Any reason not to use them?

i have for years. never a problem. ymmv

I use them for load work-up, and never had a problem.

Pushing that decapping pin into the saddle of a primer causes a bit of unease for me. I know of no other way to deprime. There the case is contained in the die and I'm putting pressure on the center of the primer! I have done it and used the primers without incident - yet. They do work fine for me.

I didn't know that was possible.

There may be some unstated assumptions in the answers so far. "It depends" may be a better answer.

Primers pulled from crimped military ammo may have the primer cups sufficiently distorted that they're not usable. The face be distorted with a pimple (outie-dimple). The diameter may be reduced by being stretched longitudinally so that the primers will fall out when inserted in the primer pocket of a commercial case. The anvil can be loosened and drop out of the primer cup. The "foil" covering the priming compound can be loosened also, and the priming pellet can be loosened or cracked.

Primers pulled from cases with uncrimped primers may suffer the same problems. A dozen years ago I deprimed a couple hundred IVI 303 British cases of varying lots. While not crimped the primers were very tightly seated in the cases. Some primers had been sealed with an asphalt-like compound. As a result, the primers came through the depriming process in various states of usefulness. Some were quite damaged and were discarded. The remainder I have since used only when consistency of ignition is not a major concern, as when in priming cases to be fire-formed with the Cream-of-Wheat technique.

--Bob

I have used them for several years w/o a problem. Of course I don't slam the decapping die down to remove them.

LC

You can use them but I would never use one in a serious hunting load. I might use them in preliminary load work ups but not when doing final testing one in hunting ammo.
Paul B.

Two or three cents a piece. Never considered using them. Damn, thought I was frugal, kinda left myself down.

These are my feelings exactly although I rarely pull up primer unless I thought it seated too easy..... so it takes very little effort to push it back out..... I've never seen any strange variations over the chronograph using these kinds of primers

I've used them. Be certain to wear safety glasses when depriming!!!

I use them except, I don't trust them for hunting rounds. So far all of them have gone 'bang' but I don't want the first one to be when I'm aiming at game.

Jerry

Don't like having to de-prim a case. but stuff does happen and one gets things from neighbors and friends. I will not shoot someone else's reloads. I have used them with no issues, but just for working up and target practice. Never for a hunting load.

I've always reused them without incident.

Well said Jerry.

I wouldnt use any pulled, gold-colored WLR's. Just saying.

Thanks for answering my question.I figured I could use them,but having never done it,thought I would check first.Huntz

^^^^^^^

Same here.

I have used a great many of them and have tried some targets for a comparison of pulled versus new and I could not see any difference in groups.

When you are depriming the live primers give a slow steady push against the primer because you are pushing the anvil against the priming compound. I can see how they may possibly go off if the depriming pin was hit against the anvil with force. I have deprimed quite a few over the years and never had an incident in doing it.

drover

For anything but dangerous game where failure will not be tolerated.

I've never had a re-used primer fail yet, but I wouldn't bet on one if a lot was riding on it.

On the rare occasion that I have had to deprime a live primer it has never failed to go into a bucket of water..............


That's three cents I am not worried about........

Kind of like using the same two cent sandwich bag over !

muffin,

Why a bucket of water? I suspect I know the reason, but want to be sure before commenting further.

I have carefully deprimed cases with a Lee decapper die, slowly, with safety glasses and gloves on. I'd use a full face shield if I had one. Never had one pop. I never though about reusing any since I assumed they might not seat tightly or the anvil might have been damaged. I toss them into the pond just for the frogs.

Seating a primer does two things: compresses the anvil against the priming compound, and compresses the outside diameter with a press fit into the pocket of the brass. I am always very cautious around primers as they are explosives--just pop one in your rifle using an empty cartridge case. You will see why I don't want to do anything risky around them. Decapping one puts more load against the anvil. Reseating one in a different piece of brass could result in insufficient press fit to prevent leakage when firing. I will occasionally use the inertia "hammer" to pull a bullet, and change a load in that piece of primed brass. If the primer is a loose fit, for example, and I don't want to use that brass, I pop the primer in the rifle and don't try to reuse it.

longbarrel,

And I've fired piles of "pulled" (actually "pushed") primers without ever once seeing any leakage. Which is more than I can say about brand-new primers--though no doubt I've fired a LOT more new ones!

Had a big mess of reject milsurp 223 that I smashed into Fireball, so I had to deprime a pile of them. They didn't get far enough in the process for a crimp, and I had a pile of primers just screaming "OBAMA" at me. Used a face shield depriming (smoothly), not one popped. And they popped right back in and shot just fine.
Whatever floats your wallet -- just make sure you are protected. Safety gear is cheap. Surgery ain't.

Same.

But that's why I like this place, learn something pretty much every visit.....

Exactamundo!!!! I've done it many times and always wear safety glasses.... I've never seen any issues using these primers either...

I have deprimed heaps of cases and resused the live primers over again. Never had a problem, never had a misfire once recycled, and think there is no harm at all in it. I dont look down the hole while I am doing it of course, but whats it going to do, go bang?

(But I only deprime them by resizing the cases with a die, meaning the primer is gently pushed out, I dont tap them out for example like with a Lee hand tool kit.)

Due to the price of primers, I look at it as why mess with it...primers are cheap enough...

on the flip side, I've disassembled a ton of rounds, re used the powder, bullets etc.

if I've had to resize the case for some reason, I've got depriming rods, that have had the decapping pin
broken.... I've just saved the rod and frequently use that in the die..

so I can resize a case, and not have to touch the primer....

I do most of my depriming with a universal depriming die anyway... just habit and I'm in no rush
at the reload bench.. that's the last place to be in a hurry.... things get short cutted and overlooked
and lead to a hassle in the field or at the range.

same way I don't drop everything I'm doing at the reload bench, when my wife, like all wives
think you are supposed to drop everything you're doing when they need "oh honey can you help me
with this, it will ONLY take a minute".

I just recycle the primer when I am recycling the brass to some other load....no need to separate them.

Sounds like washing and reusing condoms to me.

.........and about as safe, IMO. Don't ever remember reading the practice of re-using unfired primers as accepted prudent, safe reloading practice, although obviously it has been done successfully.
Primers are cheap enough not to fool with such activity, but if a Zombie Apocalypse descends upon us and primers are no longer available from stores, it may become an absolute necessity.

ignorance is bliss................

LC

I don't make a regular habit of it, but have done so in the past with not a single problem.

Now, let me get this straight. You have some loaded cartridges and you do not wish to use them as is. So you pull the bullets and dump the powder. You check to be sure that all the powder is out of the case. What you need to do now is resize the case to get the proper tension on the bullet. Your thought is to deprime the case when you resize it. When I have run into this situation, I simply take the decapping pin out of the die and resize the case without disturbing the primer. I did recently take some loaded cartridges apart that needed to be deprimed. What I did notice was that several of the primers came out with the anvils falling separately. Not real sure it is a great idea to put the anvil back in the cup. So if you wish to use the once seated primers I think it prudent to be sure that the primer you reseat in the case has an anvil. Just saying..
Favor Center

I usually do the depriming pin trick, but there have been times when I have an issue with the brass and hence have to pull the primers or toss the primed brass.

When I have a brass issue and the brass is no longer usable, I toss it in a 5 gallon bucket. When the bucket gets full, I take it to the scrap yard in town and they weigh it and in return they give me money. Isn't that a novel idea? I used to be a service rifle shooter with my M1A and after a summer of shooting and reloading, I had quite a bit of scrap brass to sell.
Favor Center

Why deprime the brass? Is it not OK to store the primed brass?

Several people have asked about why anybody would deprime brass. I don't know why others do it, but there are several reasons I started doing so a few years ago:

The general component shortage during the Obama years included scarcities of some primers. When I sold a rifle, sometimes the deal included brass--which often included the cases of loaded ammo. Since the easiest way to ship firearms here is USPS, where it's illegal to ship ammo or primed brass, I'd break down the handloads, saving the primers, powder and bullets.

I used to just toss the primers, after deactivating them in oil, but during the primer shortage decided to run some tests to see how well they worked. They worked just fine, resulting in the same velocities and accuracy as new primers. In fact, as noted earlier in this thread, so far I've never had a misfire with a reseated primer.

I was especially happy to save primers that were in short supply, because I have to have a bunch of different primers on hand for my load experimentation for handloading articles. (In fact right now there are 33 different primers in my loading room's inventory, made by six companies.) Due to that constant experimentation, I sometimes end up with handloads I'm probably not going to shoot, due to switching to another powder/bullet/primer combination that works better. So I break them down and save the components for reuse--including the primers.

I don't use decapped primers for anything except working up loads, but since I work up hundreds of loads a year that comes to quite a few primers--and having the "pulled" primers on hand was especially useful during the shortages. Of course, now we can get most primers easily again--but I'm not going to start tossing decapped primers just because there isn't a shortage now, having seen too many others over the past several presidential administrations.

Thanks John. Hope the future proves better than the recent past but desperate times do call for desparate measures. Good to know they can be pushed and used if the need again arises.

Geo

Dude, that's why the butt stroke was invented. And bayonets.

Had to laugh at that part.

Back in the 70's, my late brother was, for reasons lost in time, decapping some .45acp cases with the Lee tool while sitting on the floor with the base resting on a phone book. One popped, and sent the decapping rod bouncing off the ceiling.

Not long ago, I used the Lee rod to punch a couple, but pushed them out with a drill press vise, not a BFH.

As noted in another thread, I've got some crappy primed brass that I'm gonna crush and scrap, after decapping with a universal decapper. Based on this thread, I'm going to keep the primers for Trail Boss rifle loads.