Two Dud Primers

RVTECH · Oct 7, 2013

When shooting my new Blackhawk yesterday I had two rounds that did not go boom. Repeated attempts only left me with two duds. I believe this particular 'run' of reloads has some old stock green & white box CCI primers from the early 70's I was given a while back. I have been using them but it was ironic two were FTF in my new gun and within a couple cylinder fulls of one another. Hopefully they will be the only two. It was just odd it happened with the new gun.

Rick4070 · Oct 7, 2013

Yep, those sound like pretty old primers to be in the green and white box.
I have a bunch of them too, along with a 1,000 sleeve of Herters primers, for Pete's sake....(Anyone out there remember Herters???
I also have several thousand other primers that I never got around to using, now I'm really hesitant about using them, especially the rifle ones, it is a lot easier to get a stuck bullet out of a handgun barrel, especially a cast one, than it is to get a copper jacketed one out of a rifle barrel....
So, the old ones sit on the shelf, while I use new primers...

Velzey · Oct 7, 2013

Oh yah I have several thousand of the old Herters primers. Every once and awhile I get a dud. I dont mind, I can deal with it.

Ive had duds with new ones also.

I found a box of100 old world war 1 era Remington corrosive large pistol primers. I loaded up all 100 of them and ran them thru my Colt 1911 full size that has a very worn barrel. Every singe round went off!
I found the box behind my grandpas reloading bench when I was cleaning it out. He built the bench on the 40's. I thought no was would they be any good. As for years it was very moist in the back room of his workshop.

tarster · Oct 7, 2013

Rick4070 said:
Yep, those sound like pretty old primers to be in the green and white box.
I have a bunch of them too, along with a 1,000 sleeve of Herters primers, for Pete's sake....(Anyone out there remember Herters???
I also have several thousand other primers that I never got around to using, now I'm really hesitant about using them, especially the rifle ones, it is a lot easier to get a stuck bullet out of a handgun barrel, especially a cast one, than it is to get a copper jacketed one out of a rifle barrel....
So, the old ones sit on the shelf, while I use new primers...

Herters is still out there, though I have not seen any primers by them, but cabelas sells herters and its just wolf renamed for sale by cabelas.

AMProducts · Oct 9, 2013

I've shot tons of old primers, plenty of remington "klean bore", the deciding factor is how they were stored, I bought a bunch a few years ago from an estate sale, cleaned out the whole "reloading pile" all of it was stored in ammo cans underneath a workbench in a garage that didn't get much sun due to trees. Never had a dud.

orygun · Oct 9, 2013

The one time I thought I had loaded a "dud" primer, it turns out I'd forgotten the powder...

I would pull the bullets and check.

Rick4070 · Oct 9, 2013

orygun said:
The one time I thought I had loaded a "dud" primer, it turns out I'd forgotten the powder...

I would pull the bullets and check.

Good point.

He could also weigh them, compared to ones that he KNOWS has powder in them...

But, probably not a bad idea to pull the bullets anyway...

ma96782 · Oct 10, 2013

Don't fret over it. It happens....and it's not only about storage or age, But of course, WE as reloaders, WE never make mistakes, right. IMHO, life is too short to worry over the little things.

Buy factory ammo for SD and use your reloads for fun. If you're still having problems.......maybe you beed a good gunsmith.

Aloha, Mark

Cameron72 · Oct 10, 2013

No problem for plinking.

RVTECH · Oct 10, 2013

Buy factory ammo for SD

No, I will just reload SD ammo with NEW primers. Also I will pull the duds to see if it was MY mistake or not!

Rick4070 · Oct 10, 2013

RVTECH said:
No, I will just reload SD ammo with NEW primers. Also I will pull the duds to see if it was MY mistake or not!

A guy once told me that one should always use factory loaded ammo for SD.
His reasoning was that IF you ever had to shoot somebody, it would not look too good when the DA asked you: "So, Mr, Smith, you used non-factory ammunition that you loaded yourself with bullets that caused more injury to the shootee than a factory bullet would?"

"Why would a factory load not be enough for you, and why did you use a Super Expanding Flying Ashtray, rather than what is available off the shelf?"

Just sayin', and it kind of made me think...

Of course, on the other hand, when the DA asks why you used handloads, you could always say that you felt that factory ammo was too powerful, so you loaded your SD ammo to a lower velocity....

RVTECH · Oct 10, 2013

A guy once told me that one should always use factory loaded ammo for SD.

Read that many times myself and quite frankly I don't think that far ahead. ALSO it is very common for me to go from OC to 'informal' shooting rather quickly and I would have to carry separate ammo for that.