Popcorn?

[ZWCoffindaffer]

My First rookie mistake was made earlier. I was priming a batch of prepped and tumbled cases. For whatever reason I got to about the 5th one and decided to look inside with a light. The primer looked funny so I began to look at the other unprimed cases in the shell holders. I had seated those 5 primers on little pieces of corn cob media stuck in the flash hole. Silly me for not checking the primer pocket and flash hole. Lesson learned. This brings me to a question, anyone ever deprime a case with a hot primer in it? The thought of doing it made me a little nervous, so I figured I'd check with some of you more experienced folks.

 

[Drop45]

I de-prime a couple every loading session it seems. I use a universal de-capping die. Never had one go "bang" yet.

 

[clearcut]

I did one tonight just go slow!

CC

 

[Duvel]

Plenty.

Just go slow and wear safety glasses (but you already are )

 

[Duvel]

Or, you could decap after cleaning and not worry about it

 

[Lost Sheep]

Thanks for asking our advice

Primer compound is highly explosive (but very small amount) AND designed to be set off by a fast, impact blow, not by slow deformation.

Wear safety glasses (of course) and ear protection (a naked primer inside a room is pretty loud). For an extra measure of protection drape a heavy piece of cloth over the press as you deprime.

I have crushed a few primers (seating them sideways by accident) and deprimed a few and never set one off. But always by slow pressure in a press, never fast.

I have set off one primer (on purpose) just to see how much energy comes out the muzzle (quite a bit and will scorch a cloth several inches from the muzzle of a 6-inch revolver.

Nowhere near as loud as a gunshot, but I had little basis for comparison when I ran my experiment.

Lost Sheep

 

[MADDOG]

Check and recheck. Safety First-----

 

[Blue68f100]

Use the finer 20/40 corn cob media and it want stick in the primer hole. Also 1 grain of corncob media will not stop the ignition process. The primer has enough energy to blow it out of the way. Unless your using a wet cleaning process leave the primer in while tumbling.

 

[ZWCoffindaffer]

I use corncob with a capful of nufinish. I didn't think the tumble with primers already seated. I'm assuming that's safe practice?

 

[pbearperry]

I agree with Duvel, deprime after tumbling. save a lot of headaches.

 

[joem1945]

I use 12-20 walnut shells. I have decaped several good primers using a universal decap die, haven't set on off yet.

 

[BYJO4]

I clean my brass before sizing and depriming. If there is anything stuck in the primer hole, the depriming punch will knock it out.
I have removed a number of live primers from brass. Just push slowly as you remove it and wear saftety glasses. I also remove any unused primers from the area while doing this. I've never had any problem.

 

[dh1633pm]

I always remove the dead primer first, then clean. When I used to use corn or walnut, I found it was removed when I sized. Air Pressure removes the errant particles from the flash hole pretty easy.

I have never had an issue removing a hot primer. I just go slow.

 

[Shootshellz]

I also deprime before tumbling. Keeps the abrasive compound from fired primers off my progressive presses and cleans the primer pockets to boot.

 

[Duvel]

I use a tumbler w/ walnut - The few times I've deprimed before cleaning has had zero effect on the cleanliness of the pockets.

9mm: Clean, decap, load.

10X brass and I've never had an issue.

.308, different story

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Like the others, I have decapped a lot of primers. I will add that I don't worry about cob or walnut media in the flash hole. There should be enough force from the primer to blow it through. It will be consumed by the fire.

 

[RainDodger]

Me? I'd shoot them. Now if it was a stainless steel pin or something, that's a different matter, but I'd probably not even worry about the piece of corncob.

If you want to de-prime though - the other fellers here told you right - just go slow and it's fine. I've de-primed many a case in the past.

 

[Toprudder]

Don't worry about the corncob in the flash hole. The primer by itself has enough energy to push the bullet into the barrel (don't ask me how I know) so it will certainly push the corncob out of the flash hole.

 

[judgedelta]

I've never had a primer go off, but I keep a fresh Depends on standby, just in case...