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Hi all, I've brought a handful of cases to reload but they look like they've been sitting for a while, gone all dark and some tarnishing inside the neck, I want to put them in my tumbler and resize them but they have been primed, is it safe to decap them?
ive done it and havnt had any go off wear ear muffs and glasses
Cool thanks thought it be ok with care but easier to ask lol
Just do it ... slowly.
I'd not do it with a hammer and Lee loader.
Haha yep I certainly won't be rushingQuote:
Originally Posted by Cordite
Greetings,
Have done it with the Lee Loader punch and base but applied the force with a vice rather than a hammer.
Grandpamac.
When I had to remove live primers in the past, I filled the cases with water to kill the primer, then tip the water out and decap them as per usual.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiwiman
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I was wondering about the same issue the other day. I like the water trick. Could you not just shoot them in the chamber with no powder/projectile then decap?
@Mauser308 covers it very well including reseating them.
I always wear safety glasses when priming at any rate.
I have decapping my fair share of live primers, usually due to some cock up.
I don't normally reuse them but have done on occassion and used the loaded rounds for fouling rounds prior to group shooting.
Velocity and ES always appeared normal with them.
I wouldn't reuse them though to load my premium stuff.
As others have said, wear at least safety glasses for piece of mind and just decap them as you normally would without banging down the press arm. No over thinking or mucking around with pointless steps required. It works, go for it.
hadnt had any issue but you could always put your cases under water for an hour before decapping, dont forget eye and ear protection though
That’s what I did when I had quite a few. Fired the primed case, suppressor on, into an old gumboot. Flames will come out the end of the barrel so watch where you point it or you will have scorched carpet!Quote:
Originally Posted by G.I_Joel
Have soaked primers in water overnight and tried them next morning. You would be surprised how "healthy" they still are. May not be typical of all brands.
Light oil is supposedly the primer killer. I just treat them as still good to go no matter what.
Ha ha yes the sealant in them makes a mockery of the oft published warning (repeated forever on forums) about handling primers as skin oils will contaminate the primers and kill them.
I think cartridge collectors sometimes use the penetrating oil method if there's something about the primer they want to keep intact when sectioning them. It does work, but when you can just fire them it's easier to do that. Take them to the range next time and fire them off before you get down to the shooting to get yourself in the groove. Or let a mate shoot them in then make fun of him when he can't hit anything ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mauser308
be carefull firing into towels etc walk away and think nothing of it you could well end up with a fire its happend to me before luck i was there at the timeQuote:
Originally Posted by Mauser308
mmm moist.
Occasionally I've have had to decap a live primer.
Gentle steady pressure to push out the live primer has always worked for me.
If the reason was because the primer was in backwards I have been know to reload the primer the correct way round and carry on.
Best thing I found is use the primed cases for dry fire practice at the range.
I used to just decap them and never had any issues but ive decided not to risk it anymore. Its nothing to just go pop them off at a farm, but you gotta ask yourself what your priming gear is worth. Its possible to damage it so for me its trying to save say $10 worth of primers and end up needing to replace a $250 autoprimer. Maybe a priceless eyeball perhaps.
Forty odd years ago I was curious as to how much power a LR primer has. After FL resizing and priming a
22-250 case I seated a 55 grain jacketed projectile with no powder at all. Aiming at the ground out in the paddock I fired the round and was amazed that the projectile lodged about 18" up the 24" barrel. Having a suitable brass rod I tapped the projectile out the muzzle of the rifle. Anyone that has slugged a barrel even with a cast lead projectile knows it takes a lot of energy to start the projectile into the lands.
The above info has been enough for me to decide never to try and decap live primers. If it goes wrong all that energy has to go somewhere and it will either send the primer out of the primer pocket at great speed or send the decapping rod out the top of what ever is holding it. IMO chambering the primed cases and firing them seems like a much safer option.
And just for those that aren't careful enough and put a primer in upside down, and even worse take it to the range and attempt to fire it, I was present when this happened.
The round didn't go off but there was a muted pop. Bolt could not be opened. Trip to gunsmith who removed barrel as part of the repair. Primer had blow the extractor claw out of its position which was the cause of the bolt being unable to be opened. Extractor muted.
Another one many years ago, same muffled bang and trouble opening bolt although barrel didn't need removing. Extractor blown off. Cause - no flash hole in the catridge case. IIRC the case was very hard to remove from the chamber.
Also aware of many occurrences of "dry balling" ie no powder. Muted pop, projectile driven fwd. Sometimes easy to tap out other times further up the barrel as in the case of @Tech