I've done this multiple times on my over 40 years of handloading. In pistol, rifle, and shotgun ammo. Yes, wear eye protection, which you should already have on. And, yes, slow is good.
This is actually an R&R, remove and reinstall. To reuse them is to take a primer that has been set off, fix the firing pin mark, add new chemicals, and reinstall the anvil. Then you reinstall it and fire it again. That's reusing a primer.
How about this for reusing primers. An old gentleman who taught me how to reload, used to reload primers. In South Africa in the 1960's, reloading was just getting started, so components were hard to find. He would remove the anvil and use a punch to flatten the firing pin indentation. He would then use a small hole punch to carefully punch out the compound from a toy cap gun's roll, insert it into the cup, and replace the anvil. He told me he did not have many misfires. I have on a number of occasions removed live primers VERY SLOWLY and reseated them without mishap or misfires. Use a die which does not touch the case body.
@@TuttleScott There's at least one video I've watched in the past where someone did just that about 15 years ago. Search for Ammosmith - Making Primers Part 1 and 2. Great channel, sadly he has not uploaded anything for years now.
Caleb, thank you to keep Steve onboard. Steve, thank you to stay onboard. I've done it many, many times. Slowly and carefully as you said, no booms and reuse them all.
Gents, I would like to pose a challenge to you, if you are willing. Can you document 1 case of a live primer ever exploding when being pushed from a case? Honestly, I've done this a couple hundred times with no boom. I will state that I only do this with cases that I primed, so I know they are not crimped. Thanks!
Done it with no issues. It takes impact to set them off. Sketchy but worth it. It's also possible to reload primers. The compound is water based and not very dangerous to work with. The nitro cellulose lacquer to seal it is the hardest part
Back when primers were plentiful and $30 for 1000, I’d soak the cartridges like Steve said, then toss them. Now, if you can even find them, they are north of $80 per 1000, so absolutely….I carefully push them out and save them. And yes…I also have reloaded/recharged them. It’s friggin TEDIOUS and about 70% successful, but if there are no primers to be found, this is acceptable for plinking. A side benefit of 30% failure is practicing malfunction clearing in your training sessions.
I find it funny, that it's fine for people to reload their own brass, using tools made for the job, but reloading primers is seen as being too way out there 🤣
Yep, I agree with what Caleb said. I’ve done it to a limited extent, but wouldn’t want to do a lot. Mostly what happens is, I pull the bullet and dump the powder, then keep the primed case for another time.
Remember dad talking about rearming shotgun primers back in the day 1960s,,,taking the active explosive center out of a shotgun primer cup and replacing with a new one……he had a special tool for doing this…..
I'm glad that you gave an honest answer. An honest answer is one that is given without letting the CYA factor overtake the answer. Reloaders are generally skimpers anyway so I actually would be surprised if there are many seasoned reloaders who have not done this. Especially given the price and availability of primers going up every time there's anything remotely political going on in the world. It is really hard to waste a primer when that's always in the back of your mind. And as Caleb said, if you do happen to ignite the primer in the process, as long as you do not have any powder or explosives around you, you will be okay (except for the soiled underwear).
I've definitely been guilty of this a few times. Got my brass all annealed, sized, trimmed, cleaned up. And as im rocking away and making up some ammo, *CRUNCH!* Damn. Accidentally had the powder-thru die just off center, or the brass not fully seated in the shellholder. Spin over to the universal depriming die, *GENTLY* press the mangled casing into it, and pop out the good primer to be seated in another. You have to strike them surprisingly hard to set off. They're much more resilient than people give them credit.
I have reused primers as discussed - mostly pistol cartridges. Federal primers have dried gel primer compound that breaks up after getting punched out of the brass. Once that priming compound cracks, it starts coming out of the priming cup and becomes unreliable if reused. The W-W and CCI primers had different type of priming compound that was more forgiving when “reused.” in my experience
Yup, I’ve done it with hand loads that were leftover after doing pressure build-ups. Safety glasses and slow decapping and it went fine. They all fired fine when I used those primers a couple months later, too.
I thought this was about reloading spent primers, which Ive been doing for three years now. Not terribly hard, 1-remove anvil 2-clean cups ( steel pins and rotary tumbler work well) 3- remove indent with brass punch and mallet, 4-resize cup if necessary- it will be necessary with SRs, 5 reload with your favorite primer compound ( I prefer FA-70 or Dynamit Nobel's SINOXID), 6 reseat anvil or just center in the cup when case priming. If your recipe is good most failures are mechanical and it's best to keep anvil and cup types matched if possible. Most FTFs will be related to insufficient crush depth. Oh, I am a chemist- that has helped. Reliability has been 98-99% so far, still learning
I have recovered primers from damaged cases that slipped by initial inspections. I decapped some Starline brass that I had put large rifle primers into but after a few test loads decided to replace them with large rifle magnum primers. The removed primers from the tight pockets of the new starline brass came out dented outward from the decap pin but reseating them in some 30-30 brass flattened back in shape and they worked fine...maybe a tad loose but they stayed in and worked as expected. I'd like to caution the use of water to deactivate live primers. I had 2 trays of small pistol primers get flooded out. I accidently dropped them into a drip pan from my furnace. They were there more than ten minutes before I found them. I took them out of their trays and let them sit open side up in a flip tray for a few days and almost every one of them worked when reloaded. If you add your spent primers to your scrap brass pile for recycling take the time to smash damaged live primers with a hammer. They will detonate in the scrap recovery process and could cause a fire or injure workers.
Yep have had to do with cases that I realized were damaged after priming my fault for not inspecting better. And have had to with cases I could not get primers to seat below flush. And had to press out and uniform primer pockets. But thankfully it's been small amounts. Good topic for sure
The only malfunction I ever had with an AR was caused by a popped primer from AAC ammo. A primer popped out during shooting and unbeknowst to me fell into the cam track on the BCG. Next shot nothing trigger didnt reset. Tried to pull the charging handle and it wouldnt move. I had an empty fired case in the chamber. Everything was stuck. Took the rifle home and had to beat the BCG out with a cleaning rod through the barrel. In the cam track was a smashed primer.
Definitely. Done it many times. Ive also reloaded em with various compounds. Neither are hard with common sense, alittle research, and some basic safety considerations.
I’ve done this a handful of times and no issues, of course inspect the anvil that you haven’t disturbed it. But yes it does work and yes this is only if you have to. If they were hard to seat then they are going to get torn up removing them, if they go in smooth then they will come out smooth. Remember, case prep is key. And yes you can reload primers, there’s a product you can purchase and make the primer compound. It’s loading the cup and resetting the anvil is the tricky part. You can even reload primers with cap gun powder, it’s a little volatile and should only work with small amounts but again can be done. I’ve loaded a few hundred 9mm this way when primers couldn’t be found. Makes for a little extra smoke at discharge but I can say it definitely works. Every one I loaded fired.
Plenty of videos circulating on how to reload or recharge used primers. Just remember that most of these methods result in corrosive residue that should be cleaned immediately after firing.
Nothing wrong with a corrosive binary primer as long as you clean the bore and bolt face with a water based detergent, but I do prefer SINOXID, lead free and non- corrosive.
Depends on how the primer looks. Sometimes something goes wrong and the primer and the primer slightly deformd and i pull the primer and set them off to the side. I had built a rifle and grabbed one of these primers and put it in a case without powder just to test the rifle, pulled the charging handle and let it go and it went bang. Took me a really long to time to figure out this was a pulled primer and even though it looked fine it clearly wasnt. It was a muran 5.56 primer which tend to be harder than any other 5.56 specific primer so i was in shock at the slam fire. Was scared because i always thought shock is shock who cares what the shape looks like but ya it does make a difference. Decided to never use them in live ammo and now go out of my way to point the barrel away from myself so i dont get shrapnel in my shins just in case.
When primers were extremely hard to get I did deprime some .223 cases without crimps to use in some other rounds but I went at it very gently and certainly wore eye and ear protection in case I popped one off. I successfully got them all out but it is not something I recommend and would not do again as long as I have more unused primers on the shelf.
Sometimes you just get non-conforming hand reloads. The bullet doesn't seat concentrically, you over seat it, something went wrong and the case deformed... etc... The primer is still good and there's no sense tossing it. Set such rounds aside for later disassembly. Start by removing the bullet, carefully remove all powder, and then you can proceed to slowly decap the unused primer. Save them to do in a batch. You should be wearing eye and ear protection just in case. Keep everything away from the press, and all powder bottles closed tight, so there's no chance of a spark doing anything if the worst should happen. Bullets get dropped all the time and don't go off, even when landing square on the primer. Primers aren't feather sensitive. Just go slow and be deliberate, and you'll be fine.
I have successfully done that in a case by case basis. In fact right now I have batch of 50 rounds that the bullet does not like the chamber. So I am stuck with them. I did think about reusing them. I did a few, but after seeing the amount of oil on then I decided not to to reuse them.
When I was a kid I would pull the lead from a .22 round, dump the powder, then hit the back of the case with a hammer to set it off. Long time ago. Long, long time ago! But thanks for the memory!
Yeah, I've removed and reinstalled primers on occasion. Not recommended, but not to be totally avoided. Primers are designed to work with a quick strike that produces compression of the compound, which produces enough heat to make it go boom. Those of us who reload with progressive presses have experienced the occasional, going in sideways, primer when we forget to adjust that setting. Gently press them out. I use a pair of diagonal pliers to activate the primer before disposing. Sure, I could throw it into water but what's the fun in that. Definite eye and ear protection required, mostly eye protection. Using the pliers gives you a feel for how much pressure and how fast it needs to be applied to ignite the primer. It's more than most think. For the obvious reasons of liability, DO NOT DO THIS.
I have screwed up bad enough on the reloading bench that, I have had to knock out live primers. Clean your decapping die and go slow. Not my favorite mistake to make, but doable.
I did this once in a 9mm and in that batch I had my one and only dud I've ever had with my reloads. Sadly I didn't mark it to keep track of it so I really don't know if that one dud was the one I swapped. 🤷♂️
Been there done that, especially in bullets I've bought or was given that someone else loaded, not trusting the loads, I pull bullets, powder and primers and redo. Typical turning the powder into fertilizer, unless I'm certain what the powder is. Appropriate Safety taken all the time!
Question is, how reliable is a primer that's already had its mixture thinned and crushed by the decapping pin against the anvil? I sure as heck wouldn't want a trophy buck or a defensive use depending on a "used" primer!
I thought the way you were going was if there was a primer/reloading supply shortage, like 2009, you could take the used primers off spent brass, use a solvent to extract the primer and maybe make it work in a grid down situation?
I have heard of actually reusing rimfire and percussion cap primers. They used strike anywhere matches, cut the tips off and used that white striker stuff, mixed with rubbing alcohol to form a dough and pushed a small amount into either the case rim or percussion cup. To me that is “reusing primers” more so than just taking live primers and putting them in another case. I have reused live primers a time or two, just dont be stupid and have powder open nearby. None went off.
I’ve decapped lots of live primers and loaded them in different cases over many many years of reloading with ZERO problems. I’ve never had one go off when decapping and they all went bang when reloaded. It’s a non issue to me.
I’ve done it several times with no explosion and put it in another case and did fire several rounds but make sure you get all of the powder out before you de prime and be very slow in doing it
The "old concerns" in regards to this are: cracking the primer pellet and changing its output in some way; changing the anvil location in some negative way. Because you can, you should. Experiment and tuck knowledge away. You never know when you might need to use helpful knowledge.
That’s an interesting take on the matter but you certainly don’t hear me arguing with the notion! My grandfather was a Depression Era blacksmith and well driller in the heart of Dust Bowl New Mexico. He had two theories that he shared with me that stuck. 1.) If anyone has ever done it before and you have all of the original pieces, it can be done again. 2.) You measure a man’s wealth by the size of the junk pile in his backyard, the collection of tools that he has to work with that junk pile and the amount of knowledge that he’s willing to gain from simply giving a job his best shot! God gave us brains and being willing to fail equates to being willing to learn. It’s not a failure if you learn from it!
You'll need a bullet puller tool to pull the bullet and empty the powder. Next, You can use a dropper and put one drop of 90% rubbing alcohol on the inside primer hole of the cartridge. Then take a de-priming dye along with a single stage press or a hand press and deprime it. Once de-primed, set it aside until the rubbing alcohol drys up and then re-prime it.
It's not as unusual as you think and it's been looked into quite a bit by certain people, no worse than those that make and use their own BP. I do agree it's probably something you should do only in desperation, like .22RF repriming, but it is do able all the same.
Punching out an unspent primer can be done, You MUST use a slow, steady pressure VERY carefully. There have been times when loading the bullet doesn't go exactly as planned and for some reason the shell case is lost. Primers are Expensive in many places and difficult to get.
I just empty out the powder, resize the cases (without the primer punch), and save the primed cases for the next time I load that caliber. The only time(s) I can remember having to punch out a primer is when I damaged (crushed) the case during bullet seating and couldn't/wouldn't run the case through the sizing die.
20 years ago I used to get rounds the automatic reloading machine accidentally loaded backwards. Upside down primers and bullets. I’d pull the bullets using an RCBS kinetic bullet puller and occasionally deprime a live primer using my Dillon Square Deal B press. No primers ever went off. Probably deprimed 100 cases that the reloading company guy would bring me for free.
For people who want to know about re-using detonated primers; it IS possible. This is how the people 3D printing guns in countries where they can't buy ammo are getting primers for reloading, and it's probably been done long before that Basically, you take the anvil out and use a punch to flatten out the firing pin divot, then you put new priming compound in it (usually harvested from nailgun blanks) and replace the anvil. Obviously, this isn't a very safe process and is far more tedious than it's worth, but people in places like Myanmar don't care
Even at $0.08 per primer, is it worth the risk? I am sure some genius has done this in a progressive press with the powder hopper full. Use the largest depriming pin you have, that way you distribute more of the force across more of the anvil's suface. I guess this is another advantage of Berdan-primed cases.
I’ve probably knocked out 50+ live primers in my reloading career. Haven’t set one off yet, and I’m not terribly scared if I do. It’s just a primer, wear safety glasses
Keep all hazardous materials away when dealing with primers. As long as you wear safety glasses and keep your hands away one going off won't do much. This day and age every primer must be saved.
Hello Caleb and Steve. Recently I viewed a video of yall's about oils and lubes which are good for use on firearms. From the time when I was just a pup, my Grandparents kept 3 in One oil on hand. Granny used it on her foot operated sewing machine and Grandpa used it on his .22 rifle he used at hog killing time and squirrel and "possum" hunting, and basically on anything that had moving parts. In your video I mentioned you stated WD 40 was not recommended for firearms because there was no rust preventative in it. So, I'm wondering you men's professional opinion on using 3 in One oil on a firearm. Thanks!
Well some how i ended up with one of my 40cal casings that i primed that didn't get sized so i just threw it in a cup of water for about over an hour then took it out and sized it. I just can't see pushing the depriming pin on a live primer guess i was just tought safty over and over.
Interesting, but not planning to try it. I have had a few primed cases left on a shelf for a decade or two, then added powder & bullets and fired them just fine.
Better question can you reload the primer itself as in remove used primer remove anvil re flatten inside of primer clean put a new priming compound in it put the anvil back in and reload the bullet with reloaded primer
It's not the same thing as hitting the face of the primer. You are pressing the anvil against the bottom of the cup. The firing pin compresses the priming compound between the point of the anvil and the pin indent.
Be very careful with that water soaking thing , i have a small machine shop , couple years ago a customer wanter me to cut the caseheads off some 30-06 unfired cases about 6mm up from the base for an art project. , he said these have been soaked in water for a few days , so their dead , but he-was wrong ! When i went to remove one of the cases from the lathe the primer went off , went into my right hand just above my thumb , had to be cut out, I did cut the rest of-them later, 60 altogether, but i ran the coolant on the lathe and had no more problems.
If you push a live primer out of a case by using a die's decapping pin, the anvil will likely deform meaning you run the risk of it being a dud when called upon to perform. That, of course, means you should NEVER use them in ammo intended for any setious application, such as self-defense!
Hello Caleb and Steve. Great video, per usual! Caleb, I know I've seen and heard you state there's no situation in which you'd use Lok - Tite on an AR, but i wanted to ask your "permission" to utilize it in my unique situation. I'd like to apply a bit of purple Lok - Tite to the two thumb screws attaching my carry handle to my AR15. Also, would you allow me to place a touch of it to the threads of the stud before installing and tightening of the thumb screw on the picatinny rail accessory for mounting a red dot or scope on top of the carry handle? There's one last place I'd like to use it with your blessing, of course. This would be on the two set screws securing the red dot to the aforementioned picatinny rail section. Your expertise and advice would be greatly appreciated on this matter. Thanks Caleb!
Thanks a million for your answer so quickly! By the way, if anyone is looking for an excellent rifle - gun case, I recently purchased the Savior 'American Classic" 42" model from Brownell's, at an excellent price. I've found it to be just what I needed! There's plenty of room for my AR carbine, with room for my future 20" rifle length AR, loaded mags, a Glock, my wife's Ruger .380, plenty of ammo, range tools I may find useful, targets, and tape for attaching targets to discarded cardboard boxes. All this in one easily carried package! Keep up the great work, Brownells! @@brownells
I knew an older gentleman that lost a couple of fingers due to mishandling primers. he had the habit of picking up the primers in the pickup tube upside down,which meant he needed to pull the rubber tip off of the priming tube of his rock chucker auto prime off of the tube. well, he set off a primer doing this, which in turn set off the whole tube of primers. What was the cost of learning he lost his pinky and ring finger and part of his middle finger on his left hand. not worth the risk. handle primers correctly. Be Safe.
