New WSR primers got wet. Still OK?

[idaho-steve]

Hi all. I could not find an answer to this in a search so I am sorry if this is a no-brainer or previously covered. Any help is appreciated.

A couple of days ago, I had two "bricks" of new Winchester SR primers get soaked while in the back of my truck after a sudden rain storm. (Apparently the bed cover is not as rain-proof as advertised!) Anyway, the cardboard sleeves became quite sodden and remained that way for two days. When I found them this morning I culled out the most affected and poured the primers onto a paper towel to dry. Thankfully, because the primers are packed so closely, most of the primer boxes on the "inside" of the brick were dry. However, about 4 boxes (400 primers) were wet enough that there were some light yellow spots on the paper towel from the drying.

The questions I have are;
1. What is the light yellow spotting on the towels from the wettest primers?
2. What is the likely effect of this?

These primers were destined for some NRA Hi-Power practice ammo so it is not "critical ammo" but I am wondering if I should destroy the wettest 400, the whole lot (cry) or just load 'em up and practice with 'em and report backto the group the result. At the least I will load and chrono a sample to see.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Steve
Navy Reservist on 12-month recall
Life NRA Member
Hi-Power, IDPA, IPSC, Elk Hunter, Reloader

[mrawesome22]

I would try to find out what primer compound is made of then try to find out how it is affected by water. I'm guessing it can't be good for them LOL.

[amamnn]

That's really a shame. We all hate to see good money wasted. But since manufacturers of primers list as one of the major causes of misfires, the contamination of the priming compound by mere finger oils, and another as failure to store primers in a low humidity environment, it does not take a giant leap of logic to guess that at best, your primers are not going to work as well as you'd like them to. I would not make any performance evaluation on loads made with any of those primers. 48 hours in that kind od humidity would make them all suspect, unfortunately.

[ledavatar]

I thought I read on this forum somewhere that primers are so dangerous that they were made "wet" during the manufacturing process and only dried at the last step. In that case the primers should be fine once completely dried. Since they're practice ammo, the worst thing that could happen is it wouldn't go off. I'd make a couple of rounds and see if they go off first. If they do, load up the rest.

[Jim Watson]

Agree. Load a few rounds from the wettest flat and see if they shoot. And also some that look like they stayed dry. Just do a few at first to reduce bullet pulling if they don't fire. Even if they fire, I don't think I'd use the wet ones for rapid fire. Sticking a bullet from partial ignition is about the worst outcome that I can think of.

[cpaspr]

simply load a primer in a shell. Hand feed the primed cartridge into your gun. Pull the trigger. If it goes bang, good. Move on to actually loading powder and a bullet into the cartridge. If it doesn't go bang, or only lightly, you haven't risked getting a bullet stuck in the barrel from a potential squib load right off the bat.

[Ruger4570]

I would do exactly the same,, just prime empty cases and try them. I would certainly let them dry out for several days first though.

[Mike Irwin]

Led is absolutely correct.

Normally after drying primers will function just fine.

Also, some manufacturers seal their primer compounds with a varnish to protect them against getting wet.

I suspect that you won't even notice any difference in performance once you dry everything out.