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Yesterday afternoon I was converting my 550 from .223 to .38 to do a small batch in my living room. I had used my primer pick up tube to grab about fifty primers and had it in my left hand, placed it at the top of the 550 primer magazine, and with my right hand started to pull the pin. Kaboom!
Although it was a single explosion, they all blew. I stood there in disbelief but then realized I was injured. It had caused 2 wounds. My left thumb and left middle finger both had dime sized holes blown out (or in). I guess I bled about 250 cc's and I couldn't hear out of my left ear. The hearing has mostly come back at this point.
Refer to the pics to see what it did to the primer tube. Bits of metal were found at the furthest distances possible in the room, some primers projectiled through the ceiling, and there is a larger hole in the ceiling, also. The wounds are all dressed, so pics of that will be later.
I am one of those that always needs to know what happened, was it my fault, and what could be done differently next time, especially to help keep it from happening again.
I can't think of anything I did wrong in this operation. The er doc thinks it may have been static electricity that ignited one primer which then caused a chain reaction. Since we've been having a dry wind for 2 days here in Havasu, his theory makes some logical sense. I will be calling Dillon to find out if they have any reports of this happening before and if they have any solutions for this type of issue.
Hers's what I'll be doing differently in the future (not sure if I'll be continuing reloading):
-Eye protection. This incident could have been ALOT worse and I'm absolutely astonished this didn't take out my eyes. It goes to show......all gear all the time! Even a mundane task such as transferring primers deserves respect.
-No more reloading in the house for me. Luckily the gf was at work but my poor little dog was right next to me when it happened and I think she was very frightened.
-Also, there have been times where the girlfriend wanted to pickup the primers with a p/u tube and transferred them. I won't be allowing that again.
Here are some pics. Please be safe guys, and as always, any other suggestions or input is greatly appreciated.
Here's the tube and all the fragments we picked up around the room.
Here's the top of the low primer alarm.
Although it was a single explosion, they all blew. I stood there in disbelief but then realized I was injured. It had caused 2 wounds. My left thumb and left middle finger both had dime sized holes blown out (or in). I guess I bled about 250 cc's and I couldn't hear out of my left ear. The hearing has mostly come back at this point.
Refer to the pics to see what it did to the primer tube. Bits of metal were found at the furthest distances possible in the room, some primers projectiled through the ceiling, and there is a larger hole in the ceiling, also. The wounds are all dressed, so pics of that will be later.
I am one of those that always needs to know what happened, was it my fault, and what could be done differently next time, especially to help keep it from happening again.
I can't think of anything I did wrong in this operation. The er doc thinks it may have been static electricity that ignited one primer which then caused a chain reaction. Since we've been having a dry wind for 2 days here in Havasu, his theory makes some logical sense. I will be calling Dillon to find out if they have any reports of this happening before and if they have any solutions for this type of issue.
Hers's what I'll be doing differently in the future (not sure if I'll be continuing reloading):
-Eye protection. This incident could have been ALOT worse and I'm absolutely astonished this didn't take out my eyes. It goes to show......all gear all the time! Even a mundane task such as transferring primers deserves respect.
-No more reloading in the house for me. Luckily the gf was at work but my poor little dog was right next to me when it happened and I think she was very frightened.
-Also, there have been times where the girlfriend wanted to pickup the primers with a p/u tube and transferred them. I won't be allowing that again.
Here are some pics. Please be safe guys, and as always, any other suggestions or input is greatly appreciated.
Here's the tube and all the fragments we picked up around the room.
Here's the top of the low primer alarm.
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