advice requested

[OnceFired]

I just finished priming 300 prepped 5.56 cases of various manufacture - WCC, FC, MKE and a couple others. It's mixed brass but all of them were originally crimped. I was going through some range pickup and was surprised to find so many military ones so I sorted those out and was preparing a set of 5.56 to add to my modest stockpile.

As I started to clean up, I realize I had THREE different primers not the TWO I thought I had. One was CCI small rifle, which I did first and I am sure are fine. But, I inadvertently primed 100 cases with TulAmmo small pistol primers along with the 100 TulAmmo small rifle primers. I happened to see the packaging as I started to clean up the coffee table.

My saving grace here is that I didn't throw all the cases into one box. I was priming slowly over time in the family room while watching TV, and I put each newly primed case into a styrofoam ammo tray. So, I know which trays had which overall group of primers - they aren't all mixed together. To be clear - no powder or bullets have been loaded as yet.

I've read quite a bit on the forum here and elsewhere about trying not to use SPP in 223/5.56. Some swear it's fine, others abide by the manuals 100%. I am very much a by the book kind of guy, but I am wondering if I can safely salvage what I have here.

Rather than de-prime 100 cases again, I thought I could simply lower the load to decrease pressure for those rounds. I couldn't care less about the cost of the primers it's the time I spent that I'm trying not to waste.

That said, I also understand I am using mixed brass. Not all the brass has a NATO symbol on it - by far most do not, but all of this brass had brightly colored primer sealant and crimps.

What should I do?

I've read that I can choose a load that is within pistol range PSI. Would that even cycle the action? This is for my AR15.

OF

[Mk42gunner]

If it was for a bolt gun, I would tell you to load a low pressure load and go for it. However since it is for an AR, with its relatively heavy floating firing pin, I think I would err on the side of caution on this one.

I have seen a lot of 5.56 with marked primers after chambering in M-16's, I never saw any rounds actually fire because of it though. I also never saw a primer get really dented, but they were all milspec rifle primers. I have no idea how tough or hard a Wolf small pistol primer is, I have not used any Wolf primers.

Robert

[Blammer]

If it were me. I would load one standard round like normal using the pistol primers, then go shoot that one round and see what it looks like.

I suspect it would be fine, but would be curious just to see.

[runfiverun]

I use 40-k as my pressure cut-off between pistol and rifle primers.

[MtGun44]

I would use those cases for low power cast loads and never worry about it.

Pistol primers are likely to puncture from the far higher energy firing pin strike of many rifles,
and/or rupture due to pressure at full rifle pressures. So - if you load a moderate
load like a few grains of Unique or other medium pistol powder, after a bit of research
about what is likely to work well, enjoy the plinking rounds and avoid any serious issues if you
get a primer puncture at low pressures.

[leadman]

Or, you could just load some fast pistol/shotgun powder, say 5 to 7 grains, fill the rest of the case with Cream of Wheat or similar for a filler, stick a plug of boolit lube or wax in the mouth and use them to fire-form the brass to your gun. No wasted bullet/boolit and no chance of blowing a primer.

[Geezer in NH]

I would decap them. Do not reload when distracted ie watching tv.

[MBTcustom]

I'd decap them. It's cheap enough to go to the store and buy 556, that if you're loading it, you might as well do it right. Scrap the primers you punch out.
I second Geezer in NH's comment.

[BrassMagnet]

I'd decap them. It's cheap enough to go to the store and buy 556, that if you're loading it, you might as well do it right. Scrap the primers you punch out.
I second Geezer in NH's comment.

I disagree with only one point in this.

Save the primers and mark them as "mixed SPP/SRP and save them for fire forming brass as described in post #6 by Leadman.
One day, you may decide to case form for an odd caliber and these may save you some money.

or

You may decide to load some cast lead plinkers/gallery loads.

or

You could even load practice pistol ammo with them. Many pistol shooters use SRP primers because of the thicker cup giving fewer malfunctions with high pressure pistol loads.

[David2011]

Yep, decap the cases. If you don't have a Lee universal decapping die this is a good excuse to get one.

David

[OnceFired]

Sounds like I will be depriming and scrapping them.

[Down South]

I wouldn't scrap the primers. I'd do as mentioned above and use them for low pressure loads.
Robert hit one of the main reasons to not use them in the AR, the free floating firing pin. I don't know how hard those primer cups are and like Robert, I've seen many firing pin dents in the primers of chambered unfired rounds once ejected. I never saw a firing pin dent very deep and I have never seen a slam fire caused from it. I use 5.56 primers for the AR.

[tja6435]

I'd just load 4.0gr Trailboss into the case, seat a lubed lead bullet and keep them for quiet loads that'll have way more power than a .22lr but have half the noise. 4.0 gr Trailboss is around 1000fps if I recall correctly. I've run through an AR15, nice and quiet, plenty of squirrel killing power but don't expect the bolt to operate itself.

[sparky45]

I'd just load 4.0gr Trailboss into the case, seat a lubed lead bullet and keep them for quiet loads that'll have way more power than a .22lr but have half the noise. 4.0 gr Trailboss is around 1000fps if I recall correctly. I've run through an AR15, nice and quiet, plenty of squirrel killing power but don't expect the bolt to operate itself.

This ↑↑↑↑↑↑

[OnceFired]

I've already decided to de-prime the pistol primers from the rifle brass.

That said, I'm a bit confused here and I'd like to clarify it so I understand. I've seen suggestions above that indicate using the primers with pistol level loads. i.e. 4gr TrailBoss or 5-7gr with filler etc. Why would I do that with rifle brass? I want to be sure we're talking about the same thing here.

I won't be loading them up with anything since I'm depriming them to ensure they get the proper small rifle primers. Plus I don't have the powders from the suggestions anyway. It's silly to buy $20 worth of powder that I don't usually buy to fix a $4 primer problem.

I use Power Pistol and have IMR3031 for the AR.

According to my Hornady 8th Edition reloading data handbook, this is what I see:

223 Remington
+ 55gr .224" 55gr SP w/ cannelure #2266 from Hornady
+ IMR3031
+ 2800 fps
= 20.5gr to 22.8gr max load (planned 10% less than minimum to start, just to reflect mil spec brass)

223 Remington Service Rifle
(no 55gr listed)

I am having trouble understanding what even 7gr of anything is going to do in the AR. Which led me to believe perhaps I wasn't talking about the same thing here.

OF

[Wayne Smith]

I think they are talking about using it as a singleshot with light, subsonic loads to emulate a .22 rimfire. It wouldn't cycle the action, thus a single shot or manually operated bolt. But, it could be fun.

[Down South]

We/They are talking about reusing them for what they are designed for. Or use them for powder puff loads in your AR that would require manual extraction.
I've punched out many primers in my time and reused them with no problems.

[jonp]

Load them for target rounds and not worry about them

[BrassMagnet]

Check out this thread:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?13425-Cast-Bullet-Loads-for-Military-Rifles-Article

This article is referring to WW1, WW2, and Korean War vintage military rifles.
4.0 of Trailboss would be an AR-15 equivalent of load number 1 in this article and would be useful for hunting small game or very inexpensive practice, i.e. gallery loads.

[varmintpopper]

Extract them, there is a chance that they could rupture and cause an injury to You. Why take a foolish risk trying to save a 100 primers. Be careful extracting them, be sure and wear safety glasses to protect Your eyes.
(Next to Life,, Give Me Sight)

Good shooting

Lindy

[freebullet]

I use 40-k as my pressure cut-off between pistol and rifle primers.

We have a winner!!!



There is NO reason to scrap the primers. You can use them in loads that fall in the appropriate pressure range. Should be real easy to do.

I'm real curious why they would be thrown away? I've shot decapped recapped Gkw primers and simply kept the loads at a pressure level the weakest primer they could be by size can handle. I will not scrap perfectly usable primers-ever.

[David2011]

223 Remington
+ 55gr .224" 55gr SP w/ cannelure #2266 from Hornady
+ IMR3031
+ 2800 fps
= 20.5gr to 22.8gr max load (planned 10% less than minimum to start, just to reflect mil spec brass)


OF

OnceFired,

Have you determined that your brass has a smaller capacity than commercial or are you making an assumption based on Internet information? The reason I ask is that some military brass has a greater capacity than commercial. Lake City in particular usually has more case volume than most commercial cases. I'm not sure about WCC. Much of the foreign brass has less capacity. It's easy enough to determine by weighing the cases after depriming and cleaning. If it's heavier the capacity is reduced; lighter cases have more capacity.

There was a good post in this thread on AR15.com: http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=6&f=42&t=318330

David

[OnceFired]

I've started de-priming the offending brass.

I started with the 8 brass where the primers never went in straight in the first place. Bent or bulged etc. I was able to de-prime those without issue - while wearing safety glasses & hearing protection.

I used those and the first few primers I was removing from both sets of TulAmmo primed brass. I wanted to be sure I was pulling all the right primers - they are fairly hard to discern because I'm using mixed brass. The diameters are so close that they get lost in the various headstamp differences.

Have a look


https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1552/23698092050_d0cd392a86_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/C77V8Y)

The primers at the top are all what I believe to be small pistol primers. That said, they have different color priming compound in them. Some are orange-ish and others are green.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5664/23366968193_35606a027b_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/BARPxX)

Here is a comparison between the two. Top 4 are still what I believe to be the small pistol primers, and the one on the bottom left is too, I just flipped it over to make an apples to apples comparison. All the others in the bottom right are small rifle including one CCI that is easy to spot.

[Down South]

I take back what I said earlier. You need to discard all of those primers.

[OnceFired]

I was able to find 99 of the small pistol primers. I believe I have learned that the pistol is pink/orange and the rifle is green at least from TulAmmo.

I found 2 pistol primers with the anvil gone, and 3 rifle primers were in the same state. Keep in mind those may have come from those first 8 brass I had issues with - bulging primer, cockeyed, etc.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5659/23995320605_2a242df1c0_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/CyohQe)

I don't think I want to deprime the other 100-ish brass to find the one remaining pistol primer. As it was, there were two of that original 8 that didn't want to slide into the shell holder they were so badly seated. So, I just tossed those.

Note to self - when depriming live primers first make sure the entire floor & bucket is empty of spent primers. First one that dropped into the bucket made me figure that one out real quick.

The other thing that was a bear was the tendency of my press to eject the primers down into the inner shaft of the press itself. When depriming spent cartridges, this isn't a problem other than the spent primers would get mangled until they were no longer caught kateywompas inside it. Basically, the design of the CH press I have is poor on that one issue. It never failed - about one of every 5 primers will drop inside the main shaft and I have to grind it to let it pass through.

The press is half again older than I am, but there are definitely flaws in its basic design. The primers would get caught in the space within the shaft for the action of the press right where I highlighted it.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1658/23887056352_0e86c309b5_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/CoPpDb)

Can't do that with live ones now, can I? I have never been more delicate with that press. :)

[OnceFired]

OK, they're out. I'm heading to the store to get new small RIFLE primers.

I am torn on whether to use the ones I just pulled, meaning the ones that seem OK after depriming. Missing anvils = getting WD40 soak treatment and I'll throw them in the garbage next week. Anything physically deformed gets the same.

Should I just use the rest in my 9mm reloads? I already have a bunch of primed brass waiting for some cast boolits.

OF

[DerekP Houston]

OK, they're out. I'm heading to the store to get new small RIFLE primers.

I am torn on whether to use the ones I just pulled, meaning the ones that seem OK after depriming. Missing anvils = getting WD40 soak treatment and I'll throw them in the garbage next week. Anything physically deformed gets the same.

Should I just use the rest in my 9mm reloads? I already have a bunch of primed brass waiting for some cast boolits.

OF

For me, anything unknown or unidentifiable goes in the garbage. 1k tulammo primers iirc was ~20 so you aren't talking a huge loss here.

[sparky45]

Fred; here's what I do to make a reduced charge load, and they're fun to shoot. I load a 55-60gr Bator over 2.4 of Red Dot and shoot them out of my Handi Rifle. No kick and very little noise. No need for a Dacron filler. Now if you're going to de-prime them, use a Lee universal decapping die and just go slowly. I've yet to set one off being patient, YMMV.


I've already decided to de-prime the pistol primers from the rifle brass.

That said, I'm a bit confused here and I'd like to clarify it so I understand. I've seen suggestions above that indicate using the primers with pistol level loads. i.e. 4gr TrailBoss or 5-7gr with filler etc. Why would I do that with rifle brass? I want to be sure we're talking about the same thing here.

I won't be loading them up with anything since I'm depriming them to ensure they get the proper small rifle primers. Plus I don't have the powders from the suggestions anyway. It's silly to buy $20 worth of powder that I don't usually buy to fix a $4 primer problem.

I use Power Pistol and have IMR3031 for the AR.

According to my Hornady 8th Edition reloading data handbook, this is what I see:

223 Remington
+ 55gr .224" 55gr SP w/ cannelure #2266 from Hornady
+ IMR3031
+ 2800 fps
= 20.5gr to 22.8gr max load (planned 10% less than minimum to start, just to reflect mil spec brass)

223 Remington Service Rifle
(no 55gr listed)

I am having trouble understanding what even 7gr of anything is going to do in the AR. Which led me to believe perhaps I wasn't talking about the same thing here.

OF