I screwed up a dozen loads yesterday and pulled the bullet and the powder for re use. I also had to remove the unused primer (deprime the good primer.) Military crimp and mistake by me issues.
A question came to mind. Can I reuse these pulled and unspent CCI 500 primers? I know they are 3 cents a piece. Looked around this site and found no info.
Yes. Before I knew about gunpowder deterioration, I loaded 700 LC 308 Match cases with surplus IMR 4895. Within months, every case that was fired experienced case neck cracks:
These are not the cases, but the LC match cracked identically
and then the case necks started cracking in stored, unfired cases. So I had 700 cases which I pulled the bullets, dumped the powder, and I decided to save the CCI #34 primers. I deprimed all cases and reused the #34 primers. I don't recall a misfire, but one could have happened. I used these primers in rock busting ammunition so I have no idea whether the primer cake was damaged and deteriorated by seating, depriming, and re-seating. But I do recall shooting the stuff up and don't have any bad memories, so maybe they all went bang.
Gunpowder deterioration is a area of cultural ignorance in the shooting society. The term is
Agnotology. Most shooters believe ammunition lasts forever, gunpowder lasts forever, and the popular press reinforces their biases and tells them this is so. So, shooters are quite in denial about the whole thing. Pictures like these have no affect in dispelling their confirmation bias.
Based on my experience, I would have deprimed these corroded cases and saved the primers, if there were enough of them.