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So during a reloading session this evening I discovered a serious problem. Take a close look at the primers in these .45 ACP reloads:



Turns out a piece of debris had worked it's way on top of the primer ram on my Dillon Square Deal B and was causing these little dents. Obviously it wasn't enough to make one pop, but boy did I feel stupid when I saw I'd churned out about twenty of them and I wasn't wearing safety glasses. ALWAYS wear safety glasses when reloading.

I fixed it by with a quick dry scrub with a toothbrush (the wife's, not mine).

I get quite a bit of similar looking rounds out of my 550B, though not as severe. Little pieces of corn cob media always find their way into the primer cup. I have learned to look for it now. All it takes to get if out of the primer cup is a quick wipe with my fingertip. No matter how long and hard I shake the tumbled brass I always end with some tumbling media left in/on the cases.

I get these occasionally even if a flake of powder (big flakes like blue dot) get on the primer tool. Its not really a problem, but I agree that safety glasses should always be worn.

I also don't use Federal primers which I've always heard require a lighter strike to fire than Winchester or CCI.

I recently had a related but a bit different impression on my primers. I didn't have dents, I had smiles. I only did a couple before I noticed it and was a bit confused. I looked in the primer cup on my Lee Classic Turret and there was a small bit of shaved brass in the cup in the form of a....(you guessed it) a SMILE...not a smilie. I had to smile, too.

The rounds fired just fine.

Funny! I burned all those rounds pictured above at the range today...no problems.