old primers.

[GP100man]

ive came into some old cci 500 sp primers probly` 12yrs. old the boxes are molded & soft, when i took a hundred out to examine them they looked new , no corrosion , nuttin growin on em or anything .
thought about lettin em dry good under climate controlled area (in the house in gun cabinet ) 2 weeks & load a hundred up in a plinkin fasion 38 spec & let my baby girl see if they pop, i bought a pistol rest & as soon as i put it together she asked wheres yours??????? they learn fast!!!!

anyways if all 100 go pop i`m thinking of putting in the regular pile to be used theres almost three bricks of em , i prime with a hornady hand tool so i will have the opprotunity to inspect closely at that point .

GP100man :cbpour:

[copdills]

looks like a plan to me , try them out and let us know

[GP100man]

i`ll know by sattiddy even , i can`t tell her about it she won`t do nuttin at skool if i do!!!!


GP100man:castmine:

[w30wcf]

A year or so ago I was given 2,000 CCI500 small pistol primers that were made back in the early 70's which would make them almost 40 years old. Now, I have about 1,000 left. THey worked just fine.:grin:

w30wcf

[billyb]

in the mid 70's i lost a house in a flood.i had two open plastic containers setting on my closet floor.water was ten feet deep around the house.the two containers had loaded 38spl's in one and primed caseses in the other.after the water recdeded i started to salvage what i could. i poured the water out of the containers to let the brass and ammo dry. washed the dirt off of the contints and did not work on pulling the bullets or primers for about a year. i figired that all the loaded ammo and primed cases was dead. as an after thought i loaded my 38 to see if any would fire. out of 250 loaded rounds and 150 primed caseses all but eight fired on the first try.the water i poured off the primed caseses was coloered a yellowish tint. i was suprised when the first round fired. they were all primed with cci. still use cci primers. Bill

[Bob in Revelstoke]

About 10 or more years I received 3 bricks of CCI small rifle primers that had been recovered from a fire in a gun shop. They had been wet and exposed to heat and smoke as the cartons were discolored and showed some charring. I loaded them and they functioned fine. Last month I came across 3 one hundred packages in the back of my cupboard. The bright nickel coating on the primers had turned to a dull silver color, much like the color of zinc when it comes to the top of the pot after you miss a few. Anyway, I loaded them in my .223 and 25-20 and not one misfired. As far as I am concerned CCI makes good primers.

[Down South]

I have primers that I've stored for years (Many) and they work fine. But on the other hand they have been subjected to a climate controlled enviroment all of their life.
shoot em.

[beagle]

I got a bunch...maybe 8-10 thousand...from an estate about 5 years ago. All were in boxes without zip codes. I'm down to about 800 now and haven't experienced a missfire.

Primers are pretty hardy as long as they're kept pretty dry. As you stated, you'll dry the mouldy boxes out. I'm betting they all fire./beagle

[DLCTEX]

I bought CCI primers at an auction a few years ago that had been stored in an out building subject to all the climate changes here in the Texas Panhandle for 25 years. Some of the small rifle primer packages had oil on the cardboard sleeve, but every primer went bang with out any distinguishable difference from fresh primers. In fact, the only primers I have had FTF in 40 years of reloading were fresh ones. DALE

[Tom W.]

I have 2000 Federal LP primers that were made in the mid '50's, according to the e-mail that I got from Federal. Not a misfire in any. Also got some old CCI's that were made who knows when...I got them all several years ago when A friend of mine's Grandfather passed away..

[missionary5155]

Primers are RARE down here... 3 months ago one shop here had a box on display of Winchester Stainless (faded Yellow small square). In side were about 60 Small Pistol. I asked the owner if he wanted to sell them all... No. But he said he would give me 10... These were loaded into 38 Special Aguila brass with 3.5 grains Unique and a 160 grain SWC (Lyman 357446) Lee tumble lubed. ) fired normal.. and one awaits disassembly as it refused to fire after 5 hammer blows.

[leadeye]

I am still working with 25 year old CCIs and will continue to do so until they are gone. No misfires yet.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I hate to admit that I started storing my primers in G.I. ammo cans back in the `50`s! I still have a few hundred of the old rifle primers left. I loaded up 6 after I read the above threads, they all fired in my `06 just fine.:Fire:

[fecmech]

It is my understanding that priming compound is put into the cups wet before the anvils are installed as it is too dangerous to handle dry. The thing that really deteriorates modern ammunition is heat not moisture. Black powder may have been a different story because of the saltpeter in the mix.

[beagle]

Yeah, and I'm wondering about that too.

In 1964, I stored 300 once fired, sized and primed .30/30 cases in dad's attack. Mom moved from there in 1994 and one of the things that turned up was the .30/30 cases. #2 son had already liberally helped himself to some of the better goodies I'd stashed.

In 2000, I loaded 20 rounds and every one popped. I proceeded to load the remainder and fire them normally.

These were loaded with CCI Large Rifle primers and I know the temps had to soar to over 100 degrees up there in the summer and that's 30 temp changes. Storage was ina cardboard box.

So, primers are much less sensitive to the elements than we think./beagle


It is my understanding that priming compound is put into the cups wet before the anvils are installed as it is too dangerous to handle dry. The thing that really deteriorates modern ammunition is heat not moisture. Black powder may have been a different story because of the saltpeter in the mix.

[GP100man]

well we did`nt get to go shootin as we planned but we shot em yesterday evenin & they all popped just fine , i think i will use these up before the others though.
primers are certainly tuffer than we think !!!
thanks for all the comments & input .

GP100man :castmine:

[azjohn]

I live in southern Arizona. Gets kinda warm in the summer and we do have 20 degree temps at times in the winter. This spring I found some primers in my storage room that were at least 25 yrs old. I loaded some and they fired fine. I ended up using the rest of the brick and had only 1 that did not fire. This storage room is not heated or cooled and summer temps have reached 115. So how hot is too hot?

[missionary5155]

Primers are RARE down here... 3 months ago one shop here had a box on display of Winchester Stainless (faded Yellow small square). In side were about 60 Small Pistol. I asked the owner if he wanted to sell them all... No. But he said he would give me 10... These were loaded into 38 Special Aguila brass with 3.5 grains Unique and a 160 grain SWC (Lyman 357446) Lee tumble lubed. ) fired normal.. and one awaits disassembly as it refused to fire after 5 hammer blows.

Hello again The round that refused to fire after 5 hammmer blows was disasembled. Used pliars and my Lee simple stage press... bullet normal. Dumped powder and compaired to a new charge of Unique.. looks the same .
Removed primer using extended primer pin... slow even pressure. Case looks normal. Primer pocket looks normal. Flash hole looks normal. Primer interior mix appeared normal to 10x magnification. Placed primer in one of my pocket watch tools (large pin holder) and carefully removed anvil... mix looks good. No flaking or crumbling.. color even.. no particles would shake out... I next replaced the anvil but rotated it about 45 degrees as there was a definite impression in the primer mix where the anvil had previously been installled. Anvil was replaced using an arbor press used in watch repairs. Flat base under primer cub and flat face punch on anvil. Increasing pressure was applied until anvil was seated flush with primer... used 3 new pimers as visual refrence (10x visor) . Reseated primer into the same case using the same Lee Hand primer seater . Loaded into the same Colt Police Positive 38 Special. Wrapped revolver in old towel hammer free but cylinder and barrel wrapped, (neighbor concerns). Pulled trigger and BLAM ! :neutral: Sounded healthy. Towel had the expected burns at cylinder gap and muzzle.
Conclussion : For my Personal Protection I will use the newest primer available. My present lot here (Winchester) is 15 years old and none have failed to fire. The failed primer(70´s ? ) was from unknown previous storage, conditions, vibrations, ??? I would continue to trust any primer batch I have bought and stored until the first one failed... then I would suspect the whole batch (same code) and regulate those to practice / plinking. :coffee:

[Bass Ackward]

This past weekend I was using Cascades from the 50s in 357 Norma brass that was just found after being put away for safe keeping back in that day. The were actually primed by my grandfather for my dad.

The building is an old, unheated school house and some of the windows are out of it in places. Kinda the worst possible storage scenario I would think. And they held 1 1/2" at 50 yards without a stumble. I just loaded the last 40 for this Saturday's action while I break in this new Mod 27 8 3/8ths.

So we shall see, waste not want not.

[Doug Bowser]

Over the years I have been given several thousand primers. Here are the results of firing them

1. Old RWS large and small rifle primers: Best results in rifles

2. Alcan large rifle & pistol: Shot as good as any other primer

3. CCI Bench rest large rifle: Of 1000 rounds, one slight hangfire. Milliseconds

4. Remington Large Rifle 1000 fired OK still have 1000 in the shop

I think if the primers are stored reasonably, they will work AOK. The ALCAN and CCI primers are at least 35-40 years old.

[Ricochet]

I've noticed that water-drenched CCI primers leach out yellow stuff. After drying they all still work. I've wondered if they're less consistent, but have done no scientific testing. I don't throw much of anything away.

[fecmech]

The mention of heat in my previous post had more to due with smokeless powder than the primer. I don't remember where I read it but I think one of the powder companies in the past mentioned that high ambient temps accelerated the deterioration of smokeless powder. It also may have been when I was in the military reading on ammo bunker storage specs. Who knows? But being the "value conscious"( my friends use the word cheap) guy that I am I would never throw out primers or powder without trying them!

[Hipshot]

I've had the opposite results with a batch of CCI MAGNUM LARGE PISTOL primers------I picked up 10,000 primers in the origional shipping cartons (cartons, boxes and primers all looked great) they have to be at least 20 yrs old! I have had 3-4 misfires and a few hang fires with them. The last misfire was just last week with a plinking load in my .35 Rem. Marlin 336.

Hipshot

[Typecaster]

Hey Richochet—
Maybe we can do a psuedo-scientific test. I have several bricks of CCI primers from the 70's, to at least the early 80's (small plastic trays, not individually packed). I could dunk a box, let it dry, and see how many fire. Don't even need to load powder or bullets, just prime (so I can test indoors).

So how do you have enough experience in water-drenched primers? Is Bristol in a flood plain?

Richard

[beemer]

I had a carton of CCI LR that were in the green and white box. One end of the box had been wet and had leached out the yellow stuff in a couple of boxes. Some of the primers were in bad shape. Out of the 2 worst boxes I had about 4-5 duds and a several that took 2 whacks. The rest worked fine,I have no idea of the history or storage. I also have some old Win 120 that do fine. I just use the best for serious and the old for playing. I think most of us agree that proper storage is the key.

beemer