perotter wrote:crbutler wrote:....
They are dangerous. No way around it. If the plants that make this stuff have occasional detonations, you can just imagine the issues with untrained home chemists. While I would be willing to tinker around with this in a true SHTF situation, to do so for other reasons strikes me as being rather callously in disregard for life and limb unless you have all the equipment to make sure you are safe (fume hood, analytic balances, titration equipment to verify concentration, etc.). You should also have some sort of explosive license I think if you don't want trouble with the friendly folks at ATF.
t...
No explosive license in needed because they are for small arms use of a personal nature.
Many of the compounds used are only dangerous because they have lead in them, but most bullets do also. Also, there are lead free mixes that can be used if one desires.
Given that one can reload primers without there being any explosive in existence outside the cup, there is no more danger to life and limb than there is with handling store bought primers. If doing it the old fashioned way, the commercial plants only make small batches at a time. When I've use the old fashioned way of doing it, I do so in batches that are around the amount of the explosive that is in roll of caps for a toy cap gun.
Keep in mind that any commercial primer that isn't lead free will have lead oxide(bad stuff) in it after they are used. So even when doing common reloading one needs to be careful about safety in this area.
What in process of doing this would require a fume hood, analytic balances or titration equipment?
Don't you think tinkering around should be done before a true SHTF situation? If one worries about such things.
FWIW. The explosive use in strike any where matches or what is used in toy caps is much more sensitive than any normal primer mix. It is simple to test.
You were doing something a bit different then.
Lead syphanate synthesis exposes you to lead, yes... that is not the big risk though. But the chance of explosion with putting it in to cups or plates is high. Especially if you don't know how to do it, technique wise. The repeatability of those primers is not so great unless you standardize the mix. Let me guess, you didn't talk with the ATF about explosives manufacturing, or discuss this with your insurance company? I was told by an ATF agent if I was going to make my own priming I needed an FFL, as that was not exempted under the own use reloading rules. Black powder was, at least at that time. I believe you need an -07 FFL. It probably is grounds to revoke your insurance as well.
Fulminate of mercury (old corrosive priming)is even more toxic, although reportedly more stable and easier to make.
If you were making some home brew chemical in each cup, it may have been relatively safe to do, but would have very little pressure consistency.
A little searching on the Internet will find all kinds of ways to make some form of priming compounds, some from relatively easy to get over the counter chemicals. It's not the impossible to do thing, but rather her you can buy a lot better, and unless you know what you are doing, the risks are high of some kind of mishap.
You really are a high volume guy if you were making 50,000 plus round a year!
I thought I was doing a lot when I loaded for my whole family, and between my USPSA, IDPA, 3Gun, sporting clays, and hunting plus practice sessions, I was loading around 25,000 a year back then. Now it's around just under 10k a year, and some of the odd stuff does pile up, like left over hunting ammo.
