What to have fun doing w/ used primers?

G

Grey_Lion

New member
I've saved primers for years now - just routine to put them in a tub under my bench. ( see attached )

Have been considering what to do with them for a long time now.

It is possible to retool primers for re-use - remove the anvil, reshape the cup, put in a cap gun paper charge cut to size or two, replace the anvil - but I don't plan on doing that sort of thing ANY time soon.

A safety consideration is that primers are your largest single source in reloading of truly dangerous lead contamination - so there's that.

Then you have the mix of alloys - some brass - some chromed - different materials for the anvil itself - and different charge formulas - so to melt them down and cast the material into something else isn't a good idea, really.

I tried a time or two using spent primers as part of a dry tumble mix, but that never worked out well.

Is anyone out there doing anything useful with spent primers?
 

Attachments

  • gallon-o-primers.jpg
    gallon-o-primers.jpg
    205.8 KB · Views: 87
M

Marco Califo

New member
They are toxic. They go in the trash. If I have a jar or plastic tub I put them inside a plastic bag and a container and they go to the landfill.
 
A

archangel2003

New member
I save them by size and type, so a pill bottle for each of the 4 types.
There are several videos out there for rebuilding primers and if a SHTF were to be real and long lasting, a lack of primers and powder are the major immediate stumbling blocks for reloading.
Eventually brass will get worn out and that's not easy to fabricate at home.
Black powder from all natural materials is a possibility but what can we do about a priming compound other than reusing the tips off of strike anywhere matches?
 
R

reynolds357

New member
archangel2003 said:
I save them by size and type, so a pill bottle for each of the 4 types.
There are several videos out there for rebuilding primers and if a SHTF were to be real and long lasting, a lack of primers and powder are the major immediate stumbling blocks for reloading.
Eventually brass will get worn out and that's not easy to fabricate at home.
Black powder from all natural materials is a possibility but what can we do about a priming compound other than reusing the tips off of strike anywhere matches?
Click to expand...
Keep about 20,000 on hand and If the "SHTF" worse than what I can handle with that amount of primers, I will surrender.
 
D

Dufus

New member
They are toxic. They go in the trash. If I have a jar or plastic tub I put them inside a plastic bag and a container and they go to the landfill.
Click to expand...

Well, if they are toxic, they should not go to a landfill. Proper disposal is foremost in the EPA's mind. Improper disposal costs lots of money if one gets caught doing it.
 
G

Grey_Lion

New member
TruthTellers said:
Given they are made of soft metal, they could be used as projectiles in shotguns.
Click to expand...

I had thought of taking out the anvils, flattening them into a disk and then cutting them into pie shapes as a sub-munition/frangible of sorts, but that's a lot of work to use up scrap, so I haven't yet tried it.

Another thought was to remove all the anvils and SS tumble the cups clean of charge residue - then melt them together into a sort of bronze alloy to machine into a knife handle or cast into belt buckles perhaps - again a TON of work to just reuse a pile of difficult scrap.
 
S

sparkyv

New member
Once in a blue moon they get sold to the metal scrap guys along with all the other scrap brass. Dropped off 45# in December, but that took a few years to accumulate.
 
U

USSR

New member
Once in a blue moon they get sold to the metal scrap guys along with all the other scrap brass.
Click to expand...

Yep, then take the money and buy more primers. This ain't rocket science.

Don
 
G

Geezerbiker

New member
I once considered making a punch to flatten out the dent and flare the sides slightly so a used large rifle primer could be used as a gas check for cast .224 bullets. I decided there were likely better options so I never went any further with it...

Tony
 
F

FrankenMauser

New member
I collect them is a separate container from my scrap brass, until there is enough to warrant a trip to the recycling center.
The last trip (with primarily brass cases and about a pound of keys) was worth about $65.
 
U

Unclenick

Staff
You can wet tumble them with citric acid (Lemishine) to chelate the lead and put it in solution so it is safe to flush down the drain. Then what do you do with them? Any of the above suggestions, I suppose. The only thing I've ever done with a decapped primer is I removed the anvil and used a drift punch to seat it backward into the primer pocket of a piece of brass I wanted to measure the case water overflow capacity of. After the measurement, it was decapped and went back in with the other spent primers.
 
C

Crankylove

New member
Co-worker used to load them in shot shells.

Said they don’t pattern worth a damn, but will really do a number on 2 liter bottles.

I throw mine in with my scrap brass. In a few more years I may have enough to turn in and make it worth while.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top