Thread: Nothing wrong with old primers

Originally Posted by johnd

Did some load development for a new club member at our fullbore club. All that was available were some old white packet Winchester LRP's. Made for "standard or magnum loads ". Got to be 35yrs old at least, generously at $5 a sleeve. With the proviso that they might not all go bang.

Hit the magic 3000fps with a155 grain HBC (3001fps to be precise) an extreme spread of 10 fps and standard deviation of 4 fps. Chrono was a Lab radar 5 shot group.
A slightly higher load was

3019 fps
ES 14 fps
SD 6.4 fps

So absolutely nothing wrong with old primers.

I agree. I’m on the white box ones myself and am then changing over to ADI berdan primers using L2a2 berdan brass. I think it’s 70s vintage. On the .303 front I’ve started to use the shortage as an excuse to start loading more berdan cac mk 7 brass using kynock primers (ex cac factory).

Ya gota save the modern ones for when they hit the same price as gold!!
The nice thing about the newer blue box Winnie’s is that you can spot them easy via the brass finish
I have one box of the crook ones but have had no gas cutting to date.

Originally Posted by omark

On the .303 front I’ve started to use the shortage as an excuse to start loading more berdan cac mk 7 brass using kynock primers (ex cac factory).

Here's a man after my own heart, been doing this for some years now, a lot of fun & the CAC Mk 7 is good brass once its annealed. How do you get the fired primers out. I've been using a pick I made from a concrete nail like Ramset guns fire through timber into concrete. It works Ok.

Originally Posted by shananah

Here's a man after my own heart, been doing this for some years now, a lot of fun & the CAC Mk 7 is good brass once its annealed. How do you get the fired primers out. I've been using a pick I made from a concrete nail like Ramset guns fire through timber into concrete. It works Ok.

I’ve tried lots of methods including the rcbs tool (painfully tedious) so I use a hydraulic decapper and hammer. Most have a sealant around the primer which makes them hard to move but a candle will soften them. I then ream the crimp off using a case deburring tool which i flattened the nose on, size, Anneal and prime using a ram prime with a larger stem.

It’s amazing how much if it’s still around. A while ago I got given a small batch that was dated 1917. I’ve only had one split so far.

The stuff comes up like new.