primer ID

[oldarkie]

i bought a bunch of reloading supplies from a neighbors estate. he had some primers marked m42-c1 lotwcc-1-133. they look to be small pistol or small rifle,any help would be appreciated.thanks oldarkie

[wv109323]

I googled M42-C1 and came up with a haz-mat sheet from Winchester. It lumped all their Primers together as the same chemical content. It gave a phone number of 618-258-3507. You may call and get the type by the lot number.

[Smitty's Retired]

The M42, M42C1 and M42C2 Primers were and are used in Pyrotechnical Initiatiors such as the M39, M60 and M81 Initiators. The M39 ignitor was also used for aplications for booby trap training and setting up field expedient training aids for Mines and booby traps for combat engineers. We used to have a reloading setup for the ignitors we used in some of the land mine training aids kits.

Any other Combat Engineers remember these. Most were used in laying a time fuse ring main, and tying on a primer with det cord to your line charge. The M42 Primers were having issues with extended storage and failed ignition in the M39 and some M60 Initiators, so the development and testing was done to improve the chances of ignition over extended storage hence the devolopment for the M81 Initiators. The M60 and M39 we commonly used with time fuse, I think the M81 can be used with both time fuse and used with the shock tube intiator.

Later development lead to a debate for a contract that was still in effect for M60 initiators to be converted from M42 primers to the M42C1. The M42C2 primers are also used in the pyrotechnically seperated blast bolts that nasa uses.

M60 Ignitor
58208

M81 Ignitor
58209

Never thought about them in relation to reloading. That would depend on the outer dimensions, over all height of the primer. Guess it would also depend on the thickness of the metal skin of the primer. I also don't know what the relations in pressure would be compared to standard or magnum primers, either pistol or rifle.

[oldarkie]

thanks for the info guys,i could not find anything on the internet,not very good at it yet.oldarkie

[autofix4u]

I have used about 5k of the m42c1 primers in small pistol applications over the last 5 years. Have found them to be very dependable. Due to cup construction and thickness they are only sutiable for pistol calibers or low pressure rifle use (22 hornet). I do how ever like the results with cast loads in the 7.62x39.
I have about 10k left to use. So I would suggest try them out.