Safe Primer Disposal

hose them down with Liquid Wrench, P'Blaster, or similar.

They may contain mercury, so I'd save them for the next run to Haz Mat site with all the paint cans full of colored rubber..

Put them in a mortar tube. haha. i would think, just soaking them in water would take care of them.

I would contact the manufacturer, any on that makes primers, and ask them. They may have a standard procedure for it or a safe way to dis-arm them for disposal.

Since you can't tell what thy are I'd guess they are small primers. Just use them for small pistol. It will all be good.

If you really think you have to get rid of them the wood burner or burn barrel will work.

With what primers cost these days I'd just use them.
With moderate loads, rifle or pistol, they'll be good enough for some plinking.

Use them in pistol loads using small primers if you can. Otherwise toss them in a trash fire in a burn barrel. We're talking primers here not kegs of powder. As far as the mercury goes don't sweat it, the powers that be has got everyone scared of their own shadow.

Mixed sizes loose in a bag?
I would trash them. Oil them, put them in a can, and throw them away. That will not blow up the garbage truck or cause a refuse volcano at the landfill.

If you have the spare time, you can sort out the smalls and use them for plinking loads in pistols. I shot a good number of small rifle primed 9mms in the previous election cycle panic. Of course I don't load them to maximum.

You would have to have a LOT of spare time to salvage the large primers. A large rifle primer is taller than a large pistol primer and will not seat flush in most cases.

Oh, by the way, the chance of finding mercuric primers in a random collection of reloading components is very small. Winchester loaded some match rifle ammunition with corrosive mercuric primers up til about 1960 but I don't know if the primers were sold separately. Otherwise, fulminate of mercury dropped out of use around 1930.

Water or oil won't destroy a primer. Once they dry out they are viable again. Burn barrel? holy shrapnel! Put them in a coffee can, add concrete and deep six them.

Burn barrel? holy shrapnel!

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Don't stand with your head hanging over the edge of the burn barrel.

Probably more danger standing under a walnut tree this time of year.

hose them down with Liquid Wrench, P'Blaster, or similar.

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I spray mine down good with wd-40 and throw them in the trash and forget about them.

By the time they dry out if they do, they will be in a landfill somewhere.

45lcshooter said:

Put them in a mortar tube. haha. i would think, just soaking them in water would take care of them.

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Soaking in water does not work to kill primers.

I posted this, back on 12-31-2009 on http://www.shootersforum.com/473854-post25.html

I can verify that water (even a very long soak) will not deactivate them.
I had some (over 1,500) that got soaked for well over a month in a tub of water, I dumped them all onto a cookie sheet and let them dry out for a week, I decided to use them for plinking loads only just incase, so far not one has failed to fire and I have used about 1/2 of them.

Michael Grace

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I have not been doing a ton of shooting the last few years and still have about 700 or so of the ones that soaked in water for over a month, I just loaded 10 458 Win Mag 2 weeks ago to test them and they still worked just fine.

Michael Grace

Primers are manufactured wet.
Then they are sealed with a foil sheet and lacquer.
Then they are dried.

So no, water will not permanently kill them.
Because water will not reliably penetrate the foil seal & laqure if they haven't been seated to break the seal.

On the other hand, 15-20 live primers at a time in a pop bottle with some WD-40 sprayed in it and the lid screwed on makes them perfectly safe to throw in the trash.

rc

kingmt said:

If you really think you have to get rid of them the wood burner or burn barrel will work.

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"...I gotta do a little ceremony, eh?.."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z6qTocF-9E

Burry them, in a bottle full of oil? Then when you need them for armagedon you can go dig them up and let them dry