Old Primers

[hammer58]

I bought these primers at a local gun show and only paid $20 for them. But I have not seen any CCI primers in a box like this. The guy at the GS said that it is just an older version of the packaging.

When I got home with them I got to wondering if there might be a problem with their age. Is it possible that I may have problems with ignition failure from old primers?

The guy had several more bricks of them and I may go back tomorrow and get more

[pete950]

They are fine im useing some up and also in red packaging no problems !

[egd]

At $20 perK I'd buy all I could afford and then some.

[hammer58]

Anybody know how old they are? I have been loading for several years and never seen that packaging

[g.willikers]

It's easy enough to find out if they're any good.
Just install a couple in empty cases and test them.
I have a few boxes like that and use them.
If they were really old, they'd look like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EMPTY-BOX-of...UAAOSwjDZYj60O

[Bayou]

I've got some of those. They go bang every time...

[Salmoneye]

I'm still shooting Herter's primers from the 60's...

They all go bang...

[Chainsaw.]

I cant recall when they changed the sttling of the box but those arent terribly old. Ten years maybe? Ive use thousands of primets older than that with zero issue

[Don Fischer]

Not only am I still using Herter's primers I'm also use unfired FA 49 primed 30-06 case's. I was worried about the primer's so I fired off a few MTY's and they all fired!

[mikld]

Primers, if not frozen, baked, soaked, etc., don't have a shelf life. I have some CCI large rifle primers I bought in the '90s and they still work in my 30-06 and 308....

[Unclenick]

They do have shelf life: it is indefinite. That seems to be true from everything I've read. If stored in normal home conditions they never go bad, like powder can eventually. You can kill them by making them very hot for a long enough time. I was told by LEO's in Arizona that a summer spent in the trunk of a dark colored outdoor car there can cause failures to ignite, but then you are looking at 170°F or so. If cold affects them, it is at a temperature lower than the -65°F temperatures the military requires them to withstand. Humidity exposure does not seem to be a significant factor in their performance.

That packaging is post the 1989 revamp of the CCI primer line to eliminate cup burrs and get their magnum priming mix tweaked for ball powder ignition, etc. The ones I have from before then have white backgrounds with only the logo and some lettering in colors. Those still fire just fine.

[hammer58]

Thanks for the info guys! I went back to the gun show today and got another box (it was his last one)

[cdoc42]

I have 300 large rifle primers in CCI packaging that is green and white with black letters, labeled as manufactured by Omark Industries, given to me by the wife of a deceased best friend. They have to be from the 1960's or 70's and they fire.

I also have 2000 small rifle primers in boxes just like yours. They fire without a problem; I don't have the year of purchase but they sold for $12/1000 at that time.

Why not prime some empty cases and fire them off to test if they work?

[kraigwy]

Back about 1986-87 the Army started switching to the Beretta so they stopped buying 45 ACP ammo. Then they noticed that the slides were cracking on the Beretta.

I was running the AK NG Marksmanship and had a pistol team to support. We still used the M1911a, Match and Service Grade. Since the Army didn't have any 45 for out teams I used State Funds to buy Primers and Powder. We cast bullets and loaded 45 ammo on an old Dillion RL 1000. We were able to keep shooting 45s where other states went to 22 pistols.

Then the Army, having grounded the Beretta program until fixed, realized they needed pistol ammo and bought 45 Ammo from Israel.

Shortly our 45 ammo request were filled leaving me setting on thousands of Primers and a lot of powder.

In 1992 I retired and the person who relieved me had a heart attack when he did an inventory of the property book before signing for it. Seeing the supply of primers and powder started telling me it was illegal to reload military ammo. I tried to explain that there were rules against using Federal funds, but none against using state funds.

Didnt matter, he wanted the components gone. They were expendable items, not property book items so I decided to dispose of them.

I'm still doing that, The powder has been shot up but I still have several thousand CCI Large Pistol Primers from the mid 80s. They still shoot. A few years ago I loaded a batch of 45s using the old mid 1980 primers and new primers and ran them through a chronograph. I could not tell the difference.

What is does mean, since I have lots of brass, the old primers, and I cast bullets I only have to buy powder. I'm getting 45 powder for about $28 per lb. meaning it cost me $0.016 per round to shoot 45s. If I can shoot 45s for $0.80 cents a box of 50, I'm gonna use my old primers.

[Reloader270]

This was the packaging for the late 80's and early 90's. I still have of those that come from the early 80's which has a beige color on containers. I still use them and they go bang every time.

[hdwhit]

hammer58 wrote:
The guy at the GS said that it is just an older version of the packaging.

He is correct.

As Reloader270 noted, it dates back into the late 1980's. Prior to that, the packaging was beige for small pistol primers. I just used up the last of those beige box ones that would have been bought between 1978 and 1983 and they have so far all performed perfectly.

The ingredients in modern primers, lead syphnate, is not very reactive, so other than some solvents, there's nothing much in the environment that will "deactivate" it. Just because the other components in a primer are subject to deterioration, I personally adopt rule of thumb that I won't use primers I know to be older than me - and that's verging on 2/3 of a century.

[Reloadron]

I still have literally tens of thpousands of CCI primers in that packaging. They are all early to mid 1990s manufacture and they still work just fine. In perspective I was selling boxes of 5,000 for $75 or about $15 a thousand primers. Anyway I would have no reservation with loading and shooting them.

Ron

[briandg]

Those are not as old as you may think.

It's possible that those were bought up by the millions and hoarded during the eighties and just now put into circlation

[Geezerbiker]

I just finished up a box like that. I got them new at the time of the Clinton primer scare in the 90's. Primers are good for many years if stored properly...

Tony

[briandg]

I believe that it may have been during the primer scare as well. people who had connections were walking into places, being notified,and walking out with cases. some people back stocked cases. A butt load of these things are working their way back into the system, hoarders dying and widows selling. A year ago I found a pile of them from the seventies at a store.

[Reloadron]

briandg:

I believe that it may have been during the primer scare as well. people who had connections were walking into places, being notified,and walking out with cases. some people back stocked cases. A butt load of these things are working their way back into the system, hoarders dying and widows selling. A year ago I found a pile of them from the seventies at a store.

I can explain why I still have tens of thousands. During the early and mid 1990s my wife and I owned a gun shop. One large niche for us was we stocked and sold reloading components. When we sold the business the buyer could not afford all of the inventory. We dragged literally hundreds of pounds of powder and other components to gun shows just to get rid of it. Even after that I ended up with a small mountain of components including primers. Over the past few decades I have worked down the piles but when I see a good deal I still buy components. I never want to get caught short if another Sandy Hook happens or the political winds change direction. Anyway, this is how I ended up with so many primers, powder and bullets. Heck, I still have 500 round bricks of assorted 22 LR and during the recent shortage gave thousands to my son so he and his friends could shoot. All of it left overs.

Ron

[briandg]

During Clinton I bought three magazines, a pistol,about six thousand primers, and only a few cans of powder.couldn't afford much else. My brother, otoh, spent maybe five to ten thousand bucks on rifles and magazines to sell after the bans,bought them on credit.

I was investing in mutual funds. I won that game. I may be income challenged now, and don't have many toys, but my 401k is almost where I want it to be.

[Reloadron]

briandg:

During Clinton I bought three magazines, a pistol,about six thousand primers, and only a few cans of powder.couldn't afford much else. My brother, otoh, spent maybe five to ten thousand bucks on rifles and magazines to sell after the bans,bought them on credit.

I was investing in mutual funds. I won that game. I may be income challenged now, and don't have many toys, but my 401k is almost where I want it to be.

If your 401K is about where you want it to be then I would say you are hardly income challenged.

Your brother made a bad investment as once a drought passes a $1,000 AR suddenly becomes a $500 AR. Guns are not a wise or fiscally responsible investment when you can't buy low and sell high.

Ron

[briandg]

A 401 k isn't income for another twelve years. Been a lot of trouble in the past decade. Thank God for health insurance.

He was very overconfident, and reckless. He also bought and restored vintage mustang, but wound up keeping most of them. The ar rifles were, in fact, over a thousand. He bough a nine mms upper?

I have a grudging respect for him, but he was always on the edge of disaster.

A really decent guy who is just as dumb as a possum. He has said the same about me, but his judgment has always been questionable.

He's probably on the high road.

[Reloadron]

OMG, we have the same brother.

Ron