Removing live primers.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Please move this if in the wrong section.

This seems to come up with monotonous regularity and answers range far and wide.

I have always just knocked the primer out in the loading operration and have never, ever had a problem over decades of reloading. When I have reported this, I get all sorts of warnings, etc.

Well, the other day I was gifted 200x 270Win rounds in old packets. One packet was in fair condition and they definitely looked like factory loads, so I gave them to a friend who is a cartridge collector.

The rest were confusing, most looked new, some definitely reloads. All were very cruddy looking, but no verdigris. I pulled them apart using my 1981 vintage Kinetics Bullet Pulling hammer (te rubber band broke this year, so I used the shellholder, which is easier to use than the rubber band anyway).

The powder went on the roses and was watered in well.

Using the Lee Decapping Die, Safety Glasses, the 180 primers were knocked out on my (also 1981 vintage) RCBS Rokchucker.

None went off, which is what I expected. Sorry to disappoint all of the nervous nellies (of which there doesn't seem to be many on this forum.

[LUBEDUDE]

I’ve never had a primer go off while removing in my 49 years of loading.

Now I haven’t done large quantities. Just one or three here and there. This includes both metallic and shot shells.

[MyFlatline]

None for me yet but I do try an be gentle.

[BNE]

Same here. I have not done many, but never a problem.

I still do it slower than when I’m pushing out used primers...but that’s just me.

[Shepherd2]

I've done it many times in 50+ hears of reloading. I go slow and easy and I've never had one go off.

[GARD72977]

I punch out live primers just like spent primers. Never had a problem.



My rock chucker is a 1980.

[Dan Cash]

OMG!!! We're all gonna DIE!

[trapper9260]

I remove them also on the press and had not one go off.I do like stated slow to take it out. But Dan Cash stated we all gonna die and the end of us all.

[Bent Ramrod]

I “press” them out, rather than “knock” them out. No pops, but I’ve never tried to remove live, crimped-in primers, which might be a whole nother story.

I remember reading Elmer Keith’s marveling about the abuse primers could take without exploding, and still go off on demand. A technological marvel!

Something we as readers need to keep in mind, is that weird things happen in the brains of gun writers who are staring at a blank page with no ideas for an article and a deadline looming. Some of the odd stuff that gets put on that blank page as a result occasionally even sounds plausible, and, since nobody cares to prove it otherwise, it gets copied by other writers and passed down as the Holy Writ.

The various gimmicks that allow the reloader to “avoid handling primers with greasy hands” are a classic example. Except for the fact that nobody handles primers with greasy hands in the first place, it all sounds good.

[JBinMN]

I have not removed a lot like some have posted here, but I have removed enough of them to know that if I take my time and I press them out with a decapping die on one of my presses, I have not had an issue yet.

I think that anyone who is careful will likely not have too much trouble doing the same thing.

A person needs to use their head & be safety conscious & it should be fine for those who wish to do it.

It is up to the individual if they want to not do it or do it. I pass no judgement on those who do not want to try. It is their choice.

{ Reminds me of those who do not remove the cap off the nipple, or the primer from an inline, but fire it instead. Do as ya like & I will do as I like...}

[RP]

But what do you do with all those removed primers ? Reuse them? or trash I have removed a few and knew what they were since the reason for removal was damaged case so I reused them. Unknown primers about all you know sometimes they are for LR SR ect. But are they mag or standard. I hate to toss anything that can be use and was wondering.
Sometimes I get some rounds I just dont trust and break them down the powder goes in a powder can stripped of its label and marked pulled down powder I pour it on a ant hill one day and light it up just for fun and reuse the bullets and cases but the primers I do not use since most of the time its just a handful of rounds.
I just picked up 50 rounds of 44s from a estate sale that were in a box of other things I got and they may be fine but not worth the risk so would you reuse those primers they are not known.

[Tatume]

My experience as well. I've never had one go off while being removed in a loading press, and I've removed many. I reused them too.

However, I've also often heard that putting oil inside the case will positively deactivate the primer. This is not so. A friend experimented at our gun club. He put fifty primed cases in a loading block and put light oil in some, WD-40 in others, and left them for a week. He then emptied the cases and wiped them dry, then chambered and dropped the hammer on them. Several fired. I was there. Don't trust "deactivated" primers.

[Tatume]

Another thing, I did have a primer go off in a loading press during the priming operation. A military case had gotten mixed into my commercial cases, and during the priming operation the primer fired. I've had many cases refuse to accept primers, but this was the only time I've had a primer go off.

[JBinMN]

For what to do with "unknown type/condition" primers and only know the size...

If you make "primer only" gluelits", "caulklits",or "waxlits", like some of us, you can use the unknown primers for that if you like.

That is what I would do anyway. If they do not work again, just remove the projectile, pop the crappy primer out once again & replace with a good primer, then add your projectiles to the cases sans powder like before & do over.

Then get rid of the bad primer(s) in another manner.

[Eddie2002]

I've pushed primers out using a press with no problems, had more "fun" loading berdan primers which will go off with too much seating pressure. The pulled primers just go into other brass for plinking with light loads at 50 yds, guess I'm a little cheap but during a day at the range I'll go through a good 75 to 100 plinkers along with other jacketed rounds depending on the rifles I bring.

[pworley1]

Press them out easy and use them for plinking.

[country gent]

I also normally push them out in the press and never had a problem. The one thing I do different is my presses are set up to feed spent primer into gallon jugs from the press, This set up saves a lot of mess with spent primers and dust as its contained. When doing live primers I change out the jug for a smaller container and empty it more often, so there isn't the large amount of primers there. Probably not necessary but Oh Well.

[slim1836]

OMG!!! We're all gonna DIE!

And that's a fact we can all agree on.

Slim

[lightman]

I've removed lots of live primers with no problems. I just go slow and gentle with them. I do wear a pair of safety glasses when doing this. I don't save the primers, I just drop them into the trash can. I save fired primers for the scrap value but I'm careful not to mix live ones in with the fired ones.

[ShooterAZ]

More caution should be used when de-priming military brass with crimped in primers. I once had one go off when de-priming some LC 30-06 brass. They were pull down surplus, and advertised as inert primers. One of them wasn't. A lot more effort than normal was required to remove these primers. Safety glasses highly recommended, as always. Non-crimped brass has never been a problem for me, the primers pop right out easily and none have ever gone off.