Touching primers?

[Mike38]

For some reason I have it in my head that you should not touch primers with your bare fingertips. Maybe I read it somewhere, or someone told me this. The reason is because over time, the oils in the skin can play havoc with the priming compound. Any truth to this?

Reason I ask is because I've gotten tired of fighting the worn out plastic primer feed ramp on my 25 year old Lee single stage press, so I bought one of those primer dies that require manually placing a primer in the ram one at a time. It works great. Not that much slower. And seats the primers at a perfect depth just below the head.

So is this touching a primer a whole lot of nothing? Or should I be wearing latex medical gloves to keep the skin oils off the primers? Thanks.

[Unclenick]

It was a standard warning decades ago, and I heard it many times. But having looked at reports of experiments where all sorts of petroleum-based oils have completely failed to deactivate some primers even after days of soaking, I've concluded it was one of those cautions born of imagining what might happen, rather than from actual experience. I suppose it is possible it caused problems with some percussion caps or with old-time primers. Plus, if you can get Federal primers with their lacquer seal, you pretty much guarantee it won't affect ignition.

The one thing that could still happen is your fingerprint grease could cause corrosion on the sides of the primer over the long term. Some people have much more salty finger oils than others, so I can see that being an issue for some if they don't use their ammo promptly. But, in general, if you are going to shoot the ammo in a few days, there is very little likelihood of causing a problem. Also, if you have a "ruster's" hands, you can buy fingercots at the pharmacy and roll one over your index finger and either use another for your thumb, or, if that's too tight, get one of those red rubber thumb covers used for counting money. Between the two, you should be able to pick up primers without making direct contact with them.

[seanc]

Thanks Unclenick!
I've been doing the same as Mike38 for years but it's always been in the back of my head that it could cause a dead primer. I've got other things to worry about now .

[BillyBoy 57]

I too have wondered about this . I really dont touch them unless I somehow drop one . I prime using an rcbs hand primer .

[Mike38]

Fingercots, excellent idea, thanks!

[44 AMP]

surgeons gloves will also do the job, or tweezers, forceps or anything else you can pick up the primers with.

My hands tend to be very dry, never had any issues with my touch or prints causing rust, but I have seen others who can rust steel in hours after touching it with bare hands.

Primers are probably not nearly as sensitive as we worry about, BUT why take the chance in case one is??

[101combatvet]

Halogen bulbs, yes, primers, no.

[ballardw]

Remembering that some of the older primer compounds contain an interesting assortment of heavy metal compounds it might be that some of the "don't touch" concerns had to do with poisoning as much as possible damage to the primers.
Boxes of primers get shaken, in transit if no where else, and minute bits of compound may be anywhere on the surface.

Maybe the idea should be "don't lick the primers"?

[101combatvet]

Originally Posted by ballardw

Maybe the idea should be "don't lick the primers"?

More warning labels for those that can't read? Sure can't hurt.

[Dead-Nuts-Zero]

I used tweezers a few times when I first started loading on single stage press 50 plus years ago. That method lasted maybe 200 rounds then began using bare relatively clean fingers.
Haven't had any know problems associated with bare hands/fingers including loads loaded many years ago.

However, if eating salt & vinegar potato chips while loading, you may want to reconsider your method.

[jetinteriorguy]

When I get down to the last 2-3 primers in the Lee Safety Prime they won’t feed through so I just dump them and feed them by hand. But I make sure my fingers are clean and dry just in case it would contaminate them and have never experienced a misfire. I figure whether it’s necessary or not, it doesn’t hurt to be careful.

[Jim Watson]

A club member here handles primers with tweezers.

I normally dump primers directly from tray to flipper for Dillon pickup or to Lee hand primer. BUT, if I have an odd primer or if I have gently decapped a round, I just pick it up and pop it in. Never a misfire.

[Shadow9mm]

I generally don't touch my primers. I dump them in the tray shake to flip, and prime. If I'm loading a large batch I wear nitrile gloves through the process just to keep things from tarnishing. If doing a small batch, I simply wash my hands thoroughly with dish soap. Gets rid of any excess oils on my hands prior to loading.

[Geezerbiker]

Originally Posted by Dead-Nuts-Zero

I used tweezers a few times when I first started loading on single stage press 50 plus years ago. That method lasted maybe 200 rounds then began using bare relatively clean fingers.
Haven't had any know problems associated with bare hands/fingers including loads loaded many years ago.

However, if eating salt & vinegar potato chips while loading, you may want to reconsider your method.

Same here. I've been loading for over 40 years and I've always hand fed my primers when except for when I sent up my Dillon for .45ACP.

Tony

[Three44s]

Wash hands and things are fine.

Three44s

[Nick_C_S]

Having worked in the electronics industry for years, I've been conditioned to not touch anything metallic with my bare hands. I use gloves and/or tweezers. I'd use finger cots (which I used extensively in my electronics days), but they seem a bit hard to find.

And coincidentally, for me personally, my hand oils seem to be particularly acrid. I now work part time at a large home improvement chain, in the plumbing department. If I touch the copper tubing, you'll see my hand prints on them the next day. The same happens with my brass cases too, but not as bad.

[Unclenick]

I'd use finger cots (which I used extensively in my electronics days), but they seem a bit hard to find.

I picked them up at CVS. Then there's always the woman warrior site.

[Nick_C_S]

Thanks Unclenick. Sometimes it's more difficult in your head. I never even thought of checking CVS for finger cots - who knew?!

I ordered some on a website years ago, and when I got them, they must have been sitting for a looooong time - maybe a decade, seriously. They were so oxidized, they literally disintegrated as I attempted to put them on.

Anyway, pursuing the finger cot thing was never a high priority. I'll be moving into a new home for my wife and I in Idaho here in just a week. After I get everything set up again, I'll poke my head in a CVS to see what they have.

[Hammerhead]

I’ve handled every primer I’ve ever loaded with my fingers.
No problems.

[Unclenick]

You must have strong fingers!

[ragsflh]

use fingers.just wash hands

[Reloadron]

Good reloading habits call for washing one's hands before and after handling reloading components. I figure for me that is adequate. Now if someone is still concerned then just find some finger cots. Figure about 200 of them cost about six bucks (USD).

Ron

[MarkCO]

Yeah, another old wive's of the gun world dying. No worries. Good practice to wash your hands before and after.

I read an article that was pretty interesting last week that talked about how the firearms industry is just a huge game of telephone. So many people believe so many fallacies since there is 1. No regulation from the feds and 2. Those who got an early start got to set the rules.

You see guys like Enos come along and totally flip the script on handgun shooting at speed and now, no-one really questions it...but there are still some things to learn. The script he flipped was, in large part from larger than life Cooper, who did much of the same thing.

Tubb, end of last century changed so much. Now we have Litz and Saterlee and others that changed a ton in the last few years in precision rifle and reloading.

We have all these little spheres with disciples and good intentions, but so much got passed down verbally, and changed over time. The AMU has helped a lot and today, really, a good amount of what all the Alpha males think, or thought they knew about shooting is being challenged, refined and retooled. Those little spheres rarely interact since most are only in one discipline with any amount of effort.

Many of the "authors" who have written reloading manuals and books are most focused on reloading and less on the shooting. The shooters are more focused on the shooting and not so much on the reloading. Isolated expertise that fails to cross pollinate, challenge, test because, in large part, they do not interact.

I still run across people who have never heard of the Houston Warehouse. Or those who believe that all of the "recipes" in the load manuals were actually tested with pressure equipment. Or that if a powder is not listed for a certain caliber it must not work with it. That cleaning rifle barrels all the time is necessary to maintain accuracy.

[JohnKSa]

I read an article that was pretty interesting last week that talked about how the firearms industry is just a huge game of telephone. So many people believe so many fallacies since there is 1. No regulation from the feds and 2. Those who got an early start got to set the rules.

Yup. But I think there's more to it than just that.

1. Much of what goes on with firearms happens so fast that it's not just beyond the perception of humans, but even beyond what can be seen in slow motion--except with the fastest cameras.

2. Many people who get a lot of enjoyment from firearms and who become very accomplished at their use are not well versed in basic science and math and therefore come up with explanations for why things work that have nothing to do with reality. One good example of this is a commonly related story about how the benefit of rifling was explained when it was first discovered that spinning projectiles improved accuracy dramatically. The story goes that the theory was that with the ball spinning, the demons who caused inaccuracy could not sit on the ball because the spin would throw them off. Of course, spinning the ball DID improve accuracy, but the reason it did had nothing to do with demons. That's kind of an extreme example and comes from a time before the science of projectiles was developed--but the same general problem still exists today in evolved form.

3. There's a lot of proprietary information out there that is not released due to intellectual property issues and liability concerns and that means that it can be very difficult to get good information from the people that actually have it.

4. People become very entrenched in their opinions about guns and how they work and can be tremendously resistant to changing them even when good information becomes available.

5. People are often just not that concerned with actually knowing the truth as long as they feel like they understand a topic "enough".

[MarkCO]

Agree JohnKSa, those are all good points.