I recently had a flood in my basement and found a brick of small rifle primers (Federal) sitting in 4 inches of water. I figure they are toast, but before I throw them out, I want to ask the "sages" on here if I was right and they are wasted.
All answers gratefully appreciated.
When I moved I had some primers in a leaky tote ...they were large pistole....2k of them...
I let them dry and have been using them in 45acp and 44 mag....they have all fired....really don't know how wet the primers actually got but the packages were all stuck together and had to be tor apart to get to the primers...
I would just let them dry and see if they work....I just mad pinker loads with mine to use them up..
i once bought several hundred primers at a yard sale. after getting them home noticed water staining on all the boxes primers were dry.
used them for target practice only two misfired. at this late date don't remember how many primers were in that bunch.
Ed
Many shooters don't realize that most modern primers are sealed against moisture, or even minor amounts of oil. The advice many of us grew up with, or heard from older handloaders, was to keep our fingers scrupulously clean of natural oil, in order to avoid "contaminating" primers when touching them, making them go bad. But it's been quite a while since water or a little oil has affected modern primers. Yet I still know several handloaders who, despite knowing this, wash their hands before a handloading session, to "degrease" them and prevent duds--just as I still know many guys who change the oil in their vehicles every 2000-3000 miles, because that's what they were taught back when motor oils weren't nearly as good as they are today.
So true, and a compelling reason to update information on a regular basis.
Seems I remember a test where some guy soaked primers in WD-40 and they all went bang...
DF
I just want to thank those people who replied. Thanks especially to Mule Deer for the explanation. I would have thrown out perfectly good primers.
Just to be sure I'd spread them on a cookie sheet, open side up, in the oven at 300 degrees for a half hour.
I think I'd just let them air dry for a few days.
I'd be concerned baking them, worrying about that much heat causing damage.
Not sure.
DF
cra1948,
Is that your special baking recipe for wet primers?
They must be sealed pretty well. Put some in a glass of water for a few days and when loaded they all ignited
Seems I remember a test where some guy soaked primers in WD-40 and they all went bang...
DF
I would be that guy, or one or em',........ALL Of them sat in WD40 for a weekend,....submerged,....they were then drained on paper shop towel, loaded and fired.
I WOULD be concerned with ACIDS inevitably present in a basement flood destabilizing priming compounds though, and perhaps tipping there sensitivity threshold in the wrong direction.
GTC
Seems I remember a test where some guy soaked primers in WD-40 and they all went bang...
DF
I would be that guy, or one or em',........ALL Of them sat in WD40 for a weekend,....submerged,....they were then drained on paper shop towel, loaded and fired.
I WOULD be concerned with ACIDS inevitably present in a basement flood destabilizing priming compounds though, and perhaps tipping there sensitivity threshold in the wrong direction.
GTC
I was impressed enough by that to remember it.
Just because something is intuitive doesn't make it factual, glad you did it.
Washing hands, worried about contaminating primers sorta went out the window with that test.
Another urban myth busted.
DF
Seems I remember a test where some guy soaked primers in WD-40 and they all went bang...
DF
Yep...
Ahhh, free at last, I'm free at last!
I haven't been washing hands my before handling primers, but I do keep a pair of forceps on the bench to pick up stray primers and put them back where they belong.
I will probably keep them right where they are, though, as picking them up with my arthritic right hand, and a thumb that no longer works like it is supposed to, is a challenge...
cra1948,
Is that your special baking recipe for wet primers?
Only when maximum reliability is indicated.
Sometime I'll tell you about my system for reaccurrizing recovered bullets. Also the technique for reusing shotshell wads.
Not trying to rain on your parade, but it seems some things just aren't worth recycling, Shotgun wads and toilet paper are two that come to mine...
DF
Why take a chance? Primers are cheap and besides, one can get $30 worth of pissed off (at yourself) in no time at all if you end up pulling bullets on several hundred rounds.
Coot, I agree.
I would use such primers for plinking, etc. not for a serious, expensive hunt.
DF
Coot, I agree.
I would use such primers for plinking, etc. not for a serious, expensive hunt.
DF
Dirtfarmer:
These are strictly for my .223 I bought to give myself less expensive trigger time at the range (or at least that is what I told my wife
).
Not trying to rain on your parade, but it seems some things just aren't worth recycling, Shotgun wads and toilet paper are two that come to mine...
DF
Don't take it too seriously.... It was all tongue in cheek.
That said, I knew a guy, now deceased, father of a close friend, who'd go out after a trap shoot and pick up used wads to use over again. Really.
Not trying to rain on your parade, but it seems some things just aren't worth recycling, Shotgun wads and toilet paper are two that come to mine...
DF
Don't take it too seriously.... It was all tongue in cheek.
That said, I knew a guy, now deceased, father of a close friend, who'd go out after a trap shoot and pick up used wads to use over again. Really.
Now, that's tight..
Hope my toilet paper comment wasn't a part of his efforts. .😳
DF
If a guy's so tight his ass squeaks when he walks, I'm not sure he'd even need toilet paper.
After a trap shoot, it wouldn't take much to collect a bunch of wads. I'd do that, if it was easy.
The things you learn on the campfire...
If a guy's so tight his ass squeaks when he walks, I'm not sure he'd even need toilet paper.
That's where the WD 40 comes in!
[/quote]About 5 years ago I had some bad Remington primers that had damaged the face of 3 bolts. I contacted Remington and told them, which they instructed me to pour all the primers into a glass jar of oil, photograph them, then send the photo to them and they would pay for the repairs and replace the primers.
Never touch primers or get them wet with water or oil is what I was always told.
Below is a portion of I post I made about my experience.
[quoteMy bolts that were damaged by some bad Remington 7 1/2 primers are at Gre'-Tan's being fixed. Today I received a check from Remington for the total amount of the repairs by Gre'-Tan plus the shipping cost. Also, they are drop shipping a case of primers to me to replace the bad ones that I destroyed.
My faith in Remingtons Customer Service is restored and a big thank you to a Mrs/Miss Sandra Strickland for all of her kind help and keeping me informed. I plan on posting this on all of the forums I belong to. Maybe some of you can do the same.
On a side note: I soaked the primers in Quaker State oil for over a week. More like 2 weeks. When burning some trash in my burn barrel I dumped the jar of oil and primers in also. Guess what.............ever darn one of those 6000 plus primers detonated.
I didn't think they would.]
I recently had a flood in my basement and found a brick of small rifle primers (Federal) sitting in 4 inches of water. I figure they are toast, but before I throw them out, I want to ask the "sages" on here if I was right and they are wasted.
All answers gratefully appreciated.
I'd be inclined to throw them in the trash and spend $40.
Dave
Not trying to rain on your parade, but it seems some things just aren't worth recycling, Shotgun wads and toilet paper are two that come to mine...
DF
Don't take it too seriously.... It was all tongue in cheek.
That said, I knew a guy, now deceased, father of a close friend, who'd go out after a trap shoot and pick up used wads to use over again. Really.
Was his last name Bernstein?
Dave
The above is a fairly good supply of opinions and fixes. Right now I'm looking at a just-loaded .222 Rem cartridge with a nice big dent in the primer - brand new never-wet CCI #400 primer inserted last night - and it didn't go bang this morning. Its neighbors in the carton worked just fine. Thoughts on that?
Getting ready to load up some ammo for a trip to Africa for Cape Buffalo.
Fairly certain that I will not be using primers that have been soaked in water, or any other type of fluid, nor extracted from previously primed brass...............
Not trying to rain on your parade, but it seems some things just aren't worth recycling, Shotgun wads and toilet paper are two that come to mine...
DF
Don't take it too seriously.... It was all tongue in cheek.
That said, I knew a guy, now deceased, father of a close friend, who'd go out after a trap shoot and pick up used wads to use over again. Really.
Why back when-Used hulls, used shot we scraped up, rinsed off with a hose and dried in the sun. Used wads, the ones that looked fairly good were run thru a dryer cycle and many of them popped back like almost new.
Loaded shell for the cost of a primer which at that time was around $7/thousand. They broke 16-yard targets just fine.
Not trying to rain on your parade, but it seems some things just aren't worth recycling, Shotgun wads and toilet paper are two that come to mine...
DF
Don't take it too seriously.... It was all tongue in cheek.
That said, I knew a guy, now deceased, father of a close friend, who'd go out after a trap shoot and pick up used wads to use over again. Really.
Why back when-Used hulls, used shot we scraped up, rinsed off with a hose and dried in the sun. Used wads, the ones that looked fairly good were run thru a dryer cycle and many of them popped back like almost new.
Loaded shell for the cost of a primer which at that time was around $7/thousand. They broke 16-yard targets just fine.
If we could just find a way to reuse powder.....
In my early days in ballistics, first time I needed to section a case, I asked one of the guys in the shop to pull a bullet, discard the powder and kill the primer with some oil.
I then took a dremel tool and a cutoff wheel and began sectioning the case. Everything went fine till I got to the primer. It went off, loudly.
My co-worker came running into the shop and I said "I thought you killed the primer with oil". He said he did squirt oil on the primer. There was oil residue in the case so he was not lying.
We both agreed that, with respect to what we had been taught about primers, "The facts are not supportive of the fairy tale".
Laughing, he said "Did it scare you when it went off?"
Damn right it did.
In my early days in ballistics, first time I needed to section a case, I asked one of the guys in the shop to pull a bullet, discard the powder and kill the primer with some oil.
I then took a dremel tool and a cutoff wheel and began sectioning the case. Everything went fine till I got to the primer. It went off, loudly.
My co-worker came running into the shop and I said "I thought you killed the primer with oil". He said he did squirt oil on the primer. There was oil residue in the case so he was not lying.
We both agreed that, with respect to what we had been taught about primers, "The facts are not supportive of the fairy tale".
Laughing, he said "Did it scare you when it went off?"
Damn right it did.
Baking primers in the oven and throwing 6K of them in the burn barrel, Darwinism's finest at work right there.
I recently had a flood in my basement and found a brick of small rifle primers (Federal) sitting in 4 inches of water. I figure they are toast, but before I throw them out, I want to ask the "sages" on here if I was right and they are wasted.
All answers gratefully appreciated.
I'd be inclined to throw them in the trash and spend $40.
Dave
I have already replaced the primers with new ones for any serious shooting . The question was just a matter of interest. I will shoot off a few in unloaded brass, just to satisfy my curiosity.
By the way, in Canada you are looking at more like $75.00 for a brick(Federal), once you have included taxes and shipping.
Again, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to reply. It is appreciated.
Moby,
I was just being an ass hole. No offense intended.
Dave
Moby,
I was just being an ass hole. No offense intended.
Dave
Me too.
Moby,
I was just being an ass hole. No offense intended.
Dave
Me too.
Relax guys, I knew and anyway I have a real thick skin.
Well in that case GFY.
Clark
Well in that case GFY.
Clark
Hey ! I finally got a GFY !
Congratulations. You are now in the cool clique.