Pre-priming cases

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JSmith

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The area where I have my loading bench is just off a well-traveled path in our house; I go past it all the time.

It occurred to me that if I have some brass I don't intend to laod right away, I might expand and prime five or ten cases every time I'm near my bench. That way, when I'm ready to load I'm halfway there. And doing 25 cases a day would add up.

Any problem with storing a few Tupperware containers of primed brass for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months?
 
Several of the manufacturers sell primed cases. The ones I have gotten were shipped in a corrugate box.

Storage in a cool and dry environment would be desirable.

I would not leave primers in your priming tool for any length of time though for safety reasons so I would remove from the original packaging only the primers you plan to seat at a particular session.

Personally, I prefer to prime cases just before I load them but I do not have any scientific or safety reason for doing so. There are several folks on the forum that do pre-prime cases and store for a future loading session.
 
I generally prime and store brass as a matter of practice. I just toss them in ziplocs with a loading tag identifying which primer and case is in the bag for quick reference and sharpie the total number of pcs on the front of the bag... they then get tossed in their respective labeled coffee cans.
 
Pre-prime?

I do this regularly with all of my handgun cases that I have a surplus of brass.I sort them by headstamp and try to keep once fired brass segregated.I use large(3 lb?) Coffee cans with a small stick on label with the data as to caliber,once fired and type of primer.I have about 1K or more of 45ACP'S ready to load and several hundred 9'S and 40's in smaller coffee cans.It works for me very well and allows me to load several boxes quickly as needed.:)
 
I do this all the time.

I size, clean trim and prime a 30 cal ammo can of all my most use rounds and that way I'm good to go when the mood suits me.

9mm, 38 SPL. 3006, 6.5 and 7.7 Japanese I do a 50 cal can as I burn up a lot of these when I shoot.
 
Sometimes I prime cases that will sit for some time before loading, but usually I just have sized, decapped, and tumbled brass ready to load. When I am ready to load a batch I do preprime before loading it on the LNL. Brass is sized, trimmed if needed, and primed before I load it on the LNL.
 
I'm not one to pre-prime really. Not that I haven't on occasion, but I prefer to do it when I'm ready to load em. I will do all other steps before hand, I just don't like to remove my primers from the air tight container I keep them in until I'm ready to load. It's just my personal thing, so I'm sure there isn't a problem with doing so. If it floats your boat, or pulls your trigger, go for it!
GS
 
I do it all the time, I think I have 20 or so boxes of primed and ready to load brass sitting on the loading bench shelf. I mainly do it because I want some press time while im waiting for the first monday of the month when I go and get my monthly lead ration from the local tire shop to make more boolits to load up! As long as they are stored the same way your primers are, they will last just as long as your primers will(Older than you will get!).
 
I generally load pistol calibers in batches of 1,000, and I pre-prime all of them. They are stored in boxes of a thousand until I'm ready to finish loading them, which may be from a few days to a few months, depending on my needs. I just drop a few of the primer packaging slip covers in each box to tell me which primer is in the brass and the lot number, so when I record the data in my log book, I'll have that information at hand.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
I load a lot of 7.62 and 5.56 and process and prime a lot at one sitting. My SOP is to deprime on a single stage press, size and trim in a Dillon trimmer, clean the brass, then prime and pack the primed cases in 1 gallon freezer bags with a card indicating the primer type and lot number. Them I store the bags in the large ammo cans (called M548 cans) that were used to pack 1500 rounds of linked 7.62 ammo for miniguns. Each can will hold I think about 3500 rounds of 7.62 brass. Then when I'm ready to load it on a Dillon press I have it primed and counted 300 pieces to a bag.

I prep the brass a little at a time as I feel like doing the dirty work. That's the least enjoyable part of reloading for me so I don't want to sit down and have to process 7,000 rounds of brass at a time, so this way it's a few at a time, like the OP is suggesting. No problem in storing primed brass at all.
 
i have primed brass sitting around sometimes for years. primers are extremely tough to kill. and your not going to shoot anything without them. doing this has gotten me thru a few "component droughts" over the last few years. if you know you have a few hundred rounds already primed, and your primer levels in the cabinet are getting low, it gives you a nice cushion to fall back on when things are scarce.
 
I generally prime and store brass as a matter of practice. I just toss them in ziplocs with a loading tag identifying which primer and case is in the bag for quick reference and sharpie the total number of pcs on the front of the bag... they then get tossed in their respective labeled coffee cans.

^^ This

I come home from the range and sort the brass by caliber. I then tumble them and put them in marked plastic coffee cans. When I have some spare time, I size and decap the brass and place them on a different, marked coffee can. As time allows, I prime 100 at a time and put them in marked, plastic bags. When I have some time where I have complete concentration, I load between 100-500 at a time. It's already cleaned and primed so it's a breeze. I prefer to use a single stage. It works for me and since the time is spread out over time, it works well for me.
 
Since I prime off the press using a dedicated bench priming tool, I usually- but not always- pre-prime my cases. They might lay dormant for a few hours or a few years but never had any issues. Sometimes I will size and prime a bunch of .357 Magnum cases and leave them on the bench in a black Akro bin, with a microfiber cloth tossed over it.

This thread just reminded me that I should probably get busy at my bench since I'm on vacation...!
 
I de-prime, wet tumble, resize and prime thousands for future use. I try to keep most of my brass 38, 357, 45, 223/5.56 primed and ready to charge and seat on my LNL. I keep the shiny primed cases in zip locks and store in sealed Rubbermaid containers. I also media tumble the 223/5.56 after resize & prime to remove the lube.
 
Wow...I thought I was one of a lonely few who deprime, tumble, size, and prime before loading on the progressive (LNL here). I'm surprised to find I have so much company. I store brass in all stages of preparation in industrial-type bins on steel shelves.

The Dymo LabelWriter 450 Turbo is a great little label maker for reloading. I use it to label the aforementioned bins, ammo cans, ammo boxes, parts boxes...almost anything you can think of around the shop.
 
I generally prime and store brass as a matter of practice. I just toss them in ziplocs with a loading tag identifying which primer and case is in the bag for quick reference and sharpie the total number of pcs on the front of the bag... they then get tossed in their respective labeled coffee cans.
I use this method too. One note, I would be careful with priming 5 or 10 here and there, whenever I passed the bench. Easy to make mistakes that way. I would suggest you stop, sit down and do at least 25 at a time, then put the primers up, in their original boxes and clear the bench. No OOPS!, no primers or brass knocked off the bench by a passerby, nothing dropped on the primer boxes or brass, etc., and next time you'll know exactly where your tools and components are...
 
I pre-prime on a regular basis, especially for my bulk loads (223, 45, 380, etc.). But, I don't know that I would recommend only doing 5 at a sitting, unless that's all you are making for some specific test loads. It really doesn't take long to prime 100 pieces of brass. I think it would be best to set aside whatever small block of time it takes you to punch out 100. Then, you can throw them in a plastic baggie with the empty primer sleeve and store them as long as is needed for you to finish loading 'em up.
 
Thanks, guys - good to know there's no issue with doing it that way.

I want to do my priming that way because (for me anyway) decapping, resizing, expanding, and priming are the boring parts of reloading. I've been doing my decapping/resizing in short 5-10 min sessions for several months now (been reloading for a year) and I'd like to start doing my priming that way too. I find I can concentrate better if I break the work up into shorter sessions.

One note, I would be careful with priming 5 or 10 here and there, whenever I passed the bench. Easy to make mistakes that way. I would suggest you stop, sit down and do at least 25 at a time, then put the primers up, in their original boxes and clear the bench.

I am careful - I never get more components out than I'm going to use at one time.
 
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Primers don't come in atmospherically sealed boxes, so storing them in cases doesn't expose them to anything they weren't already being exposed to. This presumes, of course, that your cases aren't slathered with an oil-based lube that might creep into the flash hole somehow.

The biggest danger is forgetting which particular primer you used. I have 100 primed 257 Wby cases in the basement and I'm only about 60% sure I used magnum primers in them.
 
A couple of years ago, I found a quart steel coffee can with a plastic lid on it full of primed .38 Spl cases.
In the can was a note indicating I had primed them in 1971 or something like that with Win SPP.

So I loaded them and shot them.

They shot as good as I did.

They only thing with a primer is, the priming pellet compound is sealed with a foil disk & colored lacquer, and the anvil is setting just barely into the cup when it is new in the box.

Once you seat them in a case to proper depth, the primer anvil is compressed into the cup & primer compound pellet, and will probably break the lacquer & foil waterproofing seal.

Still, primers are made wet so the explosive mix doesn't blow the factory off of the map, then packaged & dried.

If they get wet again, they can be dried again, and still work perfectly.

rc
 
If you like a certain brand of primer and they are consistent then I see no reason to not prime brass before hand. I have a few bags of .308 primed brass until I can get some powder and bullets to finish them with. Just make sure and double sure that you do your trimming, deburring etc before priming the brass. Found that one out the hard way when I primed about 50 cases of .308 without trimming them and they were quiet long.
 
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