Post by hardscrabble1 on Jul 3, 2018 13:55:16 GMT -5
Lots of folks like cool tools, and I count myself as one of em. Several years ago I became pretty dissatisfied with everything having to do with priming cartridge cases. I detest priming with that little pivoting gizmo on my Rockchucker. A Lee Autoprime reminds me of those little John Wayne can openers that came in a box of C rations (if you don’t know what that is, it’s ok)...every time I looked at the thing, I thought ‘you gotta be kidding, what am I supposed to do with that contraption?”. The priming slide on my Dillon 550 is a royal pain, refusing to pick up more than 15 or 20 in a row no matter what I do to clean it, lube it with graphite, adjust it. Since I was a pretty dedicated prairie dog shooter for many years, and I shoot a couple thousand 45ACP every year, this priming thing was a real problem for me.
Then I discovered the 21st Century priming tool. It is a work of art. Flawless. Perfectly engineered and executed. Perfect function and generous depth of seating adjustment. I love it. Unfortunately, there’s no provision for moving things along. You have to pick up each primer and place it in the shell holder. Slow, but, to me, worth every second because the tool is so cool. Kind of like shooting a fine single shot rifle. I will typically sit in front of the TV and prime a couple hundred cases and enjoy every minute of it.
A night or two back I was priming a bunch of 327’s for my model 97, and since I am somewhat dexterity challenged, I fumble-fingered around and dropped a few on the floor. No big deal. Not my first rodeo, and I full well expect this to happen. After I finished up, I got down on my hands and knees and felt around on the rug until the number of recovered primers roughly equaled the number I vaguely remembered dropping. I never get too concerned about missing a few. Right after I retired the War Dept and I negotiated a treaty regarding the apportionment of household field day assignments and I was assigned to the vacuum cleaner, so I just make sure to pay a little extra attention to the area around and under my armchair on the next field day after I’ve been doing any loading. The vacuum cleaner eats em right up. This may be a little wasteful, but over the last few years primers have been relatively cheap and fairly plentiful again, so I don’t feel too bad about it. I pay more attention when I’m measuring powder because I consider the outcomes of what appear to be relatively minor misjudgments and/or mismanagement to be significantly more eventful. As of this morning, however, I have one less bad habit.
A cleanup was was scheduled today since we are having a bbq tomorrow here with a small number of guests and one of my assigned tasks was, naturally, running the vacuum. My vacuum is one of those industrial-sized Electrolux machines we bought off a friend’s kid 20 years ago when he was trying to put together tuition money. It’s a beast, with some serious stuff, and it’ll suck the carpet right off the floor after a bag change. I had just changed the bag, and I was rocking that bad boy around and under my armchair when I actually spotted the shiny top of a single wayward CCI 500. I didn’t even have to run over it, just got close and it was sucked right up into that lint roller and...
BANG!!! That little so-and-so detonated right in that vacuum cleaner. Scared the stuff right out of me and the pup (she’s been around shooting her whole life, but not when the vacuum is running, which she’s not fond of anyway) and she didn’t come out from under the bed for an hour.
I hope this might prevent some poor soul wrecking a perfectly good Dyson Ball or Bissle, much less one of those little robots that scoot around by themselves. As to my Electrlux, chewing up a single live primer was about like shooting the USS New Jersey with a 22 pistol, it never even flinched, and it would be a long shot bet that it couldn’t digest a blasting cap and 4 feet of det cord the same way.
So, pick up your primers if you drop some.
Then I discovered the 21st Century priming tool. It is a work of art. Flawless. Perfectly engineered and executed. Perfect function and generous depth of seating adjustment. I love it. Unfortunately, there’s no provision for moving things along. You have to pick up each primer and place it in the shell holder. Slow, but, to me, worth every second because the tool is so cool. Kind of like shooting a fine single shot rifle. I will typically sit in front of the TV and prime a couple hundred cases and enjoy every minute of it.
A night or two back I was priming a bunch of 327’s for my model 97, and since I am somewhat dexterity challenged, I fumble-fingered around and dropped a few on the floor. No big deal. Not my first rodeo, and I full well expect this to happen. After I finished up, I got down on my hands and knees and felt around on the rug until the number of recovered primers roughly equaled the number I vaguely remembered dropping. I never get too concerned about missing a few. Right after I retired the War Dept and I negotiated a treaty regarding the apportionment of household field day assignments and I was assigned to the vacuum cleaner, so I just make sure to pay a little extra attention to the area around and under my armchair on the next field day after I’ve been doing any loading. The vacuum cleaner eats em right up. This may be a little wasteful, but over the last few years primers have been relatively cheap and fairly plentiful again, so I don’t feel too bad about it. I pay more attention when I’m measuring powder because I consider the outcomes of what appear to be relatively minor misjudgments and/or mismanagement to be significantly more eventful. As of this morning, however, I have one less bad habit.
A cleanup was was scheduled today since we are having a bbq tomorrow here with a small number of guests and one of my assigned tasks was, naturally, running the vacuum. My vacuum is one of those industrial-sized Electrolux machines we bought off a friend’s kid 20 years ago when he was trying to put together tuition money. It’s a beast, with some serious stuff, and it’ll suck the carpet right off the floor after a bag change. I had just changed the bag, and I was rocking that bad boy around and under my armchair when I actually spotted the shiny top of a single wayward CCI 500. I didn’t even have to run over it, just got close and it was sucked right up into that lint roller and...
BANG!!! That little so-and-so detonated right in that vacuum cleaner. Scared the stuff right out of me and the pup (she’s been around shooting her whole life, but not when the vacuum is running, which she’s not fond of anyway) and she didn’t come out from under the bed for an hour.
I hope this might prevent some poor soul wrecking a perfectly good Dyson Ball or Bissle, much less one of those little robots that scoot around by themselves. As to my Electrlux, chewing up a single live primer was about like shooting the USS New Jersey with a 22 pistol, it never even flinched, and it would be a long shot bet that it couldn’t digest a blasting cap and 4 feet of det cord the same way.
So, pick up your primers if you drop some.
