Breaking out some old stock...

waco

Springfield, Oregon
Let’s see if these still go bang.
 

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fiver

Well-Known Member
no problems.
I still have a few rounds loaded with domed primers that come in little wooden trays, and a few more boxes of them in the cabinet [the barely legible tag on them says 19 or 29 cents]
every one of them has done what they are supposed to do.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
The last time I tried some of the corrosive Frankfort Arsenal large rifle primers from the 1950's, they went "bang". With any kind of decent storage, they will last at least a 100 years. When I was haunting yard sales, I would buy everything less than a dollar in reloading stuff.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
no problems.
I still have a few rounds loaded with domed primers that come in little wooden trays, and a few more boxes of them in the cabinet [the barely legible tag on them says 19 or 29 cents]
every one of them has done what they are supposed to do.
I was going to add same. I have a quantity of Winchester stayless that are domed. Probably 1950's. They work just fine for me. But its determinant in how where they have been stored. I have a brick or three of those green CCI's myself! Hahaha
Good luck!
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
last go round I tried my best to burn up all the old stuff I had kicking around, I didn't make it, but it cleared off enough room to put new stuff in it's place when everything settled down.
I'm pretty well into the 90's on a few things, and clear into the post 2010 type stuff mostly now.
 

Rushcreek

Well-Known Member
Primers have to be older than me before I consider them old....
I used up my wood tray Western primers with 100% success and am still working on my white box Remington 9-1/2Ms that I got in 1974( I was 14 then and got several thousand standard and magnum- the standards were gone within a year or two). No duds yet!
 

Qc Pistolero

New Member
My uncle(was more a brother to me)and I started reloading in the mid '70s.While I started shooting on a regular basis,he was a hunter and shot only a few rounds per year.When he passed away a couple years ago,I got all his reloading stuff.The primers(aprox 300)were CCI LR and all went bang without me seeing any difference in accuracy with current manufactured primers.
Now,when I see some for sale at a good price,I don't look at how old they are.If the price is good,I buy!
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Much of it depends on how they have been stored. If they have been stored in a hot humid garage for example the results could be different.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
I still have a couple packs of primers from the mid 20th century laying around. Also have several dozen rounds of ammo loaded by my father in the '40s and '50s. Have no reason to doubt their reliability.
 

Rick H

Well-Known Member
I finished up a batch of Alcan small pistol primers that I purchased in 1977 about a year ago. They functioned just fine. They were in the old small card packages of 100, with slots for the primers that take up about a third of the room of modern packaging. They were stored in a plastic container in my often humid basement for over 40 years.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I have always stored my primers out in the garage. No special caretaking to keep them airtight. Living here in the Pacific Northwest we get more than our fair share of rain and I have never had an issue. So far…
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
I was given a few thousand CCI primers to, "dispose of" after some flooding. The paper packages were stuck together after they dried. I think the sewer backed up in basements following a wind driven flood water from the Bay of Green Bay. Oh well, I wasn't going to throw them away. I tore the paper apart wearing rubber gloves and put the primers in empty trays laying around in my debris field of a loading area. They all, absolutely every one of them worked just fine. Not the manufacturers recommended storage regimen.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Water, per se, has no effect on primers. Since I don't sweat MEK or acetone, I pick them up with my fingers. However, I can confirm that 125* plus temperatures will give you some hang/misfires after about 10 years. Primers are now stored in their original cartons on the cement floor of the shop.