Missing Primer Coping

Alright guys. Most of you reloaders out there are probably fairly detailed people with mild OCD. How do you cope with either screwing up a primer or losing one out of a pack of 100? I really like nice, even boxes with perfect numbers to go in my ammo boxes. What do you guys do to cope with the problem? Drinking? Smoking? Therapy?

Last time that happened to me I sold all of my reloading equipment and joined a order of religious monks in isolation for 5 years.

Shoot the odd ones out of a bb gun.

Aahhh. The dredded uneven primer dilema....

Unfortunately, i started smoking way before i started reloading. Trying to quit hasn't exactly been easy on the nerves.
I don't drink.
I've never done drugs, and i'll never do them again.
Therapy....
To me therapy is a day at the range, or deep in the woods.

Buy a new box of 100 - put one of the new primers in the box of 99, throw away the remaining 99 new primers - a perfectly logical solution

send me the rest I'll be sure to process them. Just wait until you get into progressive reloading and miss a primer, load a charge and you get powder everywhere from a case without a primer.

MJE2083 said:

Last time that happened to me I sold all of my reloading equipment and joined a order of religious monks in isolation for 5 years.

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I think that's probably the most logical conclusion.

Mthuntr - after prepping all my 9mm brass last night I could see how a progressive might be nice. Then again, I think I'd probably have to start up some sort of nicotine habit along with it.

I was reloading my .264 a couple of weeks ago and ran out of powder with 2 cases left to fill... devastating

wllm1313 said:

I was reloading my .264 a couple of weeks ago and ran out of powder with 2 cases left to fill... devastating

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Now why would you even bring something like that up. That's stressing me out just thinking about it.

OhHeyThereBen said:

I think that's probably the most logical conclusion.

Mthuntr - after prepping all my 9mm brass last night I could see how a progressive might be nice. Then again, I think I'd probably have to start up some sort of nicotine habit along with it.

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I process 9mm, 40S&W, 223/5.56, and 204 in bulk. If we ever get winter down in SW MT I'm due to batch process about 5K pieces of brass and load up a couple ammo cans of 9mm.

Mthuntr said:

I process 9mm, 40S&W, 223/5.56, and 204 in bulk. If we ever get winter down in SW MT I'm due to batch process about 5K pieces of brass and load up a couple ammo cans of 9mm.

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Well, it's winter here. Maybe you should move to Fargo.

I think this OCD thing carries on to other areas in our lives also. I use a Lansky sharpening system with the guide rods and I can get any knife absolutely scary sharp. Now believe me before using hones and any other variety of ways I could never get a darn knife sharp. I sure could take the edge off one though that was sharp in my attempt to improve on it! So now that I have all of my kitchen, pocket, and hunting knives ultra sharp, I've become a knife slut. I'm not sure what other word to use for it but for example my EDC knife that I have in my pocket right now is a Benchmade mini-barrage which is a great knife with wonderful steel. It is sharp and will shave hair off your arm like nobodies business. Now when that edge starts to get even a tad dull it drives me nuts until I take the knife and touch it up again. In any other persons view the knife is very sharp still and extremely useful to cut just about anything but nooooo I need it back to ultra sharp again. I'm not sure what the cure is.

I started sharpening knives for others now because I guess all of my own knives wasn't enough. I want everyone to have surgical precision sharpened knives to use in their homes and out in the field. I sure don't make any money on it only charging $10.00 per knife the first time I sharpen them and if the knife is brought back to me that I have sharpened previously to be touched up I only charge $5.00 the second time. I am so anal with other's knives that I have to have them ultra sharp as well and accept nothing less. I don't make much money at $10.00 a pop because the first time I sharpen a knife it often takes a lot of honing to fix the mess someone has made with their blade/edge. I did two large kitchen/butcher knives for this person the other day and two medium size pairing/slicing knives. They were in bad shape and had been abused. It took me two hours to sharpen the larger knives and an hour to do the two smaller knives. I invested 3 hours and made $40.00.

Now anyone else might have called them good much sooner than I as they were serviceable at that point but noooo I have to have perfection. Wait now we were talking about reloading here. Who here uses a powder measure to throw charges just a little shy of what your load is and then trickle in the last few grain kernels on each and every round and the powder scale has to be exactly centered on the scale before you put that load in the case? Or who has to make sure their cases are polished and clean? I used to use 0000 steel wool on each and every rifle case to get them sparkling but now at least I have a case tumbler. That does assist quite a bit and make it simpler but even then if the tumbler does not quite get all of the carbon or powder off the case neck it's back to using the steel wool to make them pretty.

OhHeyThereBen you started this crap and I blame it all on you. Thanks now I need to touch up my pocket knife again!

6mm Remington said:

I used to use 0000 steel wool on each and every rifle case to get them sparkling but now at least I have a case tumbler. That does assist quite a bit and make it simpler but even then if the tumbler does not quite get all of the carbon or powder off the case neck it's back to using the steel wool to make them pretty.

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My weird hunting OCD also includes, making euros perfect (when someone says the words boil or bleach in this context I cringe) and getting game bags 100% white again after every use... clearly I have issues

VikingsGuy said:

Buy a new box of 100 - put one of the new primers in the box of 99, throw away the remaining 99 new primers - a perfectly logical solution

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Akin to the Polish swimmer who attempted to swim across the English Channel and with a mile to go he got tired and turned around and swam back.

I just ignore it and move on. Eventually I’ll drop some more. Also, I check sight-in after ever trip just in case something got dinged etc, so I might fire one shot or six etc. I rarely have a nice multiple in a primer box. If it bothers you that much throw some away. They’re only $.03-$.06 each.

Get some walnut shell media for your tumbler. Don’t leave it running all day.

6mm Remington said:

OhHeyThereBen you started this crap and I blame it all on you. Thanks now I need to touch up my pocket knife again!

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I take full responsibility. It's just nice to not feel so alone.

My name is Ben and I'm a reloader.

I always look at it like this. If I am trying a new load I generally try different powder weights in groups of three. So for me it was always irritating to have a pack of 100 that is not perfectly divisible by three. So for me it would be a win. Because I'm too cheap to wast one and throw it away.

VAspeedgoat said:

I always look at it like this. If I am trying a new load I generally try different powder weights in groups of three. So for me it was always irritating to have a pack of 100 that is not perfectly divisible by three. So for me it would be a win. Because I'm too cheap to wast one and throw it away.

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That's the best idea I've heard today. I may have to switch from 5 shots to 3 from now on. Until I lose enough primers to equalize again.

If I drop any I just grind it into the carpet and hope the wife's vacuum cleaner doesn't blow up.

All this talk about odd # of primers and running out of powder caused me to go to my reloading room and check. I feel much better now I still 20,000 + primers and enough powder to use them all.