Aged Primers Bad?

[BigDog58]

I received so 30/06 Brass yesterday (100 pcs.) and to my astonishment, it's nearly all (92) primed. However, the brass "looks" quite old and most have the Very Old headstamps and some have the Red Sealer around the Primer.

My question is, Should I trust these primers and Load the rounds? I've never encountered getting unloaded but primed brass. I emailed the gentleman that sold them to me for $ 0.15 ea. but he's away for a couple of weeks. His Armslist Ad said Nothing about Primed Brass and at $0.15 per piece I had no clue.
Thanks,

BD

[JJ]

Since you do not know what primer was actually used, you are probably best served depriming and using a know quantity.

That said, primers are pretty resiliant, and you can just load the primed brass of a couple into your firearm (no powder or bullet) and see if they fire. it makes a pretty good pop and a fireball, so that should be done outside with a safe backdrop.

I personally would just deprime and start fresh.

[Seismic Sam]

Sounds like mixed brass the way you described "the very old headstamps", and don't mention a specific headstamp. That and the red sealer on SOME primers really casts doubt as to what these primers are, so JJ's right and you're best off to just punch them out and use new ones. Oh, and seeing as they're apparently mixed headstamp, you can NEVER use them to work up any max loads or accuracy loads, so this is just plinking brass. Any dates on the case heads?

[FJ540]

You mean you don't pop yours off inside the garage?

Jared's steering you right. BD. Grab a couple and see if they go bang. My money says they do.

Primers aren't shipped sealed at all, so unless they got fouled with something (oil), there's not much that will spoil them. I wonder about if they were flooded (water), and might try an experiment to see. I've got some primed cases that suffered neck damage due to varget jamming my thrower.

[BigDog58]

Thanks everyone. My thoughts had leaned toward either depriming and tossing them, or load them with a very minimal plinking load and just shoot for fun. If anyone wants to see some of the "Old Headstamps" I can attemot to take pictures and post here. Just let me know.

BD

[Seismic Sam]

Thanks everyone. My thoughts had leaned toward either depriming and tossing them, or load them with a very minimal plinking load and just shoot for fun. If anyone wants to see some of the "Old Headstamps" I can attemot to take pictures and post here. Just let me know.

BD

Don't waste your time with the pics, just a few headstamps with the years listed too (i.e., LC 82, WCC 74, RA 42) would let us know how miscellaneous, old, and weird a bunch of stuff you bought.

[aviator]

I don't know too much about this but would there be a concern about depriming live primers? At this point, I would be more inclined to fire them off in the gun before "punching" them out. Looking for inputs here. Thanks.

[JJ]

I don't know too much about this but would there be a concern about depriming live primers? At this point, I would be more inclined to fire them off in the gun before "punching" them out. Looking for inputs here. Thanks.

Slow constant pressure on the ram and its no issue. I've popped the primers with a air ram before a couple hundred times and never had one pop.

Think about it, how do manufacturers test primer crimping? It ain't on a hand press.

[.38super]

After reading your post I was motivated to go from lurking to post my first comment, My advice is do not deprime that brass on your press, I have done that for a few rounds and got away with it but I don't anymore. I witnessed the aftermath of a primer cup explosion on a Dillon 1050. The operator was depriming a bunch of .40 brass. The primer cup had a "bunch" of live primers in it. The next one detonated and turned the primer cup into a fragmentation grenade. Pieces went through a sheetrock wall nearby and by some miracle missed the operator. Lesson learned, the only downside to running them through a rifle to fire them is that there is a small chance they are corrosive. Just in case you only need to run some patches soaked in windex with ammonia through thr bore and clean as normal.

[old guy]

A cuple of years ago I found some loose primers under my bench I had spilled about 8 years be fore, this was down in my damp dark cement flored basement, I loaded some in cases and they all went POP.

John

[BigDog58]

Ok, after further inspection I believe I understand most of them. I have the following

LC 42 (I believe that to be Lake City 1942?)

TW 53 (No idea what TW is but believe 1953?)

TW 54 (Same but 1954?)

IK 30-06 (No idea except 30/06 brass Could also be a L instead of I)

RA 54 (Remington Arms 1954?)

LC 68 (Lake City 1968?)

DEN 42 (Unkown 1942?)

Super Speed 30-06 (No idea except 30/06)

Could the 42,54, or 68 be corrosive?

Thanks,

BD

[Rip Van Winkle]

TW = Twin Cities arsenal.
Den = Denver arsenal.

Not sure of the others, they might be commercial manufacture.

All US surplus 30 cal rifle ammo (30-06) manufactured before 1952 used corrosive primers, and there were a few lots after that were also.

[OldmanFCSA]

IK is Bosnian/Yugoslavian brass, usually of great quality, I use a lot of IK brass in my 50's.
Super Speed is very old Winchester brass (I think).

Pop all the primers, de-prime when inert, clean and swage/ream primer pockets, reload.

Tumble clean using SS Pin process to get super clean for inspection purposes - bring to me if required for cleaning.

[BigDog58]

Thanks everyone. Oldman I may just take you up on the offer, Only after the Icy roads are gone...lol.

Would spraying them with WD-40 render them inert, to make it safer to deprime ?

BD