Thread of the month award for sure. Really glad it wasn't in the eyes or face, and you get to keep your hand.
Looks like you'll have to bring the wife back to Hendersonville and let her go shopping downtown again for putting up with your shenanigans. 🍺
 
Amanda4461 said:
Plugged with a cotter pin. That is how Dillons contain the fresh primers.
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For those that don't know how the Dillon presses handle primers, what he is referring to is the tube that is used to pick up the primers from the flip tray. That tube is then used to drop the primers (up to 100) all at once into the primer chute/tube on the press. On the press, there is a thick wall aluminum tube (two different sizes depending on the primer size) that is inside a thick wall steel tube. That steel tube is there to force any blast upwards towards the ceiling, and not out into the operators face.

Like I mentioned earlier, I don't store primers in the pick-up tubes, and typically only load one at a time right before I dump them into the press. Not that I was doing that with safety in mind, but I will definitely have it in mind now.

Ever wonder why Federal primers are in much larger boxes, for the same number of primers as the other brands? The primer boxes are designed in such a way, both in size and how they are packed, so that sympathetic detonation is unlikely. In other words, one primer going off will not start a chain reaction. The Federal primers are known to be more sensitive, consequently, the boxes have to be larger. Stacking them into a long tube with no separation makes them many times more dangerous. Keep that in mind.
 
Catfish said:
Very good point. I usually keep a loaded tube on my bench so I can refill on the go. I should stop doing that.
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Well, I've done it a few times, but I mainly load up just one tube and dump it as needed. I use the primer pick-up operation as a short break from pulling the handle.
 
Amazing that you only got the hand injury. I've always been a little scared of primers. I prefer to keep them packed in the box and tray they shipped in. It prevents mis-identification as well as incidents like what you unfortunately experienced.
As stated, that's a wild xray photo. Hope you heal up good with no lasting effects on function or pain.
 
Sorry to hear of the mishap. Glad your injuries are not more serious.
Thanks for sharing your story to remind all of us.

Does anybody have a ground strap/wire going to their press or powder thrower?
I am wondering if it was a good idea for static electricity reasons.
 
Toprudder said:
Well, I've done it a few times, but I mainly load up just one tube and dump it as needed. I use the primer pick-up operation as a short break from pulling the handle.
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I've used a Lee hand primer for decades. I'm sure it has its own risks.
 
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