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Smokeless powder would have just caused a fire, if that - it would not have detonated from that.
Sure makes a lot of little pock marks in anything close by and raises heck with the ceiling.:(
As for primers, guess I've been lucky. I have actually caught a couple sideways and smashed them, without a detonation, but I've never used Federal, only CCI, or Remington. :D
 
While I don't think this was the issue... federal primers are much much softer than any other brand of primers, this is a major reason why they're preferred by cowboy action shooters who cut their hammer springs for an easier cocking motion.

In all, I've found federal primers to be dustier (lead syphnate) and softer, I will not run them through any kind of automated equipment (pretty much I only trust CCI and Winchester for this purpose), one time I had a customer who wanted me to run wolf primers through, they were soft, dusty, and most were not round. After two tube detonations I said no thanks.

Primers do explode, this is probably the first time I've heard of them blowing up without some other attendant mis-handling. (primers in bulk being shaken in a metal bucket, killed the guy that happened to) The big thing in my world, is whenever you have something that handles primers, clean it often and regularly. Any buildup of primer dust is an accident waiting to happen.

And yes, always wear safety goggles, I used to be kinda lax about this, but that ended with a close call when a 650 blew up next to me. I went out and bought the gucciest pair of safety glasses I could, they're comfy and don't fog, and havn't scratched.
 
federal primers are much much softer than any other brand of primers

Actually I was wondering what the softest primer was, for fireforming 6.5 TCU cases. I'm guessing hard primers will drive the case forward more, thus leading to stretching. I thought Rem primers were the softest?

Probably will go with small pistol primers for this, since I want to try the cream-of-wheat method, which uses a pistol powder.
 
Federal just announced production of a new primer without Lead Styphnate? Maybe that is the problem?

This is probably not the issue... For the most part, the big thing holding up new non-corrosive non-toxic primers has been getting them to be sensitive enough, and getting them to have the required shelf life, as many of the components in them are insanely deliquescent.

They may have switched over to an Azide, but I kinda doubt that. I will have to ask my rep.
 
The final results:

Have talked to Federal and RCBS. No one knows why it happened. I am sending the parts of the RCBS tool to RCBS and they are or rather have sent me a bench priming tool. I offered to make up the price difference and they said forget it. As always RCBS is great to work with.

Federal has no answers but said they were going to send me some primers.

I guess we will never know what happened. My thoughts are we should always reload with all caution and follow all safety practices. I find reloading to have been a great hobby over the years but it is not the place to let your guard down. Not ever.
 
Wow! That is just insane! I'm glad you're weren't more seriously injured, Scott.
Like others mentioned, I've had primers seat sideways and never detonated. Heck, I've even decapped a bunch of live primers and not had an issue.
I'm curious as anyone to know the cause.
 
Static electricity? Seems possible.

It is what I thought for a while but Federal and RCBS both seem to think it was not the cause. I have used Federal primers and plastic priming trays in super dry high static places and never had a problem. Static is normally not a problem in the Willamette Valley.
 
Static electricity? Seems possible.
I agree.
On another note, I knew my Hornady hand seater came with two different primer trays. I checked to see why. One is for RCBS shell holders and the other for all other shell holders, but there are no notes about the use/non use of any specific brand or size of primer.
 
Static is normally not a problem in the Willamette Valley.
In light of no mechanical reason for detonation, I think that static electricity is about the only other option. I work around old cars with fabric interiors and it's not uncommon, mostly in summer time, to have a static electric shock arc jump well over 1/4".
 
I was working on a concrete floor sitting at my reloading bench on a humid day. No rugs or fabric to build static. I mentioned static to both companies and they both said they were sure about ruling it out.
 
Static electricity? Seems possible.
Typically, this is not an issue for a few reasons, namely primer cups are made of a very conductive set of metals (copper) and readily become coupled to whatever they're touching, even then most plastics used in the handling of powder, primers and explosives have a graphite content that makes them conductive.

My guess... something got pinched. Perhaps the anvil was slightly loose and when seated a little bit of compound was between the anvil and the cup, and the re-seating motion crushed a few crystals of priming compound and *KAPOW*.

Generally, primers don't go off when crushed, they go off when they're pinched, this is the problem with the 650, if the primers don't fall out of the dial (if a case was missing, and the primer was not seated) when the dial comes around it may pinch the primer behind the dial and the bottom plate.

The Ammo-load uses a similar dial arrangement to the 650, except it's much larger and doesn't hold as many primers, occasionally if the machine is dirty, or there's bad brass in it, and the primer gets crushed but not seated, it will stay in the hole, and when the dial rotates under the shell rail, it can cook it off. The only saving grace to the ammoload, is this dial keeps about .75" between the primers as they sit in the dial, so I've only once had a chain detonation, but I've had primers explode on me a few dozen times. The big thing here is cleaning... I usually pull the priming system apart once every day or two and clean out any yellow residue.
 

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