Getting A Feel For Priming

Guns Magazine, Nov, 1999 by Charles E. Petty

Of all handloading operations, the most dangerous is inserting a new primer. After all, primers are real explosives and even though the amount of explosive in a primer is tiny -- about 0.3 grain -- one going off unintentionally can hurt you. Sympathetic detonation of 100 can ruin your day.

Inserting a new primer in a case is an everyday chore. Unless you are using a progressive loader, you have a couple of choices in how you get it done. When you're loading rifle ammo it's simple to seat a new primer as you complete the sizing operation. Most presses have that ability, and if I'm only loading a few rounds that's how I do it.

When you have a lot of cases to prime -- either handgun or rifle -- many shooters prefer to use a separate priming tool. There are several variations of those: bench or press mounted or handheld. Lots of shooters like the hand priming tools and assert that they get a better feel for primer seating using them. Maybe I'm an insensitive clod, but I can feel the primer going into the pocket just fine with either a press or bench mounted tool. Other than a simple loading setup for use at the range, I have avoided hand-priming tools for two reasons.

First, I don't like to handle individual primers if it can be avoided. Second I dislike the idea of having 100 primers raffling around in the tray of a hand priming tool. I know that it has been done perfectly safely for years, but I never liked it.

I use an RCBS bench-mounted Automatic Priming Tool. They're as fast or faster, and other than the aggravation of having to pick primers up in a transfer tube, you really don't have to handle them or subject them to undue stress.

Primer seating is probably the single largest cause of trouble with hand-loaded ammunition. If the primer is not seated deeply enough, problems are a certainty. Foremost of these is that the gun will go click instead of bang.

In order to fire, the primer's anvil has to be seated to the base of the primer pocket. If not, the force of the firing pin will be dampened and actually absorbed, seating the primer the rest of the way. Most of these rounds will fire the next time you hit them. But if the primer is really sticking up over the cartridge base there's a chance of jamming a revolver completely.

There have been cases where the round fired prematurely when an autoloader's slide contacted a protruding primer. None of these are good things. If the primer is seated too deeply there is a risk of misfire as well, for if the primer is crushed during seating the pellet of priming compound can be shattered and rendered useless.

No matter which kind of tool you use, the important thing to learn is how much force it takes to do the job right. Each is a little different but I really don't think one is better than another.