rwj
Gold $$ Contributor
Never had one detonate while re-sizing, I always pull the decapping pin. However I did have one detonate trying to punch out an 90 year old primer with a Wilson punch. Me being the cheap SOB that I am was trying to salvage some military brass for the scrap brass bucket instead of throwing it away. When it went off (at arms length) it was the most ear splitting noise I think I've ever heard. I put a permanent burn mark on my bench top, it welded the tip of the Wilson punch into the flash hole of the case (destroyed the punch). A few seconds after it happened my wife stuck her head in the basement stair well and yelled WTF are you doing and are you OK? When I went upstairs to clean up, my stomach began to hurt a bit, so I pulled out my T-shirt and about belly button level it was full of little holes. When I pulled up my shirt the area around my belly button looked like I had been shot with a little tiny shotgun. This was case #13, the first 12 punched out with no problems, the rest of the cases went to the trash after that. The ammo was 30-06 military with a 1928 head stamp that the necks had split after sitting for so many years.
Glad that you were not permanently physically injured! If the case is worth recovering, one can always remove the bullet, dump the powder, then chamber and fire to ignite the primer. I learned this the “hard way”
