deactivating primers "en masse"

[singleshotbuff]

Gentlemen,

I have quite a few pounds of brass that I want to take to the scrap yard, berdan primed and old junk.

About 2/3rds of it still has active primers in it, from military surplus corrosive ammo that I salvaged components from.

How can I deactivate these primers before I scrap the brass?

Heat (fire)? From a SAFE distance of course.
Chemicals?
Other?

I'm not gonna fire about 700 rds of corrosive primed cases through my mausers just to deactivate the primers [smilie=1: .

Thanks for any ideas. I want to get rid of this brass ASAP and add the $$ to my gun fund for milsurp purchases.

SSB

[TCLouis]

find a way to confine them in a bonfire.
Watch out the brass will stay in place, but primers may travel surprising distances.

[singleshotbuff]

TC,

Thanks, that's kinda what I was leaning towards.

SSB

[Bike Rider]

SSB

Just put them in water. Once the priming compound comes in contact with water its toast.

[waksupi]

SSB

Just put them in water. Once the priming compound comes in contact with water its toast.


the guys on the milsurp site tried that someyears ago. Also soaking in oil. after they had dried out some, they would still fire with a suprising regularity. I vote for the bon fire. Could be fun! Steel burn barrel, maybe? They ain't really going anywhere.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Having tried various oils and solvents with only occasional success, I vote for the fire. Water? It is to laugh.

[Pepe Ray]

Absolutely NOT water. Many flood damaged primers have been used successfully.
Also several years ago I ran some tests trying to determin what will RELIABLY deactivate a primer . I used 3 different oils/solvents in 9 primed cases. They all fired to some degree accept one. I stopped testing . Shoot em or burn em.
Pepe Ray

[Lloyd Smale]

gun powder is made in water so that sure wont work. I too have tried oil and it isnt reliable enough Fire is about it.

[floodgate]

SSbuff:

The safest way of all - if tedious - is to chamber and "pop" them in the rifle. You won't get any Erosion from primers alone; but do a really THOROUGH cleanup when you are done, as the primer fouling, undiluted by powder residue, may be quite CORrosive. Primers - especially military ones - are heavily sealed so as to be impervious to moisture, oils, solvents (from primer color code dope), etc.

floodgate

PS: Do NOT be tempted to pop them in a vise with a center-punch; a friend tried that and got a primer cup most of the way through his finger.

[singleshotbuff]

Floodgate,

I agree that firing them would be a SURE way to deactivate, but there are over 700 and I think that might get a bit tedious. I think I'll try the fire.

Thanks guys.

SSB

[anachronism]

WD40 has a reputation for being a primer killer. A shot in each case should do it.

[waksupi]

WD40 has a reputation for being a primer killer. A shot in each case should do it.

Nope.

[crazy mark]

Also if you were to fire them in a gun make sure it is cleaned properly. Water and windex or ammonia. The primers are the corrosive item in that old Military ammo and may even be mercuric which will ruin the brass. Unless the primers are staked in I have had good results carefully de-priming old brass. I do wear protective equipment however. Some may say I am crazy but never have had a problem. If you are going to scrap the brass a hot environment is the way to go but make sure the brass is scrapped. It will be too soft for use again.
Mark

[L Ross]

I recycled several hundred pounds of cartridge brass ovr the last two years. The staff at the recycling center told me that brass is smelted in an enclosed cooker by the companies they sell it to because of all the live rounds they encounter. The reason they won't recycle steel casings, even fired ones, is because it is smelted down in open vats and the chance of a live round is too dangerous, same for Blazer casings.
Maybe you won't have to deactivate your primers at all.

L Ross

[7br]

Silly question from the cheap seats. I just did the same with about 10 rounds of 7.65 Argentine brass. Headstamps from 1945 and 1947. Do you think there was any collector's value in the cartridges?

Kind of interesting bullets. Some were 180ish grain softpoint round nose. The truly interesting bullets were the boat tail spitzers. They are 185gr full metal jacket with a crimp groove about 1/3 of the length of the bullet from the base. The crimp groove lis very similiar to a revolver cast bullet.

[Ricochet]

I don't know how corrosive chlorate based primers could reliably be deactivated chemically. We do know that water and oils are unreliable.

At the ammo factory when a batch of lead styphnate turns out too sensitive and has to be destroyed, it's done with sodium hydroxide. So a lye solution would likely work on noncorrosive styphnate based primers. The caution is that the primer pellet is covered with a "foil" of lacquered paper, and the lye would have to thoroughly penetrate the primer mixutre to work.

[Freightman]

Do not use them for target practice! how do I know, glad you ask. I was going to sharpen my air gun shooting , so I set some up on a box about 12" high and hit three right off. Boy this is fun, shot the fourth and a sudden sting on my leg about 12" up, you guessed it primmer hit my shin bone. Hurt but I didn't yell as I was too embraced I should have known better. O yes it broke the skin and that was through a layer of material

[Ricochet]

I posted this not long ago, but I read in Richard Lee's Modern Reloading that he detonated some primers and chronographed them, getting velocities over 1700 FPS. He mentioned someone who accidentally fired one and it went into his thigh, through the muscle, and stopped against the bone. Primers are not to be trifled with.

[Bigjohn]

Over the years, I have hydralically deprimed 100's of ex-mil. .303" Mk VII for the cases and to avoid exposure of the base to the corrosives priming compound. The liquid used was water and those primers which survived the process semi-intact would still blast off when thrown in the fire.

Once, I placed a hydralically de-primed primer on the steel top of a wood heater with a tin can over it to see what would happen. The primer went bang and left an indentation in the bottom of the can. So ended my lesson on the power of the primer.

So, my response would be; throw the primed cases in to a small fire one at a time so you know when it has gone off, and watch out for onlookers as you don't know where the pieces of primer will go. Build a small wall around the fire which can stop the shrapnel. The reason I recommend one at a time into the fire is so you don't lose count and look over the barrier to throw in some more just as one goes off.

Stay safe.

John.

[KCSO]

Fire, I've tried WD, Water and Kroil and fire is the only 100% method I have found. I am surprised that the junk man will take them, here they tried to say that rifle brass was dangerous and wanted to dock me 50%. He I worked in a foundry one time and we dropped a live 90mm tank round in the mix, boy that sprayed the hot stuff.

[monadnock#5]

If you have access to a woodstove (one with no glass in the door), you can throw your cases in a handful at a time. The reason I know this is because last night after a postal league match, one of the shooters threw half a dozen .22lr rounds into the wood funace. He said the rounds had fallen onto the floor and had grit on them. No harm done.

Ken

[corvette8n]

I tried motor oil in 5 - 7.65 Argentine cases, let it sit for a month
and 3 of them still fired off. My suggestion is to bury them deep.

[Frosty]

This is my first post. I have thoroughly enjoyed this forum for several months and continue to learn though I've been casting for forty years.

Several years ago the NRA reported a study it did on relative effectiveness of primer-killing agents. There must have been 50-60 listed on a relative scale. All I remember of it is that WD-40 headed the list as most effective.

I subsequently tried it with a large number of BOXER PRIMED mil surp ammo, let them sit for several days and drove the primers out with a punch. Several fizzled and the first to do so prompted a quick trip across the garage. None detonated or reacted as live ones would have. It may be that Berdan priming will deter or delay the effects of WD-40 so caution is in order.

Regards, GL

[Mk42gunner]

My suggestion is to put your brass in an old surplus ammo can that you don't need anymore and throw it in a hot fire. You will burn out the rubber gasket but it would contain all the primers and flying particles.

Or you could deep six them

Good luck,

Robert

[singleshotbuff]

Gentlemen,

Not wanting to cycle 700+ rds through my gun, and not having time this week to build a fire, I went ahead yesterday and took the brass to the scrap yard (primers and all) along with some other junk. I asked the lady there if she could take them with live primers, she said no problem.

SSB

[Ricochet]

Well, that takes care of that problem.

Something I noted in reading George Frost's Ammunition Making while this discussion was going on, is that in the section on manufacturing primers he says that the brass is lubricated with soap for punching the primer cups, and that it has to be very carefully removed because the slightest trace would kill the primers. He's talking about keeping the primers firing reliably, of course, not reliably killing them.