primer question wet primers can they be saved ?

[1hole]

"A bud, puts water in the case, and uses a wooden dowel..."

Goodness, what a mess for doing a simple task.

I've been pushing out live primers normally and safely since '65. It never occured to me there might be a danger in a solid steel die that's closed at the top with a steel decap rod; and it still doesn't occur to me. Even if one did go off, it's just a tiny pellet of compound, not a stick of dynamite; if I was that nervous about reloading I wouldn't do it!

[jcwit]

A few years ago I dropped a sleeve of 100 primers in the cats water dish, thats 100 loose primers, not still in the plastic holder. I got them all out and let them dry on the window sill for a few days. They all went bang just as all the others.

As far as not using primers if you were not the one that primed the cases, why?
Use a reasonable load, not need to load to the max anyway.

[Cesure]

As far as not using primers if you were not the one that primed the cases, why?

Would it be easy to tell if pistol primers were inserted where rifle primers were supposed to be? That's the only "miss-primer" problem I could think of. I think you could tell after firing one or maybe just by pushing one out.

[1hole]

"Would it be easy to tell if pistol primers were inserted where rifle primers were supposed to be?"

For large primers, yes.

[jeff423]

I was recently cleaning the lint out of the inside of the dryer when I found a live Large Pistol Primer in the bottom of the dryer - meaning it had gone through the washer and dryer. I loaded it in a shell without powder or bullet just to see if it would go bang - it did. I also tried a new primer and the noise level was about the same so I think the "washed" primer would have done fine in a live round. Not very scientific, but interesting.

Jeff

[Cesure]

"Would it be easy to tell if pistol primers were inserted where rifle primers were supposed to be?"

For large primers, yes.

So for the .30-06, there would be no real concern about the wrong primer type, just the primer performance. I suppose somebody could have loaded old corrosive primers but that seems pretty unlikely.

[gcollins]

Let them dry, if you have the time, take a hair dyer and just keep going over and over again, and just do it as much as you want. [B]If they are pistol cases, I would do as I mentioned above and load a few and you will find out![B] A year ago or so i had a long talk with a nice man that lives in Cal., I am sure who he works for or if this is a second job, he get's a couple calls a week, to come to someone house and clear out old reloading equipment and componets, he was to destroy the componets and to clean up the tools and selll them for the family's or the widow. In our talking, he mentioned that he had done a job a year ago, this basement got flooded along with reloading tools, and componets . He got everything out and moved to his shop where he will clean up the RT's and he was to destroy the powder and pimers.He told me that there was 10,000 Winchester primers and he just couldn't just throw them away, he said he got them all out of there boxes so they could dry out. He told me that he has allmost shot 3,000 of those primers without having a bad one! I have some primers that were made in the 60's and I have used them without any problems. They were Old Alcan, I might of used all of them or not!
G

[dilly]

If any of you have ever scanned the threads that come up when someone asks if primers can be reloaded, the instructions given include having the primer compound wet into a paste and then dried. I bet if they dried THOROUGHLY, they would be fine. Just a hypothesis.

[EDG]

You might be able to dry them with a vacuum chamber and a vacuum pump to evaporate all the water.
I don't think you would be able to get all of the water out otherwise. Due to the hassle involved in getting them really dry I would just deprime them with due care in a standard decapping die. Do not let the unpopped primers collect in large quantities. If one pops it might set some of the others off.

[badbob454]

ok i started by testing wet primers shot 6 ,1 out of 3 did not fire.. , waited 3 days none misfired out of ten . waited 1 week ... loaded 10 rounds lead bullet with 17 gr. wc820 in my 3006 primed brass , all went bang shot ten more un loaded all shot with the same virocity as i would expect of new primers ... summary , these arent good enough to depend on in a life and death situation , but good enough for the range . but ill bring a rod to clear the barrel just incase a primer just pops one into the chamber , this happened making subsonic loads no problem pushing it back out .. thanks friends for all the replys , and happy shooting ... badbob

[bart55]

just deprimed adn deconstructed a couple of thousand carbine rounds that had been under water for a while ,dried the primers for a couple of weeks and loaded them in a bunch of 38sp plinker rounds .So far( 300 and counting )they all fire fine . I am as the Scott's would say thrifty!

[badbob454]

ok long time since i started this thread , as to date i have shot @ 2000 primers that were soaked for a few days dried them out on a warm summer weekend , i have shot nearly all of them and have experienced no missfires , i did have 2 that the anvils fell out ,i didnt try to load them /... i also pressed using a decapper over 300 and all pressed out dry and safely i just used a slow easy downward pressure to push them out , some did round out , but when i put em back in a new brass they flattened out and no missfires , send me your wet ones if you dont trust them ... i will be happy to dispose of them 4 U thanks for the great responces .... bad bob german

[LUBEDUDE]

Like others have said, primers are very resilient.

I have primers that were outside all winter exposed. I loaded, and they worked fine !!!

[scpaul]

I'd be afraid of squib loads or double detonation,can't remember the correct phrase but if it happens it usually at least damages the weapon. As far as being mfg. wet, are you sure they're wet with water not some other fluid? I'd decap them with a universal de-priming die so it can't build pressure. I know they aren't cheap or easy to get any more, but is it really worth just 1 potentially bad problem. I have heard that soaking primers in oil (type?) will neutralize them. I've never needed to try it. Sorry/Good luck whichever it is, Paul

[LeftyDon]

Let's see, primers cost about $4/100 and you have 300 to 400 cartridges that have unknown condition primers. So to save less than $20 in new primers you want to load 400 cartridges with powder and bullets (plus the time to generate them) and hope that all is okay. You want to put up with fail to fire, squib loads and GOK's how many other problems because you'll have an extra $20 in your pocket. Seems penny wise, pound foolish to me. Good luck.

[M-Tecs]

bad bob german

As you have discovered primers are very resilient. On two separate occasions I have been given a total of 7K plus primers that have been under water due to flooding. One batch was underwater for three days. After proper drying they all went bang. I did some accuracy testing with them and they were more accurate than the same brand that didn't get wet. They were all used in my prairie dog rifles. Total I had 7 or 8 that didn't fire.

[Shiloh]

Dry them and try a few. If they work, use tem for plinking, casual shooting, or practice.

Shiloh

[R.Ph. 380]

How would you remove the primers? I wouldn't junk the brass... too hard to come by now-a-days.

Put them in the oven at 400F. That'll tell ya if they're good or not. Course then ya got to get the kitchen cleaned up and aired out before the wife gets home. How do I know? WEEEEELLLLLLL.......................

[MtGun44]

Sounds pretty familiar.

Bill