A group of primers has a lot of energy. Singles not so much
I have an Efemes power punch berdan decapper. It uses a standard boxer primer to remove berdan primers. Not very cost effective but other than being loud it works very well.
i decapped 40,000 rounds of live primers ....if you are careful (and cheap) you can do it.
As above primed brass is OK to ship, no Hazmat. Primers not seated into a case require Hazmat.
In 63 years I have never had a primer go off, even removing live primers. I do not reuse them since the anvil can crush the compound.
Now a friend had one go off on the bench. He lost a primer and was soldering with a torch, the torch found it and the POP made his shorts a different color but no damage.
Just go to UPS and send the cases.
Just deprime as normal. I did pop a live primer in my rcbs turret. There is a lovely hollow ram that allows spent and missed live primers to get trapped in and work out until the jam the ram, ie get cut in half if u r moving to quickly. I cut a LG pistol in half and it blew the ram out of my hand.... I now keep Trac of missing live primers and keep the ram clear
As others have said primed brass is OK to ship Fed up or oops.
If one insists on de-priming live primers go Slow and keep the live ones far away from the one currently being de-primed.
Like others I have de-primed many without issue, But Bob at the LGS in Waukesha WI was not so lucky!
He was de-priming Many 45LC cases and had a detonation. This caused the primer catcher full of live primers to go off all at once turning a small "oh carp" in to a long visit to the ER & ICU! Be safe out there.
We all make our own choices and have to deal with the consequences.
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Thanks for all of the thoughts/replies, interesting to hear the different solutions.
Depriming on the press or a hand tools seems like what everyone is doing. Maybe I'll have to rig up a system that can catch the primers but keep them away from the press (drop tube to jar of water?) in case the one being deprimed goes off.
I know that you can ship primed brass and that it is not HazMat but you can't ship it though USPS so the cost increases accordingly. Flat rate boxes are much cheaper than ups/fedex for this sort of thing, so it makes depriming worth it. Just to be clear this is talking about depriming live primers, not decapping spent primers.
Years ago before I had a reloading press, I tried to deprime a .308 case using one of the Lee kits, the kind you use a mallet to deprime, size and seat a bullet with. The primer may have been inserted upside down, I can't remember now as it was probably 40 years ago but I do remember how much it hurt. I set the case in the depriming base, dropped the punch in and struck it with a mallet. BANG! and the case launched itself up the depriming tool taking the pads of my thumb and forefinger with it. I now deprime in a press when I need to and so far no detonations. I think you could rig up something to hold the case that would allow a place for the removed primer to g and squeeze it out in a vise or with a c-clamp.
I've done this.
I had a pile of berdan primed 8x57 brass, that I had pulled bullets and powder. A member wanted them for swaged jacket material, but didn't want to deal with the live primers. I drilled a dual stepped hole all the way through a 2x4 (the long way), so the case would sit up-side-down in the hole about half way, but the smaller portion of the hole would allow the gases to escape. Using a hammer & center punch, sitting at the patio table on a sunny summer day, I set them all off.
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“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001
I have de capped thousands myself. If you are selling brass it is better to deprime, that way it
can go in USPS. You can ship primed brass or loaded small arms ammo by UPS, with no additional
charge. They just have you mark the box with ORD symbols. I do this frequently. I don't know
FEDEX regs.
I was told by FEDEX that we had to have a hazmat approved shipper to ship 22lr primed cases. They insisted that we do this even when going to the corporate FED EX office to ship them. Those rats were wrong and messed us up. We did manage to ship them but I will not divulge how in public. And they wonder why I am an outlaw. The government never ceases to anger me.
I had an issue with shipping primed brass at UPS once. By the time it was over I had a written apology from the UPS cleric and the first line supervisor.
Normally, the UPS hub in Glencoe is very good about this type of stuff. But one time, when I wanted to ship a Pre-1898 Rifle (Foreign mil surp), I got some guff from the UPS clerk saying I can't ship that. I just left after I told the clerk, "I'll go home and research this". I went back the next day and got a different clerk ...problem solved. Some fights just aren't worth the trouble, if you know the rules.
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“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001
While I've slowly deprimed a few live primers, I prefer to shoot them off into a 55 gal barrel in my barn. I'd rather not wince each time I deprime the cases.
A deplorable that votes!
I got a kick out of this, I am not sure what you expected it to do. lol
I never had one go off when priming with a lee whack a mole, but it is pretty common. From what I have heard it just causes your heart to skip a beat.
I have deprimed a few hundred on a press with a lee universal decapping die, with no issues.
I had a primer go off while depriming cases and like said earlier it was a non event. It didn't even go bang, it just kinda sizzled and a little smoke came out of the die. That caused me to slow back down to the speed I started at. Deprime them and then reuse the primers.
It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years (Abe Lincoln)
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” George Washington
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |