re-using recovered primers

Without knowing what primer was in the cartridge I would personally stay away from practices like that. Every now and then a primer will be lost or damaged during loading. Being down by one is no big deal in the long run and is far better than loading with unknown components.

My concern is how do you know what you have? AFAIK you can't know you can't visually tell the difference between brands or types. Were the rounds factory or reloads?? Are the primers standard or magnum? Pistol or rifle? And why didn't the primer go bang the first time?

IMO, too many variables to risk a gun or body parts.

Jesse, my points exactly!

If you have removed the primers intact without damaging them, feel free to sort them by rifle and pistol.

After that, use them in mid-range plinking loads.

No reason to waste good primers.

Will these make laser guided, heat seeking missles that will give you .125 MOA at 250 yards ?

Probably not.

Will they go bang, and start that process we are looking for ?

Probably so.

Yes, primers are different- we all know that. They are not different enough that a mid-range load in your gun will detonate, sucking you and the pistol into a paradox vortex from which no reloader will ever returneth.

In this time of shortage, I would have no problem using those primers to load up plinkers for my .44. If they were smalls, I would stick them in a 30 carbine and be done with it. If they were large rifle, I would stick them behind some 4895, in a .308 case, and use some of these odd man out 30 cal bullets I have.

Plinkin is plinkin- an old hoot sittin on a pile of primers that would make all of us cry taught me to not be such a fussbucket. He was right.
I wonder if he still seats his primers long..... Anyway,

Load on.......... Be not afraid.

People just leave new ammo laying around on the ground at your range? At current prices! Any fresh dollar bills laying around too? Watches or jewels?

I do it all the time. If you're mixing primers, try and stick to mid range loads. A primer is a primer, and I try to make them count.

Use them for mild plinking/practice loads, not a problem at all.

IMO, too many variables to risk a gun or body parts.

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Neh, Not really.

I wouldn't - you just don't know what it is, or where it's been.

Use em in mid range loads as mentioned.....ORRR

pop em all out. Collect em. And throw them in a fire.

Sent from my CZ85 Combat

I have an old ashtray that I toss unfit ammo into. This includes rounds that end up in my range brass pickups. I break down the ammo, toss the bullets into a small tub, and I CAREFULLY deprime the brass and keep the primers in a separate marked primer tray.

The spare bullets that aren't good enough to reloaded are used when I'm setting up a set of dies...unless they are lead, then they go into the scrap lead tub.

You never know when 100 mixed primers could be the last 100 primers you might see for a while.

shoots45s said:

Also has anyone ever come up short in a box of 100 primers? Today, I got 99 primers and I'm sure I didn't lose one anywhere.

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Back when I bought SPP by the 100, I got a couple of boxes of CCI that didn't have the usual tape on them. Several were missing.

The de-priming part sounds scary to me.

Depriming is actually quite simple. It's good advice to go slow although I have often been able to plod along at a reasonably fast rate the few times I have deprimed in any quantity.

Am I depriming properly? I have a lee turret press. I put the case in the shell holder raise the ram and at the same time slide the priming arm in place and pop out the primer back into the cup with the die. thats the way I do it. Any one do it a different way?

deadeye dick said:

Am I depriming properly? I have a lee turret press. I put the case in the shell holder raise the ram and at the same time slide the priming arm in place and pop out the primer back into the cup with the die. thats the way I do it. Any one do it a different way?

Click to expand...

Can't believe I never thought of that! I don't deprime on my turret, but on my single stage. What I've done is block the expelled primer hole and pick it out of there. Looks like I got a new method!

Sent from my CZ85 Combat

Saving money is fine...until you happen to pickup a corrosive primer..then all the pennys you saved can go towards a new barrel!

I put the case in the shell holder raise the ram and at the same time slide the priming arm in place and pop out the primer back into the cup with the die. Any one do it a different way?

Click to expand...

I use a Lee turret also, and I let the primers fall through the press into a Tupperware container.