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So, I have heard people debate over using "old" primers to reload ammunition. It seemeded to me that as long as the primers were kept dry, there really shouldn't be much of a problem, but I still wasn't completely sure. I recently had an opportunity to conduct a little experiment and was pretty suprised at the resiliency of the "old" primers....
I had picked up some OLD Winchester primed cases (caliber 44-40) in the old yellow box that says "Winchester - Western". I am 36 years old and I am fairly certain that these are older than I am. The box was in good shape and appeared to be factory mint (not reloaded or messed with), especially the way that the cartridges are stacked in the box (similar to shotgun shells, alternating base/mouth/base/mouth....
So, I thought to myself, "what are the chances that these will all still fire?" Now, I don't have a 44-40, but I did manage to put them into my 460 S&W. All of them fired. For good measure, I kept back 10 of them to experiement further.
Five of the extras were soaked in warm water with a generous amount of dish soap for 48 hours. Then, I dried them out on the counter for a couple of days and THEY ALL FIRED TOO! (mind you these are unloaded cases, so the water was all over the unsealed side of the primer)
The last five were also immeresed in soapy water for 48 hours, but the water was in my HF ultrasonic cleaner. I figured the ultrasonic action would help to accelerate the aging process and mimic having them in wet conditions for considerably longer time. Again, ALL OF THEM FIRED.
Surprised? I certainly was.
Your .02?
I had picked up some OLD Winchester primed cases (caliber 44-40) in the old yellow box that says "Winchester - Western". I am 36 years old and I am fairly certain that these are older than I am. The box was in good shape and appeared to be factory mint (not reloaded or messed with), especially the way that the cartridges are stacked in the box (similar to shotgun shells, alternating base/mouth/base/mouth....
So, I thought to myself, "what are the chances that these will all still fire?" Now, I don't have a 44-40, but I did manage to put them into my 460 S&W. All of them fired. For good measure, I kept back 10 of them to experiement further.
Five of the extras were soaked in warm water with a generous amount of dish soap for 48 hours. Then, I dried them out on the counter for a couple of days and THEY ALL FIRED TOO! (mind you these are unloaded cases, so the water was all over the unsealed side of the primer)
The last five were also immeresed in soapy water for 48 hours, but the water was in my HF ultrasonic cleaner. I figured the ultrasonic action would help to accelerate the aging process and mimic having them in wet conditions for considerably longer time. Again, ALL OF THEM FIRED.
Surprised? I certainly was.
Your .02?