An evaluation of factors influencing rape seed susceptibility to mechanical damage resulting from percussive forces has been carried out. The testing conditions (impact velocity) were made similar to those occurring in real-life conditions (in the threshing set of a combine harvester). The testing stand constructed in the Institute of Agrophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin for the seed tests in the conditions of dynamic loading was used. The effect of impact was evaluated as the damage manifested in the visible losses of the seed cover, cracks right through the seed, and damage to the embryo. It was found that the differentiation of the physical seed features relating to variety, temperature, pressure and time of storage vary effects of the impact.