Primers ,,,Hard to KILL,,,

[expiper]

there is a thread on here with someone worried about disposing of one (1) live primer ,,,and there have been many posting on there giving advice on how to do it !!!....all this hullabaloo reminds me of an account I had with primers a few yrs ago,,,,,,(once upon a time) a man that I worked with had his reloading components stored in a wooden cabinent according to most recommendation ....I dont know how ,but somehow the powder stored in this cabinet caught fire and ignited !!!!,,,it burned quickly as we all have seen it burn when disposed of properly,,,the fire singed the bullets in the boxes and blacked most of them,,,,there was a brick (1000) of large rifle primers in there also,,,the fire was so hot and so quick that it melted some of the plastic trays that the primers were in (trays of 100 primers) to the point that they could not be pryed out of the gob of plastic,,,,,some could be removed from other boxes of 100 and some on the other end of the brick ,,away from the fire were practicall un blemished ,,,even the paper slip tops were intact,,,,he kept these primers for probably 20 years and showed them to many friends,,,,one day he asked me if I wanted them,,,I said yes ,,I would like to examine them further,,,,welll,,,,,I took them home and looked at them and decided to put them in a one gallon freezer baggie and put them out in a lean to shed on the farm,,,the rain and snow blew in ther on them for three years before I stumbled upon them (I forgot that I had them) and once again my curiosity got my wheels turning,,,I opend the boxes again and pryed the most of them loose from the melted plastic and kept the wort of them seperat from the ones that looked un-damaged,,,,some of the cups were singed from the fire ,,,I used these first,,,I was shooting two wildcat ctgs at that time that required fire forming of the brass,,,,I used these worse ones first and eventually used them ALL (there were about 200 that were totally imbedded in the plastic and could not be used) to fire form my ctgs. !!...NOT ONE of them failed to fire,,,,20 years after going thru the fire and three years laying out in the elements (in a freezer bag) ,,,they still worked,,,,,Roger

 

[Dusty Stevens]

They are indestructable til you remove the anvil

 

['Freak]

Once upon a time, well before there was an infernal.net, I thought best I be rid of what’s left of several one pound cans of smokeless and a thousand plus assorted primers, all having been stored for too long in what often times was a harsh environment. Spread across the bottom of a HD metal oil change catch pan, I covered the primers in ‘bout an inch of oil rich weed-eater gas. Then went on about me chores, one of which was spreading the smokeless and covering it with soil, having read that it made a decent enough fertilizer.

Given about an hour of soak time I figgered surely those primers got to be dead, but what to do with that already gone stale now also contaminated weed-eater gas? I’d intended to bury the dead primers but didn’t want to dump weed-eater gas along with the dead primers all into the same shallow grave. So, I figgers why not light it and burn off the fuel leaving behind only the dead primer bodies.

All went well right up until the fuel level burned off low enough for it to expose the supposedly DOA primers to the oxygen in the atmosphere, at which point it became most obvious that those primers were very much still alive. I had to wait awhile before tending to the numerous subsequent small fires until the barrage of a thousand plus tiny missiles stopped bouncing off me cracker box’s windows and walls, raining down on the roof, and punching dents with numerous perforating the heavy gauge metal of what had been a decent oil change catch pan. No intact primers remained in the pan; some were on the ground nearby, most made bang and launched into low orbit.

 

[bsekf]

50 years ago when I was first starting to reload and was using an CH, C-press with the primer arm. Had lubed the cases and not washed my hands, almost every primer I touched was contaminated and didn't fire. I pulled about 100 bullets with an inertia bullet puller and learned a valuable lesson.

But....Murphy's Law...... about the time you think you have killed all the primers ..... you get the surprise of your life!

Bill

 

[bobm]

OleFreak, that was a hilarious read. Wished I could have been there.

bsekf....most case lubes I am familiar with such as RCBS lube-2 are non toxic and water soluble. The only caution statement on the bottle says "too much lube may destroy powder and primers". MAY. With today's variety of priming tools there is little chance of primers coming in contact with contaminating substances.

 

[ebb]

Back during the Obama shortages i bought a bunch of small pistol primers. They had been exposed to moisture and I had read that that moisture would not kill them. I put them and the packaging into the dehumidifier and found that not one of them failed after I had dried them out. I've been shooting them for years, not one failed till about a year and a half ago. Now about 2/3s will fire and seem to be getting less reliable as time goes on. I had loaded about 300 38 specials with Hornaday XTP bullets. So i decided to pull the bullets and reload with good primers. Now I have 300 primers that need to go away. Last night i took 6 of the empty primed case to the back porch and ran them through a S&W revolver. 5 of the 6 popped. I don't want to run all 300 through my Smith, and the many more that I have to break down to kill them. I was about to put them in a coffee can and add lighter fluid till a read freaks story. Any suggestions?

 

[3Ackleys]

Back during the Obama shortages i bought a bunch of small pistol primers. They had been exposed to moisture and I had read that that moisture would not kill them. I put them and the packaging into the dehumidifier and found that not one of them failed after I had dried them out. I've been shooting them for years, not one failed till about a year and a half ago. Now about 2/3s will fire and seem to be getting less reliable as time goes on. I had loaded about 300 38 specials with Hornaday XTP bullets. So i decided to pull the bullets and reload with good primers. Now I have 300 primers that need to go away. Last night i took 6 of the empty primed case to the back porch and ran them through a S&W revolver. 5 of the 6 popped. I don't want to run all 300 through my Smith, and the many more that I have to break down to kill them. I was about to put them in a coffee can and add lighter fluid till a read freaks story. Any suggestions?

Well this thread is FROM the Obama years!

 

[ebb]

You are quite the detective!!!

 

[NorCalMikie]

And the first time someone has a FTF round, they blame it on the primer!!!

 

[ebb]

Well Mikie what should I blame it on?

 

[Walt Krafft]

I asked the chemists in a primer plant how to kill a primer. They said you cant chemically.

 

[ebb]

Mine were bought in desperation and were wet. It's been way over 10 years and most still go off. Just not what I would consider reliable enough to depend on.

 

[NorCalMikie]

Well Mikie what should I blame it on?

If you get a FTF, press the primer out of the unfired case and smack it with a hammer.
If it goes "BANG", it wasn't a primer problem!! That's when you start looking at a headspace issue, meaning the case is probably "too short for the chamber", gets pushed forward by the firing pin and you get a soft strike.
I've has primers 30+ years old, sitting on the shelf next to a cardboard powder can with powder running all over the place. Dumped the powder out in the yard and loaded the primers in my M1A. EVERY ONE OF THEM went "BANG"!!
So, what it boils down to is, don't be in too much of a hurry to blame the primer till you KNOW what the real issue.
I can remember only ever having one primer issue. Out back, checking round fit in the chamber. Round fit good so I did a few more to be sure. All done so back in the house. Next morning, found a live round that I had dropped, laying in the very wet grass. Would NOT go bang. Pulled it down and found "wet" powder. Primer had fired but all the powder did was FIZZZLE. It WASN'T a primer problem!! Neck to bullet not sealed and in this case, not enough neck tension. We learn something new every day, or should.

 

[ebb]

Mikie I've known that this is a primer issue for several years. These are 38 special they index on the rim headspace is not an issue. When they will not fire in either of my S&W model 10s my Taurus or my friends brand new S&W 357, it is not a light strike issue. The friend who taught me to reload has several thousand and is having similar issues. The priming compound has degraded from moisture and age. I have not been in hurry, this issue has received careful attention and study for a long time. I don't understand given you have never been with in a thousand miles of my primers, why you think you have insights that several local reloaders, a gunsmith, and my reloading mentor have ignored.

 

[NorCalMikie]

Sounds to me like ANYBODY'S insight (except yours) isn't what YOU want to hear.
Simple question. Tried the HAMMER thang?? That in itself should answer a lot of questions but I guess you don't want to hear that, especially if you know everything already.

 

[dellet]

Sounds to me like ANYBODY'S insight (except yours) isn't what YOU want to hear.
Simple question. Tried the HAMMER thang?? That in itself should answer a lot of questions but I guess you don't want to hear that, especially if you know everything already.

Have you ever popped the anvil out of a primer, then tried the hammer thang?
It goes off.

Just because you can set off a primer with 2 pound hammer, doesn’t mean it’s not the problem because a1/2 ounce firing pin and a 30 pound spring failed to ignite it.

 

[ebb]

Mikey I am wondering if you if you have the ability to read and comprehend. When I posted I asked a question on how to make primers inert. I have not once asked for you or anyone else to diagnose my problem. I don't want to sit in the driveway and beat primers with a hammer. I want a way to dispose of a bunch of primers that I know beyond the shadow of a doubt are BAD, not all of them but enough that I will not try and use them. primers are made with lead in the priming compound, I do not want the lead to get into the ground water my family and I will have to drink.

 

[Doom]

Mikey I am wondering if you if you have the ability to read and comprehend. When I posted I asked a question on how to make primers inert. I have not once asked for you or anyone else to diagnose my problem. I don't want to sit in the driveway and beat primers with a hammer. I want a way to dispose of a bunch of primers that I know beyond the shadow of a doubt are BAD, not all of them but enough that I will not try and use them. primers are made with lead in the priming compound, I do not want the lead to get into the ground water my family and I will have to drink.

Unfortunately, as others have mentioned the Lead styphnate primers are essentially indestructible. Short of having them go bang there is no way that I am aware of to deactivate the compound. Oil, water, etc will not do it. IF there is compound in the primer it will go bang from impact. I would contact a local police department large enough to have a bomb disposal unit and see if they would accept them and dispose of them. Being as you are in FL you may get lucky.

As for being bad, you can''t assume that because they didn't go off they are dead. I have had primers (mostly CCI #34) that fail to fire but showed good strikes and the issue is not the firing pin or spring. In every case, the problem has likely been that the primer was not properly seated to "crush" the anvil into the proper position. They all went bang on the second strike.

​

 

[ebb]

Doom, Thank you! I asked this question at Cast Bollits and someone mentioned a piece of 2 inch iron pipe with a bunch of holes drilled in it, caps on each end, and the primers dumped in the pipe and thrown into a burn pit. Other than it sounding like a bomb, the right size and quantity of holes might allow enough gas to bleed off to accomplish the task. Not sure if it is a good idea.

 

[divingin]

Doom, Thank you! I asked this question at Cast Bollits and someone mentioned a piece of 2 inch iron pipe with a bunch of holes drilled in it, caps on each end, and the primers dumped in the pipe and thrown into a burn pit. Other than it sounding like a bomb, the right size and quantity of holes might allow enough gas to bleed off to accomplish the task. Not sure if it is a good idea.

I once disposed of several suspect primers by placing them on a block of wood, putting a charcoal chimney starter over them, and hitting them with a propane torch through one of the vent holes. They all went off, the cups were sitting pretty much where they had been placed, but I never found any of the anvils.