Checking charge weight, found spent primer in case *found problem*

[Frozenguy]

Just as title says, I dumped a case onto the scale and out came 6.0 gr powder and also a spent primer/anvil.

Where the hell did that come from?
And what would have happened if I didn't catch it?

UPDATE post 5

[mark501w]

Tumbler,?

[damndave]

Somehow fell into your powder/hopper? Maybe got into the case when tumbling.

Weird...

[Frozenguy]

I've even really meticulous about the hoper and lid. Also it's so high up. Nothing could have fallen in.

Could a primer on a once fired brass fall out during tumbling? Anything can happen but is It remotely likely?

Is it possible for a decapped primer to be expelled into the finished cartridge bin? I was holding/pulling brass from that. Maybe a decapped primer got shot into the finished cartridge bin and fell into one of the piece of brass

[Frozenguy]

I was pulling brass from the finished cartridge bin and inserting them in station 2 to be primed and charged.

I just emptied the finished cartridge bin and found two more anvils.

I searched online and I guess some people experience spent primer parts falling on the bench so I imagine some can make it into the finished cartridge bin.


Should I pull all the rounds and start over?
I imagine there isn't enough tolerance for a spent primer in the case of a live round.

[drdarrin@sbcglobal.net]

How many finished rounds you talking? I doubt they will damage you firearm as they are expelled. The other concern is that they are a second projectile that will have very low energy but a very unpredictable flight path. I wouldn't be concerned about pressure unless you are real close to max pressure already.

You really need to figure out the source of the problem. If spent primers and anvils are getting in, what else are you missing?

[Frozenguy]

About 50 finished rounds. All under 6.4 gr which is the minimum of most manuals and online sources. I'm charging about 6.0-6.2 gr. and 6.0 is lymans min for this bullet weight.


I'm 99% sure I found the problem in that I was pulling/using brass from my finished cartridge bin which I shouldn't do because the newly decapped primers sometime fall other places than the spent primer box.

I dumped out the finished cartridge bin and found a couple more anvils.

Needless to say I'm putting a stop to that.

[asm_]

Funny that you mention primer mixed in powder. I had a some what similar experience few weeks ago. However, it wasn't with spent primer, but rather live primer.

It was a late night reloading session. I accidentally blew compress air into the Hornady AP's primer tube from the bottom. In goes 100psi of air and up comes 100 pieces of live primer all over the shop floor. I managed to recover all but 3 primers. Without using the analytically part of my brain, I decided to press on and continue my reloading session. I went on and loaded 300 more rounds of 223 that night. It wasn't until next morning that I realized realizing I have forgot to cap the powder hopper. I quickly draw the conclusion that the 3 missing primers could have fall into the powder hopper.

Now, if it was a larger caliber, I probably would have just shoot the ammo as is. Been a 223 caliber, the possibility of the primer getting stuck in the barrel is high, or so I guess.

So, for my carelessness, I spend the better part of the next day, pull all 300 newly loaded 223 rounds and run the powder thru a screen to check looking for the missing primers.

Lesson learn. Always cap the powder hopper.

[klewan]

What kind of press is spraying the dead primers around?

[Frozenguy]

Dillon. In case you want to fertilize your lawn with spent primers
Lol but it was only 3 primers out of ~ 200 and I'm not convinced I fully seated the spent primer cup.
And had I been using the equipment as designed (not putting brass where finished cartridges end up) it wouldn't matter.