Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

Wet then dried primers still useable?


Warhorse

Recommended Posts

OK, here's an odd one for you.

 

I have well over a hundred primed .34 spl casings that got wet over 10 years ago when a dishwasher hose above where they were kept broke. The primed cases did get wet but were not fully submerged. I removed all water a few days later.

 

I have kept them but could not gather the nerve to reload and try to use them or work up the resolve to discard them. Neither can I work up the ambition to try firing the primed-only casings to test them. (Yeah, I know that is the simple solution but I'm lazy.)

 

What I do not know is if the unfired primers contain water soluble chemicals that would neutralize the primers if wet.

 

Does anyone have any practical experience with this situation or know something about the chemical composition of the primers that could shed some light on the subject?

 

 

Warhorse

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me - definitely not worth the chance of a misfire/dud/squib for around $6 worth of primers. Replace the primers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me - definitely not worth the chance of a misfire/dud/squib for around $6 worth of primers. Replace the primers.

 

Howdy Yusta.

 

10 years ago, I think those primers were less than $2 for a pack of 100..... ;)

 

I agree with ya..... Replace em!

 

 

..........Widder

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I once read an article that stated the primer factory floor is misted with water(can't remember what magazine it was). My question is whether or not there is any corrosion between primer cup and brass. I would carefully deprime the cases and not worry about the primers, if the primers come out whole, reload the case. Or load 5 without depriming and see what happens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One way to find out is to shoot a few unloaded cases. If I have a case or two that's primed with a primer that's not a Federal and not loaded, and I don't know why I left it like that, I put one in my pistol, let "the boss" know. Then I go into my basement storage room and touch it off. Pick 10 or so and see if they still go pop. If they do...load them for practice rounds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I picked up about a half dozen primers that had been dropped when I was relading, had been on the floor for weeks. I put them in a cup of water for a few days then let them dry just to test the theory :) . They ALL fired as usual.

 

Blackfoot

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, here's an odd one for you.

 

I have well over a hundred primed .34 spl casings that got wet over 10 years ago when a dishwasher hose above where they were kept broke. The primed cases did get wet but were not fully submerged. I removed all water a few days later.

 

I have kept them but could not gather the nerve to reload and try to use them or work up the resolve to discard them. Neither can I work up the ambition to try firing the primed-only casings to test them.

(Yeah, I know that is the simple solution but I'm lazy.)

 

In the time it took you to type this inquiry, you could have loaded & tested a couple of cylinders full to see if they were going to work or not...IMO.

Personally, I'd avoid the potential grief and aggravation & deprime/reprime the lot

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, thanks for all replies.

 

Yeah, it was a typo, the cases are .38 spl, NOT .34 spl. Just a case of tanglefinger and not paying attention.

 

So far, there have been a couple of "yes, use them" and several "No, don't be stupid."

 

The reason for the 10 year delay is that I moved and simply forgot I had them. They were unearthed recently and I thought I would ask the forum to gain some amount of knowledge beyond the empirical.

 

Yeah, I am curious enough to take a random sample of 10 or so and just see if the primers will go "Bang." If all are OK, I may set up some reloads for practice and see what happens. If any failures, all will be discarded. Either way, the question will go away, at least for me.

 

 

Warhorse

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Running a hundred cases thru my 650 takes about 5 minutes, if that, to just deprime. I know of primers that have had oil spilled on em, been sprayed with WD-40, water soaked, the whole shebang. In all the cases, they all went BANG once dried out. YMMV

 

Would I trust them for Match ammo .... no. Would I trust them for self defense ammo .... NO!! Would I load em up for practice ammo ....

U-Betcha.

 

Coffinmaker

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently bought a mixed lot of primers with some of the date codes on a few of the CCI boxes going back to the early 50's. Don't know how they were stored the past 60 years, but every one of them has gone off so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Late last fall a group of guys from 3Gun Nation were here practicing and left 10 boxes of cheap Wal-Mart Federal SG shells on a table. I started raining then snow etc. and in late Dec. on a nice day I went out to look at the range and I found them. Boxes were still soggy, shells were WET and most of the plated bases were discolored and some small rust spots. They looked BAD. I brought them all in and dumped them out on a table in the shop and left them. This Spring I boxed them up and shot them in my 3gun SG all season. 100% of them fired and cycled just fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know of an ammunition maker that got a contract for dud display bullets loaded with an inert primer so that hey looked like live rounds. He soaked a batch of primers for several days in oil then loaded them. He had to take them all back because the purchaser found that the primers would fire after a few weeks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is no scientific published data that I've seen on whether primers survive getting wet. The military in it's wisdom during WW I and WW II required varnish type sealant on all primers to help "waterproof" them. But then, that was with potassium perchlorate based primers, and that chemical is certainly water soluble.

 

But during the last couple of desert skirmishes, that requirement has gone away. Modern primers with lead styphnate are prevented from exploding before being packed into the primer cups by being handled soaking wet with water. "Lead styphnate (today's standard primer compound) is only slightly soluble in water and methyl alcohol and may be neutralized by a sodium carbonate solution." Is there any possibility that there was some baking soda near the dishwasher drainage? If your kitchen is like mine, sure enough. Did the dishwasher spent wash solution contain anything that could affect the primer? Probably way to late to find that out, 10 years down the road.

 

Does that prove anything? Nope, not even that.

 

For 100 cases, you are willing to perhaps make up some five or ten or fifty rounds that will malfunction? I would not shoot that even in practice - because I shoot practice at full speed most of the time. I sure would not put a match or a fellow shooter in jeopardy. I would not put my reloading reputation on the line either. And if any of those loads were ever later called on to perform under critical conditions? Penny wise and pound foolish - times a million.

 

I'd have those old primers out of the cases, tumble the cases to clean any corrosion that 10 years after being wet has left, and then relegate the cases to light cowboy loads only (if the cases indeed looked untouched by corrosion). No way would I pay attention to stories of folks having success with something similar.

 

That's just me. No excursion outside of what is standard reloading practice gets much of my attention.

 

Good luck, GJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen primers used that had been wet, and after being thoroughly dried out, worked just as well as any other primer. I would load and shoot them for practice in a heartbeat.

 

Load 10 rounds for testing and if they work OK, load the rest.

 

RBK

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jabez had a lot of primers that got wet, then dried. He found they still worked.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

.34 spl casings? Typo or is this a caliber I've missed ever seeing.

 

thought they might have shrunk or something from the 'wet.'

 

Use them in practice--one of the reasons we reload is the savings in money and don't know about y'all but every penny counts--you know the zombie cowboys are a-coming!

 

cr

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the primers are 10 years old, the charge is most likely fulminate (lead styphnate is used today). As long as the charge wafer was not soaked and deformed (i.e., into particles) and has fully dried, there is a very good probability that they will detonate just fine. So, definitely test some. However, probably not a good idea to use them for CAS and risk a misfire. Instead load them into something you'll take to the target range where there's no clock and scorecard.

RR

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the primers are 10 years old, the charge is most likely fulminate (lead styphnate is used today). As long as the charge wafer was not soaked and deformed (i.e., into particles) and has fully dried, there is a very good probability that they will detonate just fine.

 

Ummm, mercury fulminate hasn't been used to prime US military ammo since 1954. And in commercial ammo since before that (mid 1920s or so). Since the OP is about commercial SP primers in cases, the primers would have to be about 90 years old to be mercury based.

 

Lead styphnate priming has been used in the most common commercial or military primer since the mid 1950s! Not just the last 10 years. Most likely styphnate is what the OP's primers are made with.

 

Modern lead-free primers (some of which have been out for ten years now) have good likelihood of being destroyed or badly affected by water immersion. So, that possibility should be checked off before assuming the primers will work, too.

 

All this means - anyone who ASSUMES the OP's primers will work is just guessing. For the cost of $3, all those primers can be replaced quickly with fresh, high quality primers. Messing with a small number of wet-then-mostly-dried-out primers would not be worth the "try them out" effort in my book.

 

Good luck, GJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.