Disposal of primers

[Sleeping Dog]

Does anyone have information about the "correct" way to dispose of primers -- assuming you have a lot?

I heard somewhere that getting rid of a lot of primers and other lead-associated reloading materials required some EPA stuff. Is there anyone here that is in the ammo manufacturing or reloading as a business that has to do this? I want to see all of what is required before I start trying to make a business of this.

[JimB..]

You mean fired primers?

I take them to the scrap yard in buckets, assume that if they required special handling that they’d have told me.

[djgoings]

I bring them to my local scrap yard and they are treated like brass casings. Might as well get paid to dispose of them.

[762sultan]

I just put them in an empty soda bottle and put them in the garbage. I can't see wasting the gasoline and the time to drive 10 miles to the scrap yard. I was keeping a bucket with the scrap brass but it ended up being a problem so when I go to the range they have a barrel that I put it in.

[frkelly74]

I also have just dumped them into the scrap brass bucket and sold them as scrap. The guy dumped them out on a table to look for steel and said 4 lbs yellow brass. You don't make a special trip but if you are going anyway with a lawn shed and a stove and a dryer that your neighbors have thoughtfully put out by the street for you, it adds to your total.

[AZ Pete]

recycle it with the scrap brass here.

[dverna]

recycle it with the scrap brass here.

Same here. Likely not worth the bother for most folks, if they do not shoot a lot, but brass fetches a good price.

[1hole]

There is precious little "lead" in priming compounds and most of what's there gets blow away. Spent primers are not an environmental hazard.

[ReloaderFred]

I take expended primers to the recycler and get yellow brass prices for them, the same as for brass casings. My recycler appreciates the fact that I keep them separate so they can go into the bin with the really small brass, and not end up all over the place. At today's scrap prices, a coffee can full of expended primers is worth over $50.00, since scrap prices are up.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Three44s]

I am going to save mine!

We might rue the day we threw them away!! Instead they are insurance and could be recycled into live primers again.

Three44s

[lightman]

I'm another that saves them as scrap. If you don't want to recycle them toss them in the trash. Theres not enough harmful stuff in them to ruin the world.

[fatnhappy]

They’re hazardous all right, just like legos. There’s always 1 waiting like a little land mine for bare feet.

I just toss them in the garbage.

[JWFilips]

If they are live send them to me:bigsmyl2:

[Petrol & Powder]

I don't give a second thought about tossing spent primers out with the rest of my household trash. The liberals make war on gunowners in many ways and overblown worries about lead is just one of their attacks.

I would be more concerned about the mercury in a few fluorescent bulbs than some alleged lead hazard from a few thousand spent primers.

I am constantly amused by the extreme amount of resources liberals will consume in their efforts to appear "green". They burn more electricity, gasoline & diesel to recycle plastic (that costs more money and burns more fuel to recycle than if they just buried it in a landfill and made new plastic.)

[John Boy]

Two buckets for steel shotgun primers and a bucket for brass ones ... both to the scrap yard

[Burnt Fingers]

I've got over two gallons of spent primers.

As soon as I can get a weak mind and strong backed buddy to go to the scrap yard with me I will trade them in.

In need to pick up lead and if I try and do it alone I'll be in severe pain for weeks.

[mdi]

The second paragraph where the OP mentions "Is there anyone here that is in the ammo manufacturing or reloading as a business that has to do this?" suggest he may be talking about live primers? If so, give them to a reloader or as a last resort drop them off at the local PD...

Or if talking about spent primers, fellers above gave good answers...

[kevin c]

For whatever reason, scrapped primers bring a few cents per pound less than cartridge brass at the metals recycler I go to. I don't argue; I'd rather get money or lead in trade than just throw them out.

I should add that it takes a few years, even reloading 25-30 thousand rounds a year, to have enough spent primers and unreloadable brass to make it worthwhile bringing in.

[mdi]

Sharp eyed scrap dealers/buyers can spot the steel anvils and quote lower prices for spent primers.

[Kevin Rohrer]

Any unfired primers you want to dispose of you can send to me. I know how to safely get rid of them

Fired primers go in the trash.

[rancher1913]

there is fast becoming a market for used primers, lots of people are starting to reload them.

[Sleeping Dog]

Thanks for the info. I just didn't want to get in trouble with the EPA

[Silvercreek Farmer]

When I get enough, I'm going to melt them down into a nice brick to use as a door stop...

[kevin c]

Sharp eyed scrap dealers/buyers can spot the steel anvils and quote lower prices for spent primers.

At the place I go to, they run a magnet through all my brass and the primers too. I've missed a couple brass washed steel cases, but never saw any primers stick to the magnet. My fired primers are almost all what I reloaded and shot myself, and I only have used three domestic brands (Winchester, Federal and CCI), and one foreign brand (Fiocchi). Maybe those producers use brass anvils.

[rbt5050]

trash

[kevin c]

When I get enough, I'm going to melt them down into a nice brick to use as a door stop...

I just heated up two or three quarts worth of spent primers in my processing pot. I did so knowing that I'd let three or four live primers get in the catch container (explaining how is complicated - let's just say I was inattentive). I did one or two live ones decapped from scrap rounds by themselves in the pot, heated from below with a jet burner, and a couple more in the unheated pot with a weed burner played over them, to see what I'd be dealing with. The flash and bang was impressive, even in broad daylight (I had full PPE on, btw). Interesting to see that the gases released by the primers changed the color of the propane flame I used ( blue to yellow). For the real thing I covered the pot with a heavy cast iron lid. There were way more than three or four pops.

Sooooo....be cautious heating that pile of primers up, and don't add more primers once there is liquid metal in the crucible. Bad enough having red hot popcorn flying around your casting area, a brass tinsel fairy visit invited by lead styphnate tain't my idea of a good time.

[jmorris]

When I get enough, I'm going to melt them down into a nice brick to use as a door stop...


A 4 lb powder container full of them will hold any door open.

[Burnt Fingers]

Sharp eyed scrap dealers/buyers can spot the steel anvils and quote lower prices for spent primers.

Those scrap dealers are screwing you. The anvils are brass.

[ReloaderFred]

Those scrap dealers are screwing you. The anvils are brass.

Just like the scrap dealers you're selling to, a magnet is your friend when recycling metals. I use a large magnet on a handle to run through any brass I'm recycling, including spent primers. I take the steel and aluminum cases in separate from the brass. You only get a few cents a pound for them, but it tells the guy at the scales that you've done your due diligence on removing it from the brass.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[ioon44]

After de priming Wolf Steel case .45 ACP I found the anvil to be steel and the cup to be brass.

[Burnt Fingers]

After de priming Wolf Steel case .45 ACP I found the anvil to be steel and the cup to be brass.

Commie ammo doesn't count.

I don't mess with steel cases and I don't shoot Wolf ammo.

[warren5421]

I have cats, rather the wife has cats, their food comes in aluminum cans so every 2-3 months I take the cans in. If the grandkids are over I go sooner do to pop cans. 2 kids shoot and they save spent primers, bad brass, and aluminum for me so it gives about $50 every time I go.

[barnabus]

i throw mine off the deck of mt man cave into the grass.some people are worry warts.

[pull the trigger]

Load em in shot shells.

[smkummer]

Load em in shot shells.
I have added a few in my 10 gauge 3 1/2” so I can get a proper crimp. You now got me thinking I can load these in a steel shot wad. It’s just for blasting cans and other trash at 25 yards or less.

[farmbif]

not for nothing but I wonder what people on gun broker would pay for a soda bottle of spent primers. seeing how everything else on there has gone so crazy.

[oldsalt444]

+1 on saving them. We don't know how long the ammo & component shortage is going to last. I suspect as long as Biden is in office. I've already been reconstituting mine to get the process down. It's a tedious, time consuming PITA but I'll have primers when others have run out.

[Brassmonkey]

You fellas throwing them in the trash makes me wonder how much a sfrb full of them weighs.

[Tripplebeards]

In my trash

[rbuck351]

I still don't understand the fuss over lead. It comes from the ground so what can it hurt to put it back where it came from? But,if you have enough primers and brass to take to the scrap yard, why not make a few dollars?

[TyGuy]

I still don't understand the fuss over lead. It comes from the ground so what can it hurt to put it back where it came from? But,if you have enough primers and brass to take to the scrap yard, why not make a few dollars?

As I understand it, galena (the natural occurring lead ore) is not toxic in its mineral state. It only becomes toxic after being refined into lead proper. The lead mine museum near me states that their miners never showed elevated lead levels (not that there weren’t plenty of other chronic conditions due to the nature of the occupation) while those who worked in their refinery were the ones who suffered with the after effects of lead.

That said, I feel the fear mongering we see around lead is more politically driven than ecologically or medically motivated.

[jim147]

All the kids around here need a lead test according to the state of Misery. Several houses were built in the big coal mining days over a hundred years ago. So they had lead paint. I don't know a single person that has tested high for lead around here including my daughter that "helped" me reload when she was around three years old.

[farmbif]

when you start having kids as dumb as a door knob because of exposure to lead it tends to get folks knickers in a twist and the issue may then get into the political spectrum to have some doo gooder politician wanna make a name for himself to get some future kids protected from being born dumber than a door knob.

[lawdog941]

Old time reloader about 35 years ago told me he puts them into aluminum cans and then crushes them. Adds to the weight of the aluminum.

[ioon44]

I sold brass for $1.55 per lb and aluminum for $.030 per lb, so I won't be putting my primers in aluminum cans.

[onelight]

I sold brass for $1.55 per lb and aluminum for $.030 per lb, so I won't be putting my primers in aluminum cans.
Sounds like the the guy lawdog941 mentioned cheated himself . I like it :)