hand primer question for a newbie

[Frogman77]

how do you get all your primers to orient the same way when you're putting them in the primer tray? How do you get all your primers out of the box. I'm using federal small pistol primers and a RCBS hand priming tool with the round tray. I had a hard time not dropping primers on the floor.

I still can't find one. which brings another question, if I can't find it does that pose a great danger to have a single primer unaccounted for in my garage??

Thanks from a newbie..

[fredj338]

Your hand priming tool has a tray w/ grooves in it. You just dump the primers in the tray & gently shake it. They anvil legs will catch the eges & flip over. The instructions should tell you this? A missing primer is only a slight problem wehn you vacumn, they can detonate.

[Frogman77]

am I better off just sweeping the garage? I can't find it anywhere, I was looking around for it, and i just can't find it...I don't like the fact of having one loose lying around.

I bought the hand primer used. I'll see if I can find the directions online, I think I saw it somewhere on midway's website.

primer can really detonate while vacuming? yikes!

[Edubya]

Originally Posted by Frogman77

how do you get all your primers to orient the same way when you're putting them in the primer tray? How do you get all your primers out of the box. I'm using federal small pistol primers and a RCBS hand priming tool with the round tray. I had a hard time not dropping primers on the floor.

I still can't find one. which brings another question, if I can't find it does that pose a great danger to have a single primer unaccounted for in my garage??

Thanks from a newbie..

Lay the tray on top of the full box of primers. While holding it firmly against the box, flip both over so that the primers are now on the tray. You can now do the shaking so that the primers are all oriented in the correct position.

I think that there are a couple of videos on "You Tube" that demonstrate this. Just search for "reloading" or "primer trays".

[Frogman77]

it looks like the federal primer tray is bigger than the hand primer tray...

[Edubya]

Here is one of the videos that demonstrates how to use the primer flip tray.
YouTube - Reloading with a Dillon RL 500B Part 4
He has a whole series of videos. They are very good and worth the time. He's using Dillon but the basics are the same.

[Frogman77]

thanks a bunch. I'll check out that video. Should I be worried about a loose primer around my garage somewhere? common sense tells me that it's probably not a good idea to leave lying around un accounted for.

[Bearcreek]

Having unaccounted for explosive devices is never a good thing... You may want to alert your neighbors and call the local LE dept. and have their dogs come find it for you. I mean what would happen if you just happen to set your canister of gunpowder next to the lost primer and for some reason it went off... you could have a boom rather than a bang..

[Frogman77]

it's more the issue that it's in my garage. I have other things in there besides my loading bench. forgive me for being new and naive to reloading but what are the chances that if my wife were to set something heavy down and it might be underneath whatever she sets down; is there a risk in a primer detonation? what would happen if the primer did go off?

I guess I'll just clear the floor and sweep it out for my own peace of mind. thanks for the sarcasm.

[Edubya]

Originally Posted by Frogman77

thanks a bunch. I'll check out that video. Should I be worried about a loose primer around my garage somewhere? common sense tells me that it's probably not a good idea to leave lying around un accounted for.

I've never had such an incident. A single primer will make a good size pop, but I wouldn't think that it would explode in a vacuum cleaner. The objects being vacuumed do not go through the impellers, just the air is being pulled through the filters do. You might want to put a fresh filter in the vacuum to maximize air draw. I guess that your biggest concern using a vacuum would be the other objects that might collide with the primer; they would have to hit it just right and the primer would pop with little or no resistance, making it virtually inert (kinda like setting fire to a spill of gasoline, compared to the explosion that takes place in an internal-combustion-engine).