can you make priming compound?

[perotter]

Thanks for the update Marshall. It's good to see that the results have been so good that it's worth considering going DIY for all practice ammo.

[Windwalker 45acp]

I've got to say, this has been the most educational and enjoyable thread that i've read on CB. Great job to all, especially Marshall , perotter, Oreo and others.

Knowledge is power and this is a very powerful thread! To have the ability to make your owner primers and powders would be invaluable asset should a day come when they can no longer be bought.

Thanks to all.

[Dean Weingarten]

@All,

During our family's traditional target shooting on Christmas day (to try out those new guns some of us received that morning) I tried some 9mm test rounds made with the EPS 5 primers. As expected, the rounds fired identically to those made with commercial primers. This is the final confirmation that the primers work as intended and with 100% success. I continue to make and stockpile between 10-20 EPS 5 primers each day. Once I have enough saved, I'll start routinely making my practice ammunition with them. I am also thinking about making indoor practice ammo that uses just the primer to propel a glue bullet. This works great with commercial primers, but I have always been reluctant to use up my hard earned purchased primers in this way. Using EPS 5 primers will solve this dilemma and give the same fun without the pain.

I don't expect everyone to want to make their own primers, but as long as there are people in power that keep the drumbeat of gun/ammunition control going, we need to be prepared for the worse. At a minimum, I highly recommend that folks keep a good stockpile of components for making all of their important ammunition. Get it now while you can. That is what I am doing myself. I still need to get my stockpiles of 40 and 45 projectiles up to an acceptable level. I also need a few more bullet molds to be able to cast for everything I shoot. Time is not our friend in this struggle for freedom.

Marshall

Reading this thread has been illuminating and fascinating. The work that has been done by several here has been superb. Perotter, Marshall, and Desertbuck deserve my thanks and commendation. Many more have contributed. The work deserves a bigger audience. I will be doing some of that. I hope you won't mind a few questions for clarification, but as a newbie here, I thought I would start with this congratulatory post. Great stuff.

[Texantothecore]

Marshall, my understanding is that producing styphnic acid releases obnoxious vapors. How do you handle the vapors?

[Texantothecore]

Yes, it was a big help. Thanks.

[Dean Weingarten]

Congratulations on the 1,000 EPS 5 primers. Quite an achievement. I look forward to further reports.

It seems you have found the EPS 5 method superior to EPT 3. Doesn't the EPS 5 require the synthesis of both stypnic acic and tetrazene?

Are there advantages in the EPT 3 method, and was that the method explained in post 334 on this thread?

Could you explain the advantages on one of the above methods over the other? Sorry if I am being a bit dense, but the thread is a little confusing in the nomenclature.

[Dean Weingarten]

Thank you very much. It helps quite a bit. Very useful and intiguing information.

Have you given advise on depriming steel cased berdan cases? I tried a hydralic method on a steel .223 case. My first attempts did not work, and it seems that I expanded the neck so that I needed to use a different tool for a pressure ram.

Pointers would be appreciated.

[Dean Weingarten]

I wonder if anyone is making a two pronged depriming tool. I seem to recall them from a few decades ago, when I was reading about reloading berdan cases. I would think the spacing for 5mm berdan flash holes would be fairly uniform; but I know some berdan cases use three flash holes. I suspect the larger primers have different hole spacing.

I read on an India forum that Afghans made primer cups from brass head gasket material. I suspect that primer cups would be a fairly simple 1 or 2 step process.

[footpetaljones]

Marshall,

I would imagine that using a device constructed similar to a cannelure tool would be more efficient for crimping 22LR.

I can sympathize with the difficulty in having custom parts made. Unfortunately, for most shops (even job shops) it simply isn't worth it to bother with such small projects as the opportunity cost is too high. I got so frustrated that I picked up a small Atlas 618 lathe about a month ago.

[Dean Weingarten]

That is a very interesting idea. I could see a rubber gasket on the bottom with a mildly springloaded flap valve underneath, to keep water loss low. I wonder how much pressure is needed. I can get about 60 psi from the city supply, but I suspect that is too low. Not much volume is needed to deprime a case. A spring loaded tube inside the case might work to position the case and seal the bottom.

Those are great pics and story about the homemade hydralic decaping unit. Maybe the base could be put in the a sturdy pan to catch the water, prevent mess, and allow for water reuse, if convenient.

It is an interesting engineering problem; a simple set of washers installed on the bottom could also be used to position the case over the deprime hole. The nice thing about it is that it can easily be adapted for every berdan primed case, making it very versatile.

Of course, it still takes quite a bit of time to use.

[Dean Weingarten]

Next thing you know, you will be producing obsolete .25, .32, and .44 rimfire cases! I am impressed. .22 gas checks must be close to LP primer cup sizes, and not that far off of 5mm berdan...

[Texantothecore]

22 rimfire has the dimple removed by putting the round, half full of water, into a short length of 22 barrel inserting a small closely fit rod and hitting it with a hammer. It was commonly done during the great depression and it did keep the case from swelling. So you might try that technique.

[Texantothecore]

Marshall,

I would imagine that using a device constructed similar to a cannelure tool would be more efficient for crimping 22LR.

I can sympathize with the difficulty in having custom parts made. Unfortunately, for most shops (even job shops) it simply isn't worth it to bother with such small projects as the opportunity cost is too high. I got so frustrated that I picked up a small Atlas 618 lathe about a month ago.

I would try to drill a needle nosed pliers to 223 or smaller and see if that worked. Gentle on the closing of the pliers.

[Texantothecore]

@Dean

From a thread on another board.
The guy has made something like primer pocket reamer but which has a hole in the center of the reamer which will clear the berdan anvil. He said it works quite well.

[Texantothecore]

@Dean, @ Marshall
Look here, rcbs is making a berdan depriming tool:http://www.sportsmanguncentre.co.uk/...decapping+tool

It is also on their US site. Would never have guessed that they made one of these.

[perotter]

One could maybe get Pat Marlin to make up the tooling to make 5mm berdan primer cups. It wouldn't be different than one of his gas check maker, just a different size. I think he is still a forum vendor here and one can contact him thru this sight.

FWIW. I have made a few boxer sized cups with aluminum and tried them in .38 Special rounds. They worked.

My neighbor had a punch that worked for making the blank. I bolted 2 pieces of metal together and drilled an 1/8 hole. Then took them a part. In one I drilled a hole to make the cup, in the other I drilled a hole to center the blank and bolted them back together. I tapped the blank though the cup forming hole with a piece of rod and hammer.

They weren't pretty and it was slow, but they worked. It satisfied my curiosity as to if it could be done without any special tools, knowledge, etc. I used anvils from commercial primers. It was 20+ years ago and don't remember the thickness's or any other measurements.

PS

Somewhere(gas check section?) here on the forum there is a down-loadable pdf on how to make a proper one pass die for making cups. One would want to have a lathe available to do this. One would have to figure out the sizes, as only the sizes for gas checks are in it. Also, G. Frosts book goes into plenty of detail on making the tooling for primer cups.

I check and I do have it downloaded and can email it to them as it isn't very large.

[GONRA]

GONRA noted comments on hydraulic decapping.
This was pretty successful on a batch of 14.5x114 Soviet "brass"
(Chicom lacquered coated steel cases) years ago.
Got about 100 cases out of initial batch of <150 "fired cases".
(Some weren't fired, so didn't mess with 'em.)

Making the 9mm Berdan primers (2 grains Donnard's 1959 patent mix:
lead styphnate 37%, tetracene 3%, barium nitrate 30%, lead dioxide 5%,
PETN 5%, antimony sulfide 15%, zirconium 5%)
using cups formed on CH Swag-O-Matics with my own tooling was a Whole New Hobby......

[Dbtk44]

Marshall, you've done some great work on this thread...hat's off to you sir. Your contributions, and willingness to share your findings, are sincerely appreciated

[gnostic]

There's a guy on youtube, that reloads primers with match heads and the striker material from matchbooks...

[GONRA]

gnostic sez: "There's a guy on youtube, that reloads primers with match heads and the striker material from matchbooks..."
GONRA sez: Marshall is WAAAAY beyond this unreliable amateur corrosive stuff!