38 Special brass with primers

[Taildragger-J3]

I am purchasing a supply of sized and primed 38 special brass from a fellow who is settling his father's estate. I don't know how long the primers have been in the brass. The primers are supposed to be CCI-500.

My question is would y'all go ahead and finish loading the brass, assuming that the primers are still OK? Or would you try to "kill" the primers, and reprime before loading.

With the price & supply of primers being what it is, I'm leaning strongly toward going ahead and loading the brass.

Whadaya think?

 

[Walkalong]

The primers are fine. Use em. Unless you are loading a max load, I wouldn't even worry which primer it really is.

 

[EOC_Jason]

I would take a sample from the supply, maybe a dozen or two. Load them up and take them out to the range. If they all fire okay then load up the rest. If you get too many duds, then it's time to start pulling primers...

As long as oil or moisture doesn't get on the primers, they should be okay.

 

[rcmodel]

It's very likely the primers are perfectly fine.

The primer compound was wet when the primers were made.
After drying, they were factory fresh new primers.

Moisture won't hurt them unless they were stored in a flood zone and got a prolonged soaking underwater.

If stored in a high humidity environment, you should see corroded cases that would indicate the primers are probably corroded too.

BTW: I found a coffie can of primed .38 Special cases in the back of my reloading cabinet in the basement last fall that the note indicated I had primed in 1979.
They were perfectly fine.

rc

 

[Taildragger-J3]

I REALLY appreciate the help/advice. Given the cost of primers these days, the brass I'm getting is almost free! LOL. I'll let y'all know how they work out.

 

[MMCSRET]

Take a cylinder full and step out on the back porch and light them up. You don't need to load powder and ball for a sample firing.

 

[rcmodel]

You do if you don't want the primers backing out and locking up the gun so the cylinder won't turn.

rc

 

[David Wile]

Hey RC,

When doing community theater work where the script requires the firing of a revolver, I have used three different revolvers (38 spcl, 38 S&W top break, and a .357 mag) where we simply used sized primed cases with with nothing in the case. Are they as loud as a real .38 caliber round? Of course not, but when fired onstage in an enclosed theater, a primer alone does a great job of shocking the audience with a loud report, a small burst of flame visible when the lights are dimmed a bit, and they also will produce a small amout of smoke from the muzzle which is more visible when viewed by stage lighting. We never had any primers back out and stop the chamber from turning to another round.

For those who are quick to note the potential dangers of shooting primers, we obviously had to use the "blank" charges carefully. A shooting scene was set up so the gun looked to the audience like it was pointed directly at a particular character. From the shooter's perspective, however, the gun was actually pointed away from the character being shot, and we never had any instance where anyone was hit with any spent primer products. Shooting scenes were simply misdirections of the audience by using angle and depth of the stage to make the audience believe the actor was being shot.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

 

[rcmodel]

I have tried it in various S&W's over the years, and also tried it shooting wax bullets with primers for power.

In every case, I have had primers back out and lock up the cylinder unless the flash holes were drilled out to 1/8" to reduce pressure in the primer pockets.
In less extreme cases, turning the cylinder was possible, but difficult, which would put strain on the lock-work beyond what it was designed for.

But if it works for you, then more power to you.

rc

 

[MMCSRET]

rc; I've never had that happen, wonder why!! I'll have to keep trying, I guess, I hate an incomplete test leading to an incorrect conclusion.