Primers Damaged When Breaking Down Cartridges Using Hammer

tightgroup tiger said:
I won't use a kinetic hammer any more. I bought this and use this.
View attachment 1197378 Your looking at the shell holder extention. My 327FM round is sitting on it ready for the bullet to be pulled. See the wire cutters sitting beside the press? That's what I grab the bullet with.

View attachment 1197379 It leaves a mark on the bullets but not much of one.
I paid $8.00 for the shell holder extension from Midway USA.
The wire cutters I already had. You can use wire strippers also if you want. They will leave 4 small marks on the bullet that doesn't hurt them in my opinion.

I hate kinetic hammers, they ruin more bullets than they save as far as I'm concerned. Mine has the foam in the bottom, but the lead bullet still bounces back up and the bottom of the bullet hits the bottom of the collet and defaces it.

You pull them how you want but this is how I do it. It's effortless and non-impact.
Click to expand...
Had to laugh I do the same thing only I use a small channel lock . I find the couple marks on the bullet really doesn’t matter either.
 
CQB45ACP said:
Have you ever experienced this? Would it concern you?

I'm thinking as long as they go boom, who cares. Right?
Click to expand...
I just deconstructed about 60 9mm range pickup unfired rounds. I used an RCBS hammer and I hit a nice piece of ash. Since some looked like light strikes, I deprimed them all and then reloaded them. The plan is to have a practice session outdoors later today - the snow has finally melted here on the hill. Hopefully they all light off. My concern is reliability, that’s why they’re used for a range/practice session.

These were all SP - not sure if you did LP or SP, but I didn’t see any residue in the baggie that held them or the primer tray. These were a mix of different primer types - I could see some Win, CCI and a bunch of others I‘ve not used. If there were pieces of primer breaking off from the force of the hammer, they’d end up with the powder from the cartridge. Seems that would be a bigger concern and one more difficult finding.
 
lordpaxman said:
I just deconstructed about 60 9mm range pickup unfired rounds. I used an RCBS hammer and I hit a nice piece of ash. Since some looked like light strikes, I deprimed them all and then reloaded them. The plan is to have a practice session outdoors later today - the snow has finally melted here on the hill. Hopefully they all light off. My concern is reliability, that’s why they’re used for a range/practice session.

These were all SP - not sure if you did LP or SP, but I didn’t see any residue in the baggie that held them or the primer tray. These were a mix of different primer types - I could see some Win, CCI and a bunch of others I‘ve not used. If there were pieces of primer breaking off from the force of the hammer, they’d end up with the powder from the cartridge. Seems that would be a bigger concern and one more difficult finding.
Click to expand...
Large.

I agree with that bigger concern. It simply seems like a bad combination. Thats why I brought it up also, but no one else thinks it's a big deal, apparently. And that also surprises me.

Anyway, while I do reuse the reclaimed powder, I don't mix it with fresh--keep in surplus Lee hopper and don't use the "dust" that accumulates in the bottom--scoop from the top.

I also just noticed the primer residue in a primer tray holding nine reclaimed primers. I had assumed a while back that I hadn't been careful enough easing them out and that caused the breaking, cracking, or whatever it is. Not so. It's the hammering. "My" hammering at least.

IMG_4538.jpeg
IMG_4537.jpeg
 
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tightgroup tiger said:
I won't use a kinetic hammer any more. I bought this and use this.
View attachment 1197378 Your looking at the shell holder extention. My 327FM round is sitting on it ready for the bullet to be pulled. See the wire cutters sitting beside the press? That's what I grab the bullet with.

View attachment 1197379 It leaves a mark on the bullets but not much of one.
I paid $8.00 for the shell holder extension from Midway USA.
The wire cutters I already had. You can use wire strippers also if you want. They will leave 4 small marks on the bullet that doesn't hurt them in my opinion.

I hate kinetic hammers, they ruin more bullets than they save as far as I'm concerned. Mine has the foam in the bottom, but the lead bullet still bounces back up and the bottom of the bullet hits the bottom of the collet and defaces it.

You pull them how you want but this is how I do it. It's effortless and non-impact.
Click to expand...
I've never seen this done with an extended shell holder.

Would it permit a 45acp & 9mm bullet to protrude through press? If so, I may give it a try. I could do it without bothering the entire household.

I too use foam ear plug but get bounce and thus minor damage.

As far as wire cutter or pliers putting marks on the bullet, at 21ft or less vs a bad guy, it won't affect accuracy enough to worry about but even if it did, it's the least of your worries.
 
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Show Me said:
Well I ground a pair of side cutters and do the same as you on .223 crimped ammo. But on others i use the hammer. A foam ear plug protects lead tipped 30 cal. and such. The collet holds the case head so the bullet can't bounce up and hit anything but the open hole in the brass. Perfect , save bullet ,powder and neck size brass with decap tip ground off. Start over.
Click to expand...
Right, it's the case that "cuts" or otherwise marks the bouncing bullet. Have tried to finesse it and am successful maybe 50% of the time. Maybe.

Here are some of my pulled Acmes with telltale marks.



IMG_4544.jpeg
 
CQB45ACP said:
I've never seen this done with an extended shell holder.

Would it permit a 45acp & 9mm bullet to protrude through press? If so, I may give it a try. I could do it without bothering the entire household.

I too use foam ear plug but get bounce and thus minor damage.

As far as wire cutter or pliers putting marks on the bullet, at 21ft or less vs a bad guy, it won't affect accuracy enough to worry about but even if it did, it's the least of your worries.
Click to expand...
Easily, that's just a big washer you see on top of the press. It's just to give the wire cutters something to lay on. Wire strippers lay all the way across. If you use them you don't need a washer. They do mark the bullets and once in a while I let one slip and it strips the copper off my copper plated bullets, so I do ruin one once in a while but it's my fault.

The shell holder extender easily puts any sized bullet up through the top of the press. This is 9mm
shell holder extension.jpg Without the washer, top of press.jpg You can see the entire shell holder is up in there and this is a side view of the press at full extension with a 9mm. clearance.jpg

You can see there is lots of height.
 
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ballman6711 said:
Women always know. Not sure how they know, but they do.
Click to expand...
Mine just rolls her eyes at me these days. I guess that what 44years of marriage does. She's use to me throwing ruined primers in the fire pit to get rid of them. If I throw three in the pit with a fire, I go back in the house and listen for three pops.
Somethimes there are no pops at all.
Show Me said:
Well I ground a pair of side cutters and do the same as you on .223 crimped ammo. But on others i use the hammer. A foam ear plug protects lead tipped 30 cal. and such. The collet holds the case head so the bullet can't bounce up and hit anything but the open hole in the brass. Perfect , save bullet ,powder and neck size brass with decap tip ground off. Start over.
Click to expand...
Do that with a lead bullet. When it hits the mouth of the case on the bounce, Totally ruined. And it always ruins the base of the bullet, the most important part.

I can pull them by putting the wire cutters in the crimp groove and sliding them out with no problems and I ruin nothing.
 
tightgroup tiger said:
Mine just rolls her eyes at me these days. I guess that what 44years of marriage does. She's use to me throwing ruined primers in the fire pit to get rid of them. If I throw three in the pit with a fire, I go back in the house and listen for three pops.
Somethimes there are no pops at all.

Do that with a lead bullet. When it hits the mouth of the case on the bounce, Totally ruined. And it always ruins the base of the bullet, the most important part.

I can pull them by putting the wire cutters in the crimp groove and sliding them out with no problems and I ruin nothing.
Click to expand...
Yes lead is different especially when a gas check is involved and a heavy crimp. So you meant case mouth not " collet" got it.
Lead cartridges I don't want goes in a bucket for volume shooting. Revolvers aren't so picky . I don't have to crawl around in the barn to find my brass after I made the change. .

I like those that said we shouldn't make mistakes.
 
tightgroup tiger said:
Easily, that's just a big washer you see on top of the press. It's just to give the wire cutters something to lay on. Wire strippers lay all the way across. If you use them you don't need a washer. They do mark the bullets and once in a while I let one slip and it strips the copper off my copper plated bullets, so I do ruin one once in a while but it's my fault.

The shell holder extender easily puts any sized bullet up through the top of the press. This is 9mm
View attachment 1197616 Without the washer, View attachment 1197621 You can see the entire shell holder is up in there and this is a side view of the press at full extension with a 9mm. View attachment 1197624

You can see there is lots of height.
Click to expand...
Excellent! I'm off on a new adventure! Thanks.
 
:Range Report.
I had an outdoor practice session with the recycled primers, 60 of them. Two failed to fire. They were ones that had light strikes on them to begin with.

Mind you, these recycled primers were in unfired cartridges picked up off the range. How long they had been there I can’t tell. They had been sent through a wet tumble for 3 hours, and then dried in the sun for a few days. Then they were given a 6 month rest until now.

Primers are tough little buggers. I wouldn’t worry about the residue you found.
 
lordpaxman said:
:Range Report.
I had an outdoor practice session with the recycled primers, 60 of them. Two failed to fire. They were ones that had light strikes on them to begin with.

Mind you, these recycled primers were in unfired cartridges picked up off the range. How long they had been there I can’t tell. They had been sent through a wet tumble for 3 hours, and then dried in the sun for a few days. Then they were given a 6 month rest until now.

Primers are tough little buggers. I wouldn’t worry about the residue you found.
Click to expand...
Work bench question. So recycled primers. Never heard of it , good experimenting. So the decap pin pushing on the anvil doesn't injure it at all.
 
lordpaxman said:
:Range Report.
I had an outdoor practice session with the recycled primers, 60 of them. Two failed to fire. They were ones that had light strikes on them to begin with.

Mind you, these recycled primers were in unfired cartridges picked up off the range. How long they had been there I can’t tell. They had been sent through a wet tumble for 3 hours, and then dried in the sun for a few days. Then they were given a 6 month rest until now.

Primers are tough little buggers. I wouldn’t worry about the residue you found.
Click to expand...
Well that's a good result I'd say.

I'm not too worried but am more curious than ever why no one else has experienced the same thing as me.

Sure, it could be my technique, and I have to accept that.

Anyway, take a look at a better picture of the recycled primers I showed earlier. In particular the first three on the left. Missing cake is obvious.

Can't wait to see if they go bang!

IMG_4545.jpeg
 
Get a Lee APP Deluxe, you'll have priming compound all over everything the primers it puts in sideways that I have to punch back out and throw away.
I have it down to about 1 in 200 now on a good day.
Show Me said:
Work bench question. So recycled primers. Never heard of it , good experimenting. So the decap pin pushing on the anvil doesn't injure it at all.
Click to expand...
No, not if you just push it out slow. I remove a lot of them and haven't set one off yet or had a misfire from one that wasn't mangled.
I get ammo at the range, that no one wants, and break it down for bullets and primers. Usually just the primers. Powder gets burned in fire pit.
 
CQB45ACP said:
Anyway, take a look at a better picture of the recycled primers I showed earlier. In particular the first three on the left. Missing cake is obvious.

Can't wait to see if they go bang!
Click to expand...
You could take one of those three apart gently and see how much, if any, primer compound is left in the cup. Try to fire the other two, and if they don't fire break those rounds down and take those primers apart as well.

Either way be sure to let us know how it go's.

chris
 
ballman6711 said:
You could take one of those three apart gently and see how much, if any, primer compound is left in the cup. Try to fire the other two, and if they don't fire break those rounds down and take those primers apart as well.

Either way be sure to let us know how it go's.

chris
Click to expand...
Good idea.

Unfortunately being the impatient and impulsive sort, I've just used all nine in rounds I'm taking to range at 9am today.

Maybe I'll hold one of the three back--they're the only ones in "WMA" cases so I know who and where they are:)

I will report back.
 
CQB45ACP said:
Good idea.

Unfortunately being the impatient and impulsive sort, I've just used all nine in rounds I'm taking to range at 9am today.

Maybe I'll hold one of the three back--they're the only ones in "WMA" cases so I know who and where they are:)

I will report back.
Click to expand...

Shoot ‘em all……
Mess with ‘em later if they no go boom…
 
Show Me said:
Work bench question. So recycled primers. Never heard of it , good experimenting. So the decap pin pushing on the anvil doesn't injure it at all.
Click to expand...
Apparently not. I’ve used an RCBS sizing die, and a Dillon sizing die (with the spring loaded decapping pin) with no adverse effects. If you’re deconstructing your own reloads, you may elect to just remove the deprime pin and not re-prime them. In my case I didn’t know the history of the rounds so I elected to deprime and prime.
 
OP might be that you are more observing than others and found something to comment on. For many years the local PD gives me all the ammo that needs to be disposed of. For years I used a hammer type puller to break down all the ammo. I never observed primer dust anywhere. After 20 or so years i purchased a Cam Loc puller because I purchased several thousand surplus rifle rounds to reclaim the bullets and primers. I also came up with the idea of using wire strippers to pull bullets. First I used a piece of pipe outside the ram to hold the pliers. Then found that extention.
In all the several thousand primers I removed and reused I can't tecall a single dud. Some even had to be dried out for months before use though due to being in a flooded area for a long time.
I may not be qualified to say this but I would just seat any and try them. They won't blow up but might cause a squib at worst.
 
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