Primer life

Decades

I am currently shooting primers I have from the early to mid 90s. Rifle and pistol but can't see where it matters for shotgun. They were all stored well and left over inventory from a gun business wife and I sold. I have also shot WWII surplus ammunition without a problem.

Ron

In my house with the humidity and temperature controlled they will last forever. In my garage with unknown temperatures and humidifies? Who knows.

I have recently loaded up some CCI primers from the eighties without any issues.

primers are hard to kill. I once dumped a couple dozen primed 38 specials in my ultrasonic with citric acid and dawn dishwashing detergent, by mistake.
I didn't discover it until I was rolling them in a towel to get the most of the water off the outside.
After congratulating myself on my stupidity, I decided I saw a new experiment coming.
I set them up on a shelf for 3 weeks to dry out, then loaded them. I couldn't tell the difference between them and my other loads.
Now, don't get WD-40 on them, it will damage them.

I have some Rem from early 70's and some CCI from early 80's that still work fine.

They last a long time ...

I'm still using some from the 70's. CCI, Rem, Win (Nickle) all good.

I'd say they would be fine for a century and more, as long as they are stored in a cool dry place.

Most of my primers are no older than 17 years old but I did buy a bunch of CCI primers that were made in 1972 and so far several thousand have gone bang without one misfire. So, in my personal experience primers which are about 50 years old are still fine.

I have 1,000 of primers from the Clinton scare in the early 90s that always do what they were intended to do. Stored in a basement that flooded twice.

But for precision rifle rounds, I use the newest ones I have.

Fuuny, the primers I bought at the top of the price increases in the 90s, and the 2010s under Obama are a true value these days! Maybe $75/1,000 is something we’ll look back on as a deal?

I believe if stored in cool, dry, protective storage they will last one or more lifetimes. As is usually the case with the components of reloading, avoiding excess heat, humidity and moisture exposure is the key.

The lifetime of lead styphanate primers is essentially "infinite" compared to the lifetime of gunpowder. Primer cake, if it gets wet,will dud out. For waterproofing the primer is usually coated with a lacquer.

However, based on this document, heat will dud primers.

Percussion Primers, Design Requirements. Revision A

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA092511

I've loaded primers from the '70s and '80s, and used plenty of poorly stored ammo from the '40s and '50s (and so have thousands of other Garand owners).

Primers live at least as long as you will.

The only primers that have a shelf life is the newer non-toxic primers. They are somewhere around 5-10 yrs, don't recall the actual number. Once I saw they had a short life span I decided not to buy any.

With the shelf stability of primers, I don't think you can have too much. Since powder degrades, that'll be the item that needs future sourcing. But, powder is much easier to find in times of shortage, at least a usable powder for your application.

JimKirk said:

They last a long time ...

View attachment 1057612

Click to expand...

Yeah, looking at the packaging tells a story.

Ron

I think your good. They last longer than most of us will keep them around.

I have some 12 gauge cardboard hulls i loaded in 1966 also some loose primers. Haven't shot them yet. this thread gives me the incentive to try them.

Heck is buy the unleaded primers if I had a chance and the price was right, and just use them now and extend my stash of leaded primers.

I hope the shelf life is very long as I have 2 bricks of Wolf and 3 bricks of CCI I got as obumma came into office...

still shooting 1942 and 1943 Garand Food in my Garand....
who is to say how badly they were abused prior to me getting them

Like the others have said, they last a long time. Last year I shot a few that I bought in the 70's. A shooting/gunshow buddy actually seeks out bargains on older primers at gunshows.

Almost forever, I have a few thousand Winchester primers from the late 60's and early 70's. They function perfectly.