I was in the garage with my boys waiting for the school bus to pick them up for their summer swimming program and I was pulling some 45ACP with a Frankford Arsenal Inertial Bullet Puller (hammer type) and I had primer detonation that set off the round.

The scariest part of this deal was that my boys were standing right next to me when it happened. When the round went off, they scattered. And to be quite honest, I ran too.

I quickly checked my boys who were uninjured (thank God), but understandably shaken and scared.

After spending some time calming them down, I started trying to piece together what happened.

I have no idea what caused this. I have had this pullet for about 3 years and have used regularly without a problem.

The round was as I said a 45ACP (unknown brass because I can't find it) loaded with a 200gr Hornady Combat/target SWC, 5.5gr of W231, and a CCI LP primer.

The round went off on about the third blow.

I found the pieces of the Intertial Puller and the only damage is a large crack in the top locking collar as seen below:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f17/MtJerry/Reloading002.jpg

And here is the indentation made by it when it struck the ceiling of my garage:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f17/MtJerry/Reloading004.jpg

I still have not found the collet that was holding the base of the brass, or the brass itself. I am SURE it didn't "grenade" as the hammer portion of the tool is undamaged and none of us received any injuries.

Now, what did I learn from this? I will NEVER use an inertial puller again. I am a safe reloader and when my boys are helping me, I am extra safe. I am at a loss for what happened in this case. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

I need some coffee ....

Glad everyone is ok, I don't reload yet so I can't offer any suggestions, but when I get into it I will like to know what to avoid, so I will watch this thread.

I can only offer one suggestion, I have an RCBS inertia bullet puller and have pulled literaly thousands of rounds with it without any incident, suggest you throw the one you have away and get an RCBS, I do not hesitate to use it if I want to unload cartridges.

Boy what a scary thing to have happen. Sure glad you and your boys are ok. I can't emagine what could have happened either. Hope you find the case, that might shed some light on what happened.

As with others, I've pulled thousands of bullets using various brands of inertia pullers and have never had a problem. Unless there was a bit of foreign matter lodged on top of the primer and held tight by the collet, can't think of any reason for a primer to ignite.

That said, if the case had a Berdan type of primer, where the case has a raised post in the primer pocket for the primer to be crushed against, there is the REMOTE possibility the event could ocurr. Never tried to pull bullets on Berdan primed cases, so I don't know.

Irregardless, glad to hear you and yours suffered no personal injuries due to the incident.

:eek: i had this happen twice with an inertial puller while pulling 280 Rem bullets, once with my son and once with me. no injuries either time, thank God. i should explain further that the cartridge did not discharge, the primer simply blew out of the pocket and ended up , who knows where ? the powder did not ignite at all and i measured the C.O.A.L. afterwards and found that the bullet did not move at all.

Not having had that happen to me or ever hearing about that happening elsewhere I could only venture a guess that some tumbling media could have been stuck in the primer pocket prior to inserting the primer and the inertia from the puller finally set it off. Just another reason to inspect every case prior to the loading process. Chief

I do believe that Darrell will stick with his RCBS collet puller...I don't need any kind of drama like that in my life, thanks. :)


D

It's been reported over on the www.surplusrifle.com forums, but the posts may have been lost when they went to the new forum software. As I recall the specific incident involved some surplus training ammo with very light bullets, where the person had to really pound the snot out of the bullet puller to get the bullets to move.

Anyway.... rare, but can happen, obviously. Primers are sensitive little devils, for a reason!

Good reminder to always have eye protection when handling ammunition.

How about "pre-pressure" to the primer/anvil when seating a new primer ? Like partially crushing the compound. Just a guess.

Maybe best to buy a collet puller. No pounding involved there.

Thanks for posting this. It certainly got my attention. I use a Quinetics inertia puller. Although I've never had any difficulty of this sort, you never can tell. Better safe than sorry. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

I really like the Hornady Cam-lock collet puller. Just a flip of the handle to latch onto the bullet, then lower the ram. The bullet is in the puller, and the powder is still in the case, nice and neat. The only improvement I could see for it would be a lock nut on the collet/cam adjustment.

I've also heard the Forster "Superfast" collet pullers are great too, if available in your caliber. No unloading the collet, since the next bullet will simply push the previous one out of it.

Collet puller is the way to go if the cartridge allows it to be used. IF there is notenough full diameer bullet for the collet to latch onto, it won't work. Collet won't cure all your bullet pulling needs, but it will cure most of them...and is a lot faster and easier to use.

Being somehwat lazy by nature, will seldom pull ammo unless I just have to have that brass right now. The stuf that needs de-loading generally gets tossed in a coffee...when the box is nearly full, will sort through it and spend an hour or two pulling bullets (or get a larger coffee can).
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Sticker ammo that rufuses to let go in an enrtia puller might let go easily if it's seated a tiny-tiny bit DEEPER in the case. Mostly likely it's kind of cold welded (or in factory ammo, might be old sealant) or corroded in place...breaking that bod by seating 1/10th inch deeper will usually cure the hard-pull problem.
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Loose primer pocket could casue a primer to ignite...inertia pullet would slam it to the bottom of the pocket with enough force to set it off. I haven't tried to duplicate that, but considering the amount and direction of corece, wouldn't be surprised.

Wonder if a high primer might have had something to do with this. When the inertia bullet puller struck an immoveable object, the primer kept going forward until the anvil came to an abrupt stop causing the primer pellet to be caught between the still moving primer cup and the stopped anvil. Would have to be a very sensitive primer to have this happen. Have used my RCBS inertia bullet puller a whole bunch of times without ever setting off a primer. Relieved to hear that no one was injured. I suppose you will be shopping for a collet type bullet puller next.

Glad every one is ok. pshew :eek: , that would be a scary deal in anybodies book.

Double ditto on th collet type puller. I've used a RCBS one but I don't have one of my own and the Rcbs does look to be the best to me, although the Bonanza puller is abouy the easiest to operate.

RJ

Some more pieces of the puzzle. I spend almost an hour looking in my garage after coming home from work and FINALLY found the bullet, shell casing and the collet.

And what I found really frightened me more. The case did indeed "grenade" as it left the inertial puller. And I found the bullet in the ATTIC of my garage. I found a small hole where it passed thru the sheetrock, pulled out the ladder and found it laying in the insulation.

Apparently my sons were in serious danger when this occured, fortunately all these pieces were found in the opposite direction from where they were standing.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f17/MtJerry/brassbullet.jpg

Here is a look at the primer ... It has a horseshoe shaped crease in it. I have no idea what may have caused it.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f17/MtJerry/brass.jpg

Not having had that happen to me or ever hearing about that happening elsewhere I could only venture a guess that some tumbling media could have been stuck in the primer pocket prior to inserting the primer and the inertia from the puller finally set it off. Just another reason to inspect every case prior to the loading process. Chief
cases were all inspected and verified clear prior to processing

Ok, I think I solved this mystery ...

First of all, I still think I had a primer that was not fully seated.

And second of all I created an unsafe set-up by not using the proper equipment. Instead of using the collet supplied with the puller, I was using an RCBS shell holder (proper size for the caliber). THis is a common practice that others have used and I myself have used it for several years. The collet supplied has three pieces to it that are held together with a rubber band thingie ... it can be a real pain at times.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f17/MtJerry/accident001.jpg

When it is fitted correctly into the puller, it grabs the bullet by the rim, and leaves lots of room around the primer pocket and as you can see below, there is little chance of accidental firing of the primer even if it is seated high.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f17/MtJerry/accident.jpg

The RCBS shell holder holds the case by the rim as well, BUT it severly reduces the free space around the primer pocket ...

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f17/MtJerry/accident002.jpg

... and when it is placed in the puller it is possible for the primer to shift enough to get the primer underneath the lip of the shell holder.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f17/MtJerry/accident003.jpg

So, in short this accident was my fault, not the equipment's.

There are a lot of "shortcuts" out there in the reloading world, and this is one that is dangerous and should not be practiced.

I learned a valuable lesson ... and I hope someone learns from my mistake. Please be safe out there.

Good for you, MTJ -

Always like it when folks figure out the problem and admit it was probably their procedures that was the cause of an incident.

Have never used the shell holder method to hold a case in the inertia puller - always used the supplied 3-piece with "O" ring thingy. Sometimes have to really crank down on the cap nut to get a good hold on the case with the generic collet and as mentioned, a light bullet/powder load, but eventually the bullet will unseat. (Pulling bullets with no powder charge is a real pain!)

Have the RCBS collet puller on the shelf, also. Use this when I decide the bullet/powder combo isn't the desired result for a big batch of reloads. Otherwise, use the inertia puller for the occassional cartridge.

Mt..

Thanks for solving the problem.. I've got 40+ .357 to pull and was waiting to see a conclusion to this before using my inertia puller

best o luck

nate

mtjerry's solution doesn't solve what happened to me. i was using the bullet puller with its' original parts. i believe Marshal Kanes' reply was closer to what actually took place, although i am relatively certain that my primers were seated deep enough.

Lee,

I went back and re-read your post. Can you give us some more details of your experience.

What kind of noise did it make? I can't imagine a primer igniting in the pocket and NOT setting off the powder.

My frist thought is that you might ahave had a loose primer pocket.

all cases had been inspected before and after cleaning, and at that time i was using a Lee hand priming tool so i was able to feel if any of the pockets were loose. all felt normal. also when the primer went off it really banged. because the bullet was still in the case, i thought at first that i had forgotten to put powder in ,but then pulled the bullet and discovered that the powder was indeed in there.i actually re-weighed the powder and it scaled correctly. these conditions i am describing to you were true for both incidents. i just thought of something that escaped me before. at that time in my reloading experience i did not clean the ash residue from the primer pockets. i suppose that it is possible that when i seated the new primer, the ash scraped off the sides of the pocket and built up between the anvil and the bottom of the pocket, and when i bottomed out it put a pre-load on the compound. this makes sense to me. then i can see how a blow such as that created with an inertia puller could set it off. also because the primer was not held in place by the bolt face i can understand that it was able to eject so fast that the powder did not ignite.

Most likely caused by either a large burr from the stamping process of the brass or, the primer pocket was concaved outward toward the base or head of the casing. Then when you struck the impact puller you in effect hit the anvil on the convexed side of the bend, striking it in one place near the middle, detonating the primer. Check your brass first, use a reamer on the pockets, if they seem to turn in the middle and turn down to even, I would return them, they shouldn't be that way new. If they are like that after your shooting then you may have other issues causing this like pressure or a problem with your deprimer going to long, etc...