Blew up a primer pick-up tube

[Cheyenne Ranger]

I had a little excitement about 2 weeks ago.  Was taking a tube of primers off the shelf and it slipped and hit the floor vertically; this followed by a big BANG!  
Even though the floor was wood the primers exploded in one big bang.  Took shrapnel in both lower legs, a hit in the cheek and one in the glasses.  Oh yes, right ear was pretty much without hearing for rest of day.  I scratched out all of the little pieces of tubing and primers and cleaned up the mess real quick before the Mrs. came in from "becoming one with the soil."
The wood floor got some stain and looks "pretty" good.  At least it was in the pantry where the light isn't too good.  

Worst thing was losing the 100 primers and the tube--such is life...



ÇR

[Prof. Fuller Bullspit]

Ouch!

What kind of primers were in that tube? Did any of the primers survive or were all of them blown?

[Cheyenne Ranger]

Winchester primers and I didn't find any that survived.  

This was an aftermarket one that was a couple of inches longer than the standard Dillon one.  The tube hit on its end (vertically) and I guess the added length allowed the primers to slam down on each other till one went off (followed very quickly by the rest :grin: )

ÇR

[Big John Wyatt]

Cheyenne, you should really think about store bought ammo.

[Thomas Krupinski]

Back in the late 70's or early 80's I remember reading in one of the manuals warnings about accumulation of primer dust in tube causing a detonation.  The advisement was to periodically clean the primer tubes.

Now I am wondering if it wasn't the impact on the primers upon themselves, but rather the action of the fall upon any built up dust.  No way to tell now I guess.

[Cheyenne Ranger]

Big John:
The $$ I save on reloads I spend at the Doctors :grin:

Thomas:  Could be--know I'm not going to try to check that out.  But I will clean them after I dump the primers in from now on

ÇR