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I've returned to shooting after a long layoff, so have been digging around my attic and back of my garage cabinets gathering up my reloading gear. I came across 25 never fired .44 Mag cases. These were primed over 20 years ago and have been lost in the garage since then. All were corroded to a certain extent, some so much that I will not ever shoot them.

On a whim, I tossed them into my vibratory case cleaner to see how much of the corrosion I could remove. After a couple hours in the corn cob it became apparent that none of these are salvageable. So, I need to ensure the primers are inert. So why not try to set them off, as the boys will love to make noise. So we loaded them up, pointed the muzzle in a safe direction and pressed the trigger.

All 25 fired with a nice loud report and a bit of flame exiting the 7.5 inch Redhawk barrel! So 23 years in the damp and heat left in an unsealed box. Case ruining corrosion and a couple of hours in a case cleaner did not dampen these primers one bit. We fired a couple of new ones for comparison. The sound and spit of flame out the barrel were pretty much identical.

I'm not sure what this info is worth, but I found it interesting so I decided to pass the tale along.
 
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I'm not surprised. I've been through the CCI plant in ID and watched how they build them. The final step is a drop of sealant. I'm sure others do the same.
 
Several years ago I was driving along a road in the woods near my house and saw something that looked out of place off the side. SO I stopped and discovered what was a pile of .45 ACP brass primed. Now these were very old cases and several had '17' & '18' on the headstamps and many had a copper color to them as opposed to brass. I don't know how long they had been outside but several were already starting to corrode away at the rim and had holes. Like you I dried them and threw them in the tumbler with the intent of seeing if they would go off and, well, not many did and those that did were weak but they did go pop!
 
I've returned to shooting after a long layoff, so have been digging around my attic and back of my garage cabinets gathering up my reloading gear. I came across 25 never fired .44 Mag cases. These were primed over 20 years ago and have been lost in the garage since then. All were corroded to a certain extent, some so much that I will not ever shoot them.

On a whim, I tossed them into my vibratory case cleaner to see how much of the corrosion I could remove. After a couple hours in the corn cob it became apparent that none of these are salvageable. So, I need to ensure the primers are inert. So why not try to set them off, as the boys will love to make noise. So we loaded them up, pointed the muzzle in a safe direction and pressed the trigger.

All 25 fired with a nice loud report and a bit of flame exiting the 7.5 inch Redhawk barrel! So 23 years in the damp and heat left in an unsealed box. Case ruining corrosion and a couple of hours in a case cleaner did not dampen these primers one bit. We fired a couple of new ones for comparison. The sound and spit of flame out the barrel were pretty much identical.

I'm not sure what this info is worth, but I found it interesting so I decided tp pass the tale along.

It would have been more fun if you pressed the cases into a bar of wax or soap.
 
Thanks for sharing. I know they say primers aren't as fragile as many would believe. I guess these reports solidify that!
 
My recommendations came from the Staff at the CCI plant. And, I've used them several times and strange as it may seem they have worked every time. :):):)
 
This is good info, I have always been cautious about priming cases too far ahead of time, now I won't worry about it so much
I usually store preprimed cases in USGI ammo cans and never had a problem. I have no idea why this small batch of cases were not treated in the same way. o_O
 
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I store mine in ziploc bags, inside clear totes, I can label things and see them that way. Unprimed brass is the same.
That seems to be more than adequate according to what we have seen here. Clear totes are so great, seeing the contents rather than having to open each box is a real convenience.
 

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