OLD TIMERS TRICK!!

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74man

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Here is an old timers trick that I was showed almost 50 years ago and I had a chance to use it yesterday. I have some 223 ammo with primers installed about 7 years ago and the cases showed signs of tarnish so I decided to toss them in my RCBS Vibrator cleaner. After about three hours I took them out but they were still tarnished since I ran out of cleaner. It was then I noticed a loose primer in the media. After separating the cases I discovered two more missing primers. I found them in the media. I installed a primer in the pocket and it came back out. I remembered being showed this trick a long time ago. I took some Nail Polish and put it in the primer pocket, then installed the primer by hand with a rubber mallet to make sure it was all the way down inside the pocket. After about 20 minutes and the polish had dried they were stuck in the primer pocket. Just a long time ago trick that was showed me and yesterday I finally had a chance to use it. Probably chuck the case after a range trim but they are installed tight at the moment. When I was in the military a lot of the 223 rems had a red trim around the primer pocket. don't know if it was finger nail polish but it could have been. Just wondering!!
 
My question is, was there any powder left in the case?
About 99% of the 223 I've loaded has been with ball powder. I assure you it's small enough to trickle right out thru the flash hole like sand thru an hourglass (don't ask me how I know :uhoh:).
 
Here is an old timers trick that I was showed almost 50 years ago and I had a chance to use it yesterday. I have some 223 ammo with primers installed about 7 years ago and the cases showed signs of tarnish so I decided to toss them in my RCBS Vibrator cleaner. After about three hours I took them out but they were still tarnished since I ran out of cleaner. It was then I noticed a loose primer in the media. After separating the cases I discovered two more missing primers. I found them in the media. I installed a primer in the pocket and it came back out. I remembered being showed this trick a long time ago. I took some Nail Polish and put it in the primer pocket, then installed the primer by hand with a rubber mallet to make sure it was all the way down inside the pocket. After about 20 minutes and the polish had dried they were stuck in the primer pocket. Just a long time ago trick that was showed me and yesterday I finally had a chance to use it. Probably chuck the case after a range trim but they are installed tight at the moment. When I was in the military a lot of the 223 rems had a red trim around the primer pocket. don't know if it was finger nail polish but it could have been. Just wondering!!
my wife don’t use nail polish and I don’t want funny looks at the drug store
 
Get some wicking grade LocTight #290 if I recall is high strength. Once it sets your primer punch may just poke a hole through when you deprime. Then you will know which ones go to the recycle bin.

If I have primers falling out I on there own, they go to the recycle bin. Now if one feels loose when setting it, I test with a punch. If I can push it out will little effort it's pulled from the cycle and put in a special bin. With the primers I'm using, I know I can change mfg and get a tighter fit. So they will be loaded with a different primer till they get loose then to the recycle bin.
 
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Please stop using this "old timers" trick! As has been said, the brass is so worn out that the primers are falling out!

This could potentially be hazardous to your health, that and ruin your rifle.

Be safe!
 
Here is an old timers trick that I was showed almost 50 years ago and I had a chance to use it yesterday. I have some 223 ammo with primers installed about 7 years ago and the cases showed signs of tarnish so I decided to toss them in my RCBS Vibrator cleaner. After about three hours I took them out but they were still tarnished since I ran out of cleaner. It was then I noticed a loose primer in the media. After separating the cases I discovered two more missing primers. I found them in the media. I installed a primer in the pocket and it came back out. I remembered being showed this trick a long time ago. I took some Nail Polish and put it in the primer pocket, then installed the primer by hand with a rubber mallet to make sure it was all the way down inside the pocket. After about 20 minutes and the polish had dried they were stuck in the primer pocket. Just a long time ago trick that was showed me and yesterday I finally had a chance to use it. Probably chuck the case after a range trim but they are installed tight at the moment. When I was in the military a lot of the 223 rems had a red trim around the primer pocket. don't know if it was finger nail polish but it could have been. Just wondering!!

If your primers fell out in the tumbler, most likely some or all of the powder came out too. So to keep you from having a squib load I would pull the bullets & check the powder in those rounds that the primers fell out of. It's a bad trick if your brass is that loose it should be tossed & replaced.
 
If your primers fell out in the tumbler, most likely some or all of the powder came out too. So to keep you from having a squib load I would pull the bullets & check the powder in those rounds that the primers fell out of. It's a bad trick if your brass is that loose it should be tossed & replaced.
OP said he was tumbling primed brass, not loaded rounds. No powder involved.
But, nail polish is still a bad idea to compensate for worn out brass. Also have to wonder how much polish got inside the primers when he seated them before the polish dried. I don't think old timers got old by using this "old timers trick". The key word here may be "trick".
74man, where do you shoot?
 
....
Having difficulty with this post:

If your primers are falling out of the primer pocket:
a) they have been loaded and fired beyond their useful and safe life;
b) they have been loaded too hot and the pockets have expanded

Either way, you should toss 'em into the scrap bucket. They will definitely damage the bolt face with extremely hot, high pressure gas leaking from around the primers if you continue to shoot them.
 
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Here is an old timers trick that I was showed almost 50 years ago and I had a chance to use it yesterday. I have some 223 ammo with primers installed about 7 years ago and the cases showed signs of tarnish so I decided to toss them in my RCBS Vibrator cleaner. After about three hours I took them out but they were still tarnished since I ran out of cleaner. It was then I noticed a loose primer in the media. After separating the cases I discovered two more missing primers. I found them in the media. I installed a primer in the pocket and it came back out. I remembered being showed this trick a long time ago. I took some Nail Polish and put it in the primer pocket, then installed the primer by hand with a rubber mallet to make sure it was all the way down inside the pocket. After about 20 minutes and the polish had dried they were stuck in the primer pocket. Just a long time ago trick that was showed me and yesterday I finally had a chance to use it. Probably chuck the case after a range trim but they are installed tight at the moment. When I was in the military a lot of the 223 rems had a red trim around the primer pocket. don't know if it was finger nail polish but it could have been. Just wondering!!


2/10… Do not recommend.

all joking aside, this does not sound safe.
 
I have some 223 ammo with primers installed about 7 years ago and the cases showed signs of tarnish...
(emphasis mine)

OP said he was tumbling primed brass, not loaded rounds. No powder involved.

It sure read like loaded ammo to me... Regardless, it's a bad idea. The trick may be on you, OP... play it safe and don't do it.
 
JMHO- this is one of the reasons I quit
trying to use used brass.
Until you invest irreplaceable time in
it, you won't know if it's any good or not
 
My bolt face is worth a lot more than a piece of brass with a primer pocket so loose you have to glue primers in.

I agree, they are not worth it.
I'd chuck 'em in the recycle bucket.
Just my n2¢ worth.

But it's your gun, you do whatever you like.
Not like you need anyone's permission.
 
have some 223 ammo with primers installed about

(emphasis mine)



It sure read like loaded ammo to me... Regardless, it's a bad idea. The trick may be on you, OP... play it safe and don't do it.

It's kind of confusing the way it's worded,
but the whole scenario is confusing.
I saw some "old timer tricks" from my grandpa years ago. Not necessarily reloading related, since he never got into it...but I saw him almost burn his barn down trying to smoke out some bees to get their honey. Sometimes, the trick is it only works sometimes. The times those tricks don't work can be catastrophic.
 
To all who commented on this post. like I said it was 50 years ago, at l east, maybe then they did it and maybe the rounds didn't have the pressures they do today, I will take those suggestions and deprime them and use the primers is some other rifle rounds that I will reload. Thanks, it worked then but maybe not now. An ounce of caution is worth and pound of cure!!
 
Heh! Personally, if I had pre-primed brass, which is what this sounds like, I wouldn't tumble them at all just for tarnish. Load 'em and shoot 'em. The tumble them if you feel like it.

As for tricks of the trade from old timers...I love them. But I always think about them before deciding whether they're for me or not.

I would not, for example, change the oil viscosity on our modern cars between summer and winter seasons, like in days of old. Bad juju.

And my father-in-law's electrical practices were sometimes quite scary. "Dad, how is it you've never burned your garage down in all these decades?" "Ah, shoot! I've never had any problems!"

:)
 
. . . maybe the rounds didn't have the pressures they do today. . .
Pressures for a defined cartridge don't change over time.

From a mechanical standpoint, your solution neglects the function of the pocket/primer interference fit. That fit needs to seal the low pressure gas as combustion is starting until the pressure increases enough to expand the primer cup into a hard seal against the pocket walls. If the interference fit isn't tight enough, and a leak starts at low pressure, it will be a bigger leak at high pressure and you've just created the world's tiniest cutting torch.

IMG_20211001_085652520.jpg

While it's hard to precisely predict how little interference you can get away with, "falling out during tumbling" is way, way, WAY too loose.
 
When I tumble fired brass with primers still in the pocket, the flash hole gets plugged with tumbling media. I know this as when I de prime later, media comes out. So, how did you keep media from plugging the flash hole?

Most US military brass is crimped and has a moisture resistant sealant. The crimp is there to keep the primer in place during feed, and while it is not effective, it may keep primers in the case during extraction with over pressure rounds.

I could tap some of the primers out of this brass, but they stayed in during extraction. I picked up USMC ammo, and not all of their primers stayed in.

HhVuFR6.jpg

A risk with loose primer pockets, even if the primers are "cleverly" glued in, is that the primer will still fall out on feed, in an AR15, and will still fall out during extraction. When the cartridge ignites, with a non lubricated case, in a non lubricated chamber, the primer backs out to the bolt face, then the case stretches to the bolt face, stuffing the primer back in the pocket. That will break the glue bond. Gas guns eject violently and loose primers go flying. I had one drop down into the trigger mechanism of a match AR15, and I had to leave the match so I could knock out the trigger pins and get the thing at the bottom of the lower. That loose primer was sticking to the bottom of the trigger mechanism and I could not pull the trigger.
 
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