Primers - who would have thought!

[altheating]

A few months ago I removed a bunch of unfixed primers from my wet tumbler. They had been in there for at least three, maybe four batches of cases being cleaned. Just for $#|+s and giggles I set them aside for about three months to dry. Today Cast Boolits member Vopie and I primed four cases with them, three large rifle and one small rifle. Much to our surprise all four of the primers went off. One of the LR primers was a quite a bit quieter than the other two, but it still went bang! If I had to bet money on them going off, I would have lost.

[Calamity Jake]

I started loading ammo 35+ years ago, learned how in our gun club reloading division, old timers there
told me to put unwanted live primers in some kind of oil for a few days to deactivate them, so I did,
then forgot about them for maybe a year or longer, when I found them I thought, lets see if there dead.
I seated 5 of about 15 in cases, they all went bang, the rest I buried.

I don't think there is a good way to deactivate primers other than using them.

[lup]

Soaking them in acetone works pretty well.

[BruceB]

I performed a test on this matter some years ago.

CCI Large Pistol primers were placed in separate baths of Hoppe's #9 solvent, WD40, and gun oil.

They were IMMERSED, submerged, under the surface.... however you want to say it.

Each day following the start of the immersion, five primers were removed from each bath, installed in .45ACP cases, and tested in a 1911 pistol.

As I now recall, it took about eleven days before all signs of life disappeared. After the first few days, the "bangs" were getting progressively weaker, but they still endured for a much-longer period than I expected.

At the same time as the above test began, I flooded the primers in a 50-round box of loaded .45ACP rounds with WD40. The rounds were bullet-down in a cartridge box, and there POOLS of WD40 on the primers.

Each month thereafter, I tried to fire five rounds from that box. ALL rounds fired normally until the ammo ran out, ten months later. The brass was well-used, so the primer pockets probably weren't as tight as they would have been on new cases.

I'm surprised at the long life of the primers in that oil bath mentioned in the original post. However, the lesson stands... DO NOT trust that primers will be de-activated by ANYTHING unless you test them. The best way to be absolutely sure, is to fire them.... then we KNOW they're inert.

[500MAG]

I was taught as a kid not to touch them with you fingers because the oil from your skin would foul them out. Myth busted!

[Tatume]

Water is used to make priming mix, so I wouldn't expect it to deactivate them. The priming mix is kept wet while it is being worked, and then allowed to dry after being placed in the cups. Get them wet, allow them to dry, and you're right back where you started.

[USAFrox]

When I was a kid, my dad used up his old/unwanted primers by making "homemade fireworks" for 4th of July and New Years Day. He would pour out a line of gun powder along the ground, and put primers every inch or so along this line. Then drop a match on one end of the powder line. BANG! BANG! BANG! Was fun cheap entertainment for us kids. Guess that'd use them up. :-)

[mdi]

I've not thought of "killing" a primer in quite a while, mainly because of the results from Bruce's tests. I've tried killing primers but not in a controlled situation as Bruce's tests, and had very little success; WD40, 3-in-1 oil, water, etc. and it takes a long time to deactivate them. I guess if you put them in water and agitated them to desolve the priming compound and wash it out of the cups it would render them useless...

Primer ain't as delicate as some will say, thank Goodness!

[375RUGER]

It's amazing how durable and/but fragile they are. The first 5 rifle cartridges I loaded so many years ago, 1 primer dropped on the bench I picked it up (fingers) and loaded it anyway. At the range it was the only one that didn't fire. The other 4 were fine and shot an awesome group. Never had another in that lot (long since shot up) or brand of primer fail since.
Ever since then, if I drop one it goes in the scrap bin.

[DeanWinchester]

The old reloaders axiom of NEVER touch a primer more than ABSOLUTELY necessary is ridiculous. I think most reloaders would be surprised to find how hard it is to kill a primer.

[blackthorn]

Calamity Jake said: "I started loading ammo 35+ years ago, learned how in ourgun club reloading division, old timers there told me to put unwanted liveprimers in some kind of oil for a few days to deactivate them, so I did, thenforgot about them for maybe a year or longer, when I found them I thought, letssee if there dead. I seated 5 of about 15 in cases, they all went bang, therest I buried. I don't think there is a good way to deactivate primersother than using them."

Then we have Bruce's informative test results.

Now mine: I started reloading in the 1960's. As a result of several Boo-Boos I wound up with maybe 30 unfired primers that I had removed (ever so carefully) and I was not aware I could reuse them. I was also told to soak them in oil to de-activate them. I put them in one of those little airline liquor bottles and more than covered them with some WD-40 mixed with some light oil similar to sewing machine oil. Several months ago there was a similar thread to this one and I remembered that little bottle was still around so I went and dug it out. I dumped the oil and primers into a small cup, rinsed them off with white gas and let them dry. I loaded them into some old 303 cases and fired them. some went pop and while some made no noise they ALL showed evidence of having produced at least some fire. Now I don't know if there would have been enough life left in them to ignite a charged case, but life there was. I will never treat any unfired primer as dead!

As to the old knowledge to never allow the primers to contact your fingers (or any other possible oily surface), remember that technology has come a long way from the good old days, and what may have been true then is not necessarily true now. Just saying.

[jonk]

How do I kill unwanted primers? That's easy. Put in a heavy cast iron pot, with a heavy piece of metal covering it, and set in a fire.

Also how I kill live primers in berdan cases that I want to sell for scrap.

When the primer pops it has enough oomph coming out of the case to pierce through a piece of sheet metal, but doesn't do anything to the cast iron pot.

[dondiego]

Who has unwanted primers?

[Leslie Sapp]

Years ago, I found some .22 shorts and longs while diving in the springs near my home. They were completely black and encrusted with crud. These springs are public parks, and I know that there have been no firearms allowed in them for fifty years or more. I tossed them in a junk drawer for a few years and forgot about them. One day I found them again and took them out back and tried them in an old single shot Remington. They sounded about like a CB cap, but they fired!

[Elkins45]

Who has unwanted primers?

I want every one I have, and then some.

[Messy bear]

reading an old gun magazine from the 70's and came across a "remington reports article". they talked about primer manufacturing. they use shellac or something for sealing the compound if i remember correctly. no wonder they don't deactivate easily.

[45-70 Chevroner]

What really works the best, ([smilie=s: don't try this at home ). I had a really old box of Alcan Large Rifle Primers. I thought I should maybe get rid of them and I did not want to through them in the neighbor hood trash dumpster. This took place about 35 or 40 years ago. We lived out in the country and as a habit I burned most of our trash. I had a 55 gallon burn barrel, ( I can tell that you can see where I am going with this ). We had neighbors and everyone had at least two acres or more so there was a lot of space between homes and barns. I was burning trash this one after noon and decided that this would be a good time to get rid of the primers. My burn barrel was out behind or house and barn about a 100 feet. I through the whole box of 1000 primers in the burning barrel and moved back almost to the barn. Well when they went off it sounded like an 88 mm Howitzer, the flames went up about 8 or ten feet in the air, end of show. Don't chastise me as I know this was really stupid, but I just had to see what would happen. At the time I also had a 1" cannon that I shot off once in a while especially during the 4th of July. So I didn't get any complaints from the neighbors.