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Dont touch primers: Truth or Fiction

P

Pester

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Minuteman
Nov 20, 2012
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I have been told, and also read, never to touch a primer as the oils from your hands can contaminate it. And, potentially, end up with inconsistant/poor performance in your loads. I was also told that the same was true for powder (ie if any spills on your bench dont sweep it up with your hands and put it back in the container)

Is that:
1) completely true and never touch primers with bare hands
2) true in theory and not much real practical impact
3) an Internet 'truth' only and no real basis in fact

If this has been covered I could not find it in my search so just point me in that direction

Thanks
 
I have been touching them for 20 years and have never had a problem. I only touch them to pick them up off the floor/bench or to flip them over in my primer tray. I also touch them when I have extras in the tray after I have primed my brass.
 
Not sure if it's true or not, but I hold by the rule, I'll never touch them, if I need to handle them I use a wide blade tweezers, bought specifically for that purpose, and picking power kernals out of the scale pan.
 
I can usually get away with it if I drop a few on the bench while loading them into the primer flipper but I've had primers not work that I've handled with bare hands. I admit its been a long time ago.
 
Guess I'd go with 2.

Read about not contaminating your primers.

I've touched primers when ever necessary with no issues.

Mostly, you don't have to.

If you have that much oil on your hands, there's a lot of things you shouldn't be touching... :)

Wash, dry your hands and go reload.
 
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I don't touch them. I have no idea how much oil it takes to deactivate a primer, but I also don't like getting fingerprint corrosion on my polished cases. At the stage of priming, I'm wearing thin exam gloves.
 
Thanks folks. When reloading my bench is pretty clean and my hands are clean as well.

I got thinking about the primer portion of my Forster press after reading an article that said, in general, for precision loading its not good to touch them. Other than the tweezer approach(that Milo suggests) I could not think how best to load them without touching them. That got me looking at the Forster/Sinclair/21st century tools.

The Sinclair and 21st century (ss model) look like great options but it looks like you load them with your hands. The Forster and non SS 21st models look like they use a hands off approach. Maybe I will focus in on those options just to be safe
 
It's a standard caution not to, and has been for many, many years. On the flip side, have you ever deliberately tried to kill a primer? The usual method mentioned for this is to spray them with a penetrating oil and let them sit for a while. I've done this in preparation for depriming live cases, and still had a few go off. The little buggers are seriously hard to kill! They're sealed with the foil to help protect the compound in the bottom of the cup, and I'll tell 'ya, it works.
 
I prime on my Forster press and I touch every primer and so far havent had one not go off. I do wash my hands before priming though to make sure they are as clean as possible. I generally touch my pointer finger to the top/anvil of the primer and slide it off the tray and hold it between my pointer finger and thumb and put it in the primer seater on the press. The way I do it, in theory, should be the worst possible way to handle a primer. Meh. I would say as long as your hands are clean before you start handling them, you wont have any issues. I guess I lean kind of in between 2 and 3 on your list. Oil will, in theory, kill a primer eventually if you let it swim in it. We generally dont have enough oil in our skin to transfer to the primer to cause any issues, especially if you wash your hands before with something like Dawn soap that is generally very good at cleaning oil.

Like Kevin said, pretty hard to kill a primer. Ive heard of guys soaking primers for a week in oil and they still give a little puff.
 
I wear gloves just because I am a little over concerned with lead exposure, most likely it is a concern not justified. I have a 9 year old that helps out on the bench and a 9 month old that we go play with afterwards so I try to limit the exposure. I use the plain jane Lee hand primer and never even have to touch the primers. I have 2 large trays and 2 small all square so I put in close to what I need just by flipping the box opened to the row I want. Any leftovers just stay in the tray and I put it back in the drawer.
 
I tend to wear gloves while reloading...But, I've touched my share of primers and picked up powder granules and put them back in the scale without gloves on...I have had no issues.

I would say that you shouldn't touch anything with bare hands that you don't want to potentially contaminate. So, will touching components cause an issue?.....I don't have scientific proof of that at this time. Myth, plausible.
 
Thanks Kevin and RJ.
Its likely that I will end up touching a few however I think that I will try to make it part of my loading process to avoid contact through either gloves or a priming tool. Seems like if I invest in a priming tool it will remove any doubt for my rifle rounds.

Kevin, I saw the episode you mentioned to me previously. I liked it. Nice job.
 
New one on me, can't say I've ever read it in print. Been reloading for 30 plus years and done everything from single load them to a dillon load tube to a primer flip tray. I would say 99% of what I load doesn't get touched unless I drop one, but my ammo doesn't sit around very long before I shoot it either hence no migration. I have had some not go off, very few but it happens, hmmm thinking might be something to it! Anybody have actual testing?
 
If your fingers are clean and dry it's perfectly harmless to handle primers. There is no "lead" exposure to it.

There is some potential lead risk from handling cast bullets but if you don't lick the gray off your fingers they're harmless too.
 
There is some potential lead risk from handling cast bullets but if you don't lick the gray off your fingers they're harmless too.[/QUOTE]

Too funny!
 
I don't make it a habit to handle primers with my bare hands but shit happens. With that being said, there was a thread quite a while ago where someone tested just what it took to "foul" a primer. I'll see if I can find it but I remember that it took a lot more than I figured it would. He ended up using penetrating oil and letting them soak.
 
I use a hand priming tool, and touch every primer that I load. I pick it up and put it in the tool, I don't hold it any longer than necessary. So far, no problems. They are hard to kill. Lightman
 
This was the wisdom of the day when I started reloading 20 years ago. But one time I decided to try to put some CLP in some primers to see what would happen. They still worked. I don't think that invalidates the advice, but you're not going to destroy primers by picking them up.
 
Clean hands, don't touch them any more than you have to.
Years ago I had primers not fire but I suspect that's more from when I used to use silicone spray as a lube, some still in the primer hole when I load the case.
 
If you're going to shoot all that batch of ammo in the coming few months, it doesn't matter. If your going to possibly keep some of it, maybe an extended period of time... a few years or maybe longer, Don't let your fingers ever touch your primers or pour powder in your hand then put the powder back into the container. Sweat, oils and other contaminates on your skin will have an effect on your loaded ammo. Especially if you live in a warmer climate or keep your ammo in the garage where it get 110* in the summer. Ask any chemist as I have done. It can cause problems with your ammo.
 
I handfeed each one of the primers I use/seat and shoot, I have shot more than 30 000 of my own reloads through the years, and I have never had one not go bang, however I can see the reason and validity of the arguments put forward by Victor above,

I would not have greased up fingers used for ammo intended for long term storage. /Chris
 
i chase errant powder kernels with a lighter after i finish and pack everything up. poof! i need to get out more...
 
Victors advice makes sense to me so based on everyones feedback if its ammo I am going to shoot soon then I will wear gloves or make sure my hands are clean and dry.

If I ever get to the point where I have enough money and time to load and put it away I will make sure powder/primer is not handled.

Thanks all....
 
Touche. It is true that skin oil speeds up corrosion. But if you recently cleaned your hands anyways before heading to the reloading room, you should be fine. Besides a few corroded finger prints have never stopped ammo from firing in my experience. That being said, I wear gloves to reload if I'm going to store the ammo for the apocalypse. Otherwise I don't worry about it.
 
There is a lot of things and rules that I would do in the beginning of my reloading madness stage, and would result in taking over an hour to load 20 rounds. Results were good. Now i skip most of all that bullshit, load a lot more rounds in a short period of time, and spend more time shooting. Results are just as good. I dont count firings for brass anymore if its once or three times fired, itll shoot the same. Case length off a little bit, itll shoot the same. Touch your primers a little bit? itll shoot the same. Not saying a bad thing being like that, but a lot of it is made out to be more than its worth. Just dont take what I'm saying the wrong way and start skipping safety procedure steps lol. Hell I dont even think load development is all it made out to be. I spend time developing a load for my rifles and components, but not to the extent that I see some of these guys doing. I touch primers all the time and never noticed an issue.
 
I went to the range the other day, and saw a guy there with all the equipment I could only wish to own. Chrono printing out all his data, balistic calculator, wind meter, totally dressed up rifle, you name it. Couldnt help myself but to approach him and talk to him about his equipment and what he was shooting etc. . I was astonished by the extent of what he was doing with his equipment and his reloads and couldnt wait to see what he had going on down range. when that time finally came, we couldnt find most of his shots on the paper at the 300 yard line. I almost felt bad for him because he didnt get to even see more than half of the rounds that he spent so many hours loading for, hit paper.
 
I keep my hands clean, handle primers and powder as little as possible, and periodically wipe down may hands with a cloth and rubbing alcohol to keep skin oils at a minimum. Handloaded rounds are wiped individually with a cloth and alcohol as a last step before going into the ammo packaging, to reduce external corrosion from fingerprints.

I also try not to keep handloaded ammunition in storage for more than a few weeks; making up ammo for specific uses, like a match or for a hunting season.

I don't treat primers as something that needs to remain sterile, but I also agree it's common sense not to handle or contaminate them needlessly. Normally that happens only rarely, with modern packaging, flip trays, and pickup tubes feeding the automatic priming system on the RL550B.

Greg
 
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Hook Creek said:
I went to the range the other day, and saw a guy there with all the equipment I could only wish to own. Chrono printing out all his data, balistic calculator, wind meter, totally dressed up rifle, you name it. Couldnt help myself but to approach him and talk to him about his equipment and what he was shooting etc. . I was astonished by the extent of what he was doing with his equipment and his reloads and couldnt wait to see what he had going on down range. when that time finally came, we couldnt find most of his shots on the paper at the 300 yard line. I almost felt bad for him because he didnt get to even see more than half of the rounds that he spent so many hours loading for, hit paper.
Click to expand...
Only ONE wind meter? No wonder :)
 
that is all academical, like shooting 223 in a 5,56 chamber. The theory is valid but in reality it makes no damn real difference.
 
I think it is good valid advice, not urban legend. I promise, it is not necessary to handle primers with your bare hands, but lazy people are usually lucky people. What some folks fail to take into consideration is the element of time, such as the guy that handles every one but never leaves then sitting around for more than a couple weeks. This proves nothing. Add a little warmth and X amount of time and a small amount of oil can migrate a long ways.

I have been wearing eyeglasses for maybe 15 years and I know that if I put my fingers on the lenses, no matter how recently my hands were washed, I will leave smudges on the glass. This is natural oil and as everybody knows, oil is not good for primers. So, those of you blissfully unconcerned, keep pushing your luck. One of these days, you might be wishing you were a little more careful in your habits. BB

edit: I'd just like to add; contamination is a valid concept, you can contaminate just about anything. You might want to think of it as a virus.
 
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Lead exposure IS a concern with primers, but not from handling them, at least to any degree that I'm aware of. The real lead exposure danger from primers comes from shooting in enclosed, poorly ventilated ranges, and breathing in the airborne residue. Used to have to get checked for that once every couple years, and at one point, had to wear a monitor for a week so they could establish a baseline. Didn't amount to anything, and I've never had any lead issues. Did keep the vents open and the fans running, but that's just common sense.
 
Pester said:
Victors advice makes sense to me so based on everyones feedback if its ammo I am going to shoot soon then I will wear gloves or make sure my hands are clean and dry.

If I ever get to the point where I have enough money and time to load and put it away I will make sure powder/primer is not handled.

Thanks all....
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to imply that I wear rubber gloves or something when loading. But keep your hands clean. If you drop a primer, pick it up with tweezers or in my case with a dirty floor, drop it in a bottle with some WD-40 in it. I'm loading in an OLD commercial building that never had the concrete floor sealed. There is ALWAYS dust on the floor. I'm sealing it with epoxy pain little bit at a time as I can clear some of Mom's furniture and stuff out of the way. I'm not working like a surgeon. But I shot some 45acp 2 years ago that was 20+ years old. My loads. I didn't take the chrono with me to plink at B-27 targets. But they all fired and they all had similar recoil. Maybe I'll take a bunch of different stuff to the range and shoot it over the chrono and see what batches have been effected. Let's see if my health improves.
 
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