Old Primers

[Green Frog]

I, too, was looking for (small rifle) primers and in the very back of the cabinet I store them in I found a full box of CCI small pistol primers. I bought these 2nd hand at a garage sale in the early 1970s... They're at least 55 years old. For kicks and giggles I loaded fifty H&G cast bullets in .38 S&W Special cases, using some Bullseye powder and these primers and took them to range, complementing a S&W Model 64 revolver I had not shot in a while. My very first shot was a "click", and I opened cylinder to see primer was dented. After a few expletives and with nothing to lose, I tried the 2nd.. the 3rd... and all the way to 24 shots: ALL fired flawlessly. Again, I re-inserted that first case -- and this time it fired. My guess was the initial fault was the revolver's? Anyhoos -- 25 shots to shoot 24 of 24 rounds using 55+ year old CCI Large pistol primers!
My (recent -- early this summer) experience.
My thoughts are -- at worse case -- like on my first shot -- you'll get a "click". Then, you just need break down your loads and reassemble with primers that function.
geo

Obviously I can’t prove this, but would postulate that in the one cartridge that didn’t fire until a second hit the primer was seated just a tiny amount shy of deeply enough and the first blow finished the job. Otherwise, the revolver may have needed cycling to get the dust off.

My most extreme treatment of primers tale was a couple of bricks that got rain soaked on the loading dock of the local distributor. They were very iffy a couple of weeks later in our tuned PPC revolvers when we tried them in, so I just threw them on a shelf and forgot them for 30 years. During the primer scare recently I tried them in some 9mm cases for my S&W Model 39 and they all worked perfectly. Go figure.

Froggie

[shaggybull]

I have some primers in my stash priced at 3 cents a hundred they still go bang

[truckerdave397]

I have some primers in my stash priced at 3 cents a hundred they still go bang

So thirty cents a brick? Outstanding!!!

[Sasquatch-1]

I have some primers in my stash priced at 3 cents a hundred they still go bang

Who did you buy those from, Fred Flintstone? I'm 71 and started reloading in 1975. I can remember MAYBE, and that's a big maybe, 50 cents a hundred. Probably more like $.80 to $1.00 a hundred.

[tigweldit]

In my stash of old stuff I have some Federal primers dated 5/55 and some CCI spp with a price tag of $.73. All go bang. Not a single ftf.

[Lead pot]

Since this last primer shortage I been pulling the old bricks buried under new leaves I have in a refrigerator that died a long time ago and I see no difference in the way those CCI LR primers I bought for $8.03 a thousand in a local dime store years ago compared to the Br-2 or the 210 Fed GM I normally use now.
The old powder depending on age I would use with caution. If you open the can and it has a very strong oder I would spread it on the lawn. The old nitro your smelling could get to be a problem with pressure spikes.