Killing Primers

[double8]

I can't find a proper place to ask this question, so I'll post here............
I just pulled the bullets on some VERY old 45-70 ammo...date, manufacturer [or reload?], powder unknown. I want to kill the primers before cleaning and resizing the brass [which is in good shape].

Best way to deaden the primer????

[rodsvet]

Shoot a little WD40 into the flashhole and deprime away. Or you could just chamber and pull the trigger and then deprime.

[ultramag]

I'd just punch them out and gather them up and put them in a container and squirt a little WD-40 on them.

[FLHTC]

Why destroy them? I just broke down a five gallon bucket of rejected reload I've saved over 25 years. It was singles found at the range, ammo bought at auctions in box lots etc.
I trashed the powder but wound up with well over a thousand primer, several hundred jacket 22 bullets, several pounds of lead and a lot of usable brass. Id keep those primer if i were you

[arjacobson]

Just size and deprime carefully. I have deprimed live primers a few times with no problems

[turmech]

I would deprime and save them.Never know when might need some primers and not be able to find any. Kind of like what is going on now.

I would remove the spent primer catcher from the press as I would not one going off next to others already removed. Wear good safety glasses and go to it.

If this is bad advise feel free to correct me I would not want to suggest someone do something dangerous. I have deprimed a few without issue and the primers are meant to go off when hit from the opposite side of where they will be deprimed.

[GabbyM]

WD-40 will not kill a primer. If you don't believe that soak one for a month. Then laod and fire away.
I know how to kill a primer but I'm not telling. nana nana. I've never set off a live primer with a decap pin. But would wear a face shield, apron and gloves to do it.

Best way to kill that primer is to load a charge over it and pop it.
You do realize you almost can't buy primers right now?

Just remove the decap pin from your size die. Shine the brass up after you fire it once.

[tomme boy]

If they chamber in your gun, fire the case with nothing in it. Or do what I do, deprime and throw them in the scrap bucket.

[btroj]

I am with Tomme. Nothing kills a primer better than a firing pin

[300winmag]

I deprime and reuse no problems, if I want to kill them I soak them in water.

[double8]

Seems like backing off the deprime pin is the best way....saves the primer, it shouldn't go off
Now, why didn't I think of that?....Duh

[GabbyM]

Seems like backing off the deprime pin is the best way....saves the primer, it shouldn't go off
Now, why didn't I think of that?....Duh

bang bang bang

[uscra112]

If they're REAL OLD, they might be mercuric. Do not fire them in the brass. Mercury residue will eventually weaken the brass. Or they could well be the old corrosive type, which will rust your bore. Punch 'em out slowly and carefully, and discard 'em.

Any kind of petroleum oil will kill 'em. I'd be seriously surprised if WD-40 wouldn't - it's just Stoddard solvent with some additives. But I'd use motor oil.

[Pepe Ray]

I've tested 4 different oils/solvents common to a gun shop work bench INCLUDING WD-40. NONE of them were reliable killers.
Either fire them or remove them.
Pepe Ray

[dbosman]

An acquaintance, a forensic scientist, killed primers with oil.

[BruceB]

Some here will recall a test I performed some years back.

I IMMERSED (submerged) some CCI Large Pistol primers in baths of gun oil, Hoppes' #9, and WD40. I then tried to fire five from each "bath" every 24 hours. All the primers died, but it took about a week of complete immersion before they were all inert.

Loaded .45ACP rounds with WD40 POOLED on their primers were not affected over nine months.....they still fired normally when the last five rounds were tested after all that time (stored bullet-down in a cartridge box).

So.... do not expect them to die easily!

[johnnybar]

An acquaintance, a forensic scientist, killed primers with oil.

Gents, It's not that oil and such can't kill primers. The issue is that the primers are already seated in cases and as a result, the certainty that the oil will penetrate the flash hole is in question with each case. Oil or no oil, handle with reasonable caution.

[Lloyd Smale]

I agree with one of the other posters. Why waste them? pull the decapping pin out of your die when you resize them and load up some ammo and use them. I too have tried in the past to kill them and there really isnt a reliable way. Ive also pushed them out without deadening them and have never had one go off.

[mdi]

Just size and deprime carefully. I have deprimed live primers a few times with no problems

+1. Primers aren't as delicate as a lot of fellers think...

[WHITETAIL]

Just reload them and shoot them for practice.:Fire:

[1hole]

Oill soaking WILL kill primers...eventually, in maybe a week. But to keep oil out of your cases it would be best to decap normally before dropping them in a cup of the oil of your choice.

Anyone worried about them primers blowing off body parts could wear a full face motorcycle helmet, leather work gloves, a denim work coat and steel toe safety boots as well as have a five gal bucket of water nearby to put out any explosion fires that may occur while decapping.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I think most of us have killed primers by handling them singlely with our bare fingers that have case lube on them from prepping cases for loading in our early loading days. Over the last 40+ years of loading I just slowly run the primed case into the decapping die and pop them out-not a surprise BANG yet.Robert

[I'll Make Mine]

Yep, the rule with primers seems to be, if you don't want to kill them, the tiniest bit of oil will do it, but if you want 'em inert, you'd best soak 'em for a week or more.

[merlin101]

I don't know about "killing primers" but I did somehow get two primed 9mm cases mixed in with the fire cases in my Lee Pro 1000. Both primers went off BUT not what your'd think, no bang just more or less a little sizzle and some smoke.
The first I thought was a fluke when the second went off I figured it was time look at all the brass again, and didn't find another one.:roll:

[1hole]

Well, 40-50 years ago primer pellets weren't sealed as they became not long after that. I know I haven't "killed" one with my fingers since at least 1970, probably longer.

A few years ago I had to remove a few dozen mixed size and brands of live primers. Just to test the old time "conventional wisdom" of oil and primers I used them to do a kill test with WD-40 and STP/case lube, seated and fired three-four of them each day until they were all dead. It took three days of soaking - not finger prints - for the first to fail; took an additional four days before they were all dead or just sizzled, so I wasn't kidding about "a week" to do the job!

I saw no important difference in the two oil's effects.