Primer Survival

[tchepone]

I am thinking I may be the only one who has ever did this....

Last evening I was cleaning .223 brass. I was picking up odd boxes of fired brass laying around my bench, ammo cabinet and reloading room and dumping them in my RCBS Sidewinder. I was cleaning with water, citric acid, soap and stainless steel pins. When the timer ran down and the Sidewinder stopped turning I emptied it into my colander, rinsed with fresh water and was about to put them in the oven to dry. That is when I noticed some brass with primers in it. All in all there were 25 pieces with WW primers in them. They had gone through about 2 hours in the Sidewinder with the solution and pins. Outwardly they look fine
Has anyone ever tried drying them and did they still work? I thought perhaps a few hours at 100° in the wife's convection would dry them out. (too hot or not hot enough?) I have read about primers that got wet and were left to dry and they still fired.
Not that I am so frugal a few primers couldn't be tossed out but I'm inclined to try it just to see what happens. Any comments or suggestions? G

[Digital Dan]

If I had a time machine I'd not take them to Tchepone.

Decap and scrap. Acid/soap aren't your best buddy.

[mdi]

I believe the priming compound is water soluble plus the agitation could wash some of the compound from the cups. Jes fer grins I'd dry one and try to pop it in my gun...

[fryboy]

they're made wet then dried so ..... you do the math

[oneokie]

Safe way to do it would be to put them in a hermetically sealed container with some dessicant paks for a period of time.

[Markbo]

How much are 25 primers worth? How much is your time worth getting a stuck bullet out of your rifle?

[runfiverun]

if you put them in the oven the cases will tarnish.
just dry them in front of a fan.
I put mine in the tumbler with some nu-finish for about 1.5hrs [to dry and get a coating of polymer to preserve the shine]

[WHITETAIL]

I would scrap them.
Markbo is right.:Fire:
toss and move on.

[Dan Cash]

Bake them and let us know what hapens. If you are not adventureous, just decap them and reload. The brass is not hurt.

[tchepone]

Bake them and let us know what happens. If you are not adventureus, just decap them and reload. The brass is not hurt.

Dan Cash: That is my intent. Nothing ventured, nothing learned. But it goes without saying they will not be tested with any sort of powder or bullet in the cartridge.

runfiverun: Not sure what you mean about cases tarnishing, I have dried thousands in an oven at 200° and never had any tarnish.

[leadman]

The citric acid bath changes the surface of the brass so it does not tarnish readily. Can't remember the process name but I asume the factories do something similar since new factory brass takes a long time to tarnish.
I like a higher polish on my brass so tumble it in corn cob and Meguar's car polish. These will tarnish eventually.

There was a question in a gun magazine about using oil and water to "kill" primers. The response was it is almost impossible to do this with modern primers. I have soaked them in oil and they still went bang.

[mdi]

Poke one out and see if the compound is still there...

[rsrocket1]

For 75 cents worth of primers???

[starmac]

Primers in an oven?

[tchepone]

I dried the primers as above. I popped a couple new ones, then three of those I dried. My ears are not able to detect any difference in sound level. Will load a few cast bullets with Unique and see what the target results are. I don't think I'd try them with any full power or jacketed loads.

Dan Cash: So I believe they could work in a pinch, if they are all one has. But reliable, IDK.
rsrocket1 & Markbo: The whole idea was never the cost.
leadman: I think I read the same. To me at least this proves the article may be correct.

[Markbo]

I have never seen one person ever be able to prove that shiney brass shoots better than slightly discolored brass. I just dont sweat getting super shiney brass because ... why?

[mongoose33]

Bake them and let us know what hapens. If you are not adventureous, just decap them and reload. The brass is not hurt.

The problem with this approach is that if we never hear back, we won't really know why.... ;)

[RED333]

Darwin is watching this one close.
Bike builder I know wanted a few 44 mag cases with unfired primers.
So he got a box of primed brass, cooked them off in his wife's oven.
Busted the glass out of the door and bowed the door as well.
Now he did cook of 100 at a time.

[yovinny]

I always tell new hand loaders to make this test themselves, just like I did 30+ years ago.

Drop a primer in a glass of water and let it set a week or however long you'd like.
Take it out, blow it dry, load it up and fire it.....I've yet to hear of one not working.

[williamwaco]

There is no way I could resist the temptation. I would load one and if it worked OK, I would load the rest and check for accuracy.

[XDROB]

Ok, wet primers will go off.
I was having a problem with lite strikes in my Colt Government 380. Wanted to test firing pin strike. Field stripped gun, cleaned. Soaked a primered empty case with water for an hour. Poured water out. Put in gun pulled trigger. It went off!! Good thing wife was up stairs watching TV. Didn't hear it. I talked to gun smith friend about it. He said the only way to deactivate primers is to put a light oil in it.
So I'm thinking yours will go off.

[bangerjim]

25? Not worth your time and effort! That is $0.75 worth of primers! I loose more change than that in the couch and rarely every go after it! The kids used to go treasure hunting every few months!

Pop 'em out and put new DRY ones in. FTF's are not worth the frustration.

banger

[Garyshome]

Maybe there is a waterproof coating of some sort put over the primer compound after manufacture, to extend the shelf life of the product.

[WALLNUTT]

I don't htink it's about cost or time. Didn't you all ever hear of curiosity? Knowledge is power.

[bangerjim]

And common sense is king.

Remember........curiosity killed the cat.

:coffeecom

[tchepone]

Ok - to all you guys worried about the cost of 25 primers, get over it. It was never about the cost. It was to answer the question - will they work after being subjected to wet tumbling for over 2 hours in citric acid, soap, stainless pins and dried out?

I loaded 10 rounds, 48 grain lead boolits over Unique. All 10 fired. I shot them at 50 yards, over my Oehler choronograph. A group of 5 were pretty tight (2"), the other 5 were scattered out to 6", most of those were low. The choronograph showed quite a variation. The extreme spread was 422 fps. Not a quality load by any means, but then it wasn't expected to be.

So the answer is, (will they work after being wet tumbled for 2 hours)...yes.
Are they reliable...maybe, but doubtful.
Were they worth salvaging...no.
The question...was answered to my satisfaction.
Would they function a semi automatic...don't know. Fired them in a Rem 700.
Was the whole thing worth it...to me, yes it was. Plus it was fun and no one was hurt.
Your experience may vary so don't take any of this as gospel. These were W-W, WSR primers, other may fare differently. G

WALLNUT....your post hit the X ring, that's what it's all about.
bangerjim...and the "cat" is smarter now.

[mdi]

I don't htink it's about cost or time. Didn't you all ever hear of curiosity? Knowledge is power.
My thoughts exactly! I quit worrying about costs a looooong time ago. Money worries/calculations/considerations takes the fun outta reloading...

[Markbo]

Whew. The day I quit worrying about cost is the day I am in the ground. Just part of my makeup I reckon. Money worries are all too real to me.

BUT I do understand pone's curiosity. I have ruined more than a few parts experimenting on guns, cars, lamps or what have you. Curiosity is a powerful motivator. And a powerful teacher! ;)

[Wayne Smith]

And common sense is king.

Remember........curiosity killed the cat.

:coffeecom
... and satisfaction brought him back! If you are gonna quote the song get the rest of it!

[edctexas]

I use WD40 to kill primers. A couple of hours in that oil and the primers don't bang. I have not tried drying the WD40 treated primers. I am only trying to be able to deprime the case with some degree of safety.

Ed C

[blackthorn]

I had a little airline liquor bottle with about 15 primers submerged under some kind of light oil that sat forgotten on a shelf for well over 20 years. I took them out of the oil, washed them off with gas, let them dry for a few days, put them into some old 303 cases and fired them. ALL of those primers went bang! None of them sounded very strong BUT they all fired! I have no idea if the ignition was strong enough to ignite a powder charge, but no one will ever convince me that you can reliably kill a primer in any way but firing it!

[Ola]

I don't know what the factories but in case lubes, but the case lubes seem to be a good way to kill primers..:)

[Bazoo]

I expect there is various primer compounds used by various manufacturers, each of which will have different reactions to various liquids. Some may go dead with only a water bath, some my resist water. Some may resist oil and water.

It was a neat experiment and an interesting read none the less. Thanks tchepone

[gloob]

Darwin is watching this one close.
Bike builder I know wanted a few 44 mag cases with unfired primers.
So he got a box of primed brass, cooked them off in his wife's oven.
Busted the glass out of the door and bowed the door as well.
Now he did cook of 100 at a time.
So his wife killed him!? [smilie=1: