Thread: Decapping unfired primers

Hahaha no i havnt seated them backwards just have some rounds made for old rifle i want to strip and start fresh with as i dont know what primers were used (had a guy make them for me)

Cheerz guys will do slow and steady

For the price of a primer and a case, I throw them. Loosing a finger or an eye is not worth it. I believe a squirt of CRC in the primer will render it dead, so if you have to de-prime a live one, kill it first.

Been there done that, don't work the best killer of primers is plain old water put a little in the case leave it a couple of days fire one in gun to see if dead if not a couple more days should do it

Originally Posted by llewelyn

Hahaha no i havnt seated them backwards just have some rounds made for old rifle i want to strip and start fresh with as i dont know what primers were used (had a guy make them for me)

Cheerz guys will do slow and steady

The only reason to reprime them would surely be pistol primers accidentally in rifle cases, magnum or br ones would still make them useable.

Nope @Marty Henry my loads will be hot and want all factors to be the same, not just a primer that's in the case is good enough

Another reason to de-prime is for split case necks in a batch of reloads occurs, stop shooting, remaining cases can be saved by stripping down the round and then annealing them.
Never had primer go off, use safety glasses.
If you are really keen to know how loud primer can be and how much force required to set off, set up experiment, safety glasses, ear plugs, hammer, hard surface and a barrier between you and a SINGLE primer only, can put arm around the side to strike it. pretty uneventful really, all bang - no felt force or blown up bits. You will be surprised by how much force you need, think about it, have you ever dropped/knocked/bumped a live round and it has gone off? or even in your mag as you shoot the other rounds?

I was loading some 577/450 the other night, I put the primer on a piece of hardwood, position the primer pocket, bit of dowel in the shell and hit with hammer. Had the only one every go bang. Nice thing was the speed my wife arrived from up stairs to see if I was alright, of course she could have been in a rush to see if I was dead, but Ill believe the former!! Interesting thing it was just a bang, no firing the dowel upwards, I continued doing more with problem!!

I just get the Midget to do mine.

Thanks all

Llewelyn,

I have deprimed (just using the resizing die) probably hundreds of cases, and reused the primers. This can be done without issue or any special care, and I have never had a misfire with any of them either. Think nothing of it.

Whenever I sell a rifle I cannabalise the remaining ammo and reuse the powder and primers. I am as thrifty as the old elephant hunter who only had one bullet, and he used to dig through the elephant afterwards to get his bullet back and roll it between two boards until it was straight enough to reload again.

Whenever I sell a rifle I cannabalise the remaining ammo and reuse the powder and primers. I am as thrifty as the old elephant hunter who only had one bullet, and he used to dig through the elephant afterwards to get his bullet back and roll it between two boards until it was straight enough to reload again.[/QUOTE]

So you know my uncle then

Had a misunderstanding whether some cases had been neck sized or not so had to pop out 30 primers the other day.



No problems encountered.



I did chuck the primers away after (wet paper towel in a plastic bag).

I pop the unfired primers out if I am changing a load and have had no problems at all. I do keep the old primers separate and use them for load development, but in saying that they all seem to be OK.