Oops. Please help.

[TZaun]

Thanks for all the replies!! I took the advice of loading up 5 and going out and trying them. It's 20 degrees above here today and when I loaded them up I put them and 5 of the "good" ones outside for 2 hours. I went over to my shooting bench and shot each shot 5 minutes apart and then shot the 5 "good" ones the same way. POI at 100 yards was identical as was the group size. Both groups measured 7/8". The only thing I did not do was set up the chrony to see if there was a velocity change between the two. I'm going to just leave them in and make sure I label that box of 50 correctly because I would like to get his rifle back sometime when I have more time and shoot the two loads side-by-side again but through the chrony. When I ran the "good" load through the chrony during load development I had 3080 fps for a 10-shot average when I was shooting them at 500 yards. It was about the same temp. that day, so I'm also interested to see how "extreme" Retumbo is when they are shot when it's 80 or 90 out.

 

[AJ]

Come on guys. This is not a safe practice. Much safer to decommission the primers with WD-40 or something similar before punching them out. Primers are not that expensive compared to potential injury.

I have tried to decommission primers by soaking in all kinds of fluids and they still went bang. I sure wouldn't mess my cases up with some fluid that might affect the new powder. I just wear safety glasses and go easy as mentioned. That is if they don't shoot well. I have also tested the power of just a primer and it is not something to get real worried about. Safety glasses and make sure there is not loose powder laying about.

 

[NCFrank]

I have also tested the power of just a primer and it is not something to get real worried about. Safety glasses and make sure there is not loose powder laying about.

Yes. Likewise here.

So I let this discussion get my curiosity up and ventured into a little primer removal test. Afterwards I thought, what the heck, I'll put it in here. Maybe some will call me crazy or worse. I won't lose any sleep.

With safety glasses on and using my arbor press, Lee depriming punch and two sleeves stacked for elevation and clearance, I placed a primed 45acp case in the top sleeve with the punch in place resting against the center of the primer anvil. Pulled the arbor down to rest against the top of the punch, placed and held a small towel around the sleeves, case and punch and gave the arbor handle a good whack with a hard plastic hammer knocking out the primer. No Bang.

Reseat primer in case. It seats pretty good with some resistance going back in the case. Same set up minus the arbor press. Give a good tap to the punch with the plastic hammer. Again, No Bang. I did this same process with a primed 9mm case and a primed 5.56 case ending with the same results. No Bang. No trickery or deception here.

I once again reseat that same primer of the 1st & 2nd removal in the 45acp case, put that primed case in the pistoli and pulled the trigger. You guessed it. Bang. Really didn't expect any less.

With this being done I am NOT going to go about removing live primers in a less safe manner than what I've exercised in previous occasions. I'm not saying in any way that a live primer will never discharge when being removed from a case. No discharge on these 4 rather aggressive attempts.

Speaking for myself, I'm still just as confident live primers can be removed SAFELY (using a little common sense) and I will exercise good judgement on the use of these primers afterwards just as I am sure the rest of you guys have done who have removed live primers.