Do you Prime up ahead of reloading?

[ArkansasFatboy]

Guys I am new to reloading.And since I only have a single stage press and am currently loading mostly .45acp I will resize and decap about 300rds at a setting then I will flare the the case mouth than I will set down with my lee priming tool and prime them. I store them in a box in my loading cabinet that way when I get ready to load a couple of hundred all I have to do is grab the box charge the cases and seat the bullets. This works for me beacause of limited time. My question is can the primers go bad in the cases after a while. or are they o.k. so far I have had no problems but my reloading experience is only about a month and a half old any advice will be appreciated and applied.

 

[capbuster]

nothing wrong with priming your cases ahead of time. It eliminates one more step when you get ready to load up some rounds. Protect your primed cases from contaminants such oil and you will be fine.

 

[rbernie]

I have bags of decapped/sized/polished brass and tubs of it that have been primed and are waiting for powder and a bullet. It's simply the best way to get efficient use from a single-stage setup.

 

[armoredman]

Always. Many baggies with primed brass sitting in them. When I have an hour or so, I grab a baggie or two, and go load. Then, about once a month, I have what I call, a "priming party."

 

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

Even with my Dillon 450 with a priming station near as good as the 550, I still sit in front of the TV with cleaned brass, towel across my lap and Lee hand primer. I'll prime thousands of pistol cases and have them all ready for my next time at the bench.

I use my single stage press for the belted magnum rifle cases and prefer to take time hand priming and inspecting each case before allowing them back into the gun room.

So, YES!

-Steve

 

[ReloaderFred]

I prime cases in batches of 1,000, since I track my loads by primer lot number. When I'm ready to load, the cases are all set and it makes the final steps that much faster.

The short answer is, Yes, I prime before hand, even with my progressive press.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Idano]

I do for all the ammo I load on my Rock Chucker but I don't anything I load on my progressive. I keep it in plastic containers that have rubber seals I bought at the $1.00 store. However, I do however alway deprime, resize, and clean the primer pocket of all my brass on my single stage and my progressive.

 

[RyanM]

Prime whenever you want and don't worry about it. Primers are pretty hard to deactivate. Even soaking them in WD-40 for 24 hours doesn't always do the job.

 

[Sunray]

Sure. I use nothing but a single stage press. Have for eons. Processed and primed cases only need to be powder charged and have the bullet seated.

 

[GRIZ22]

Always prime ahead. It gives me a chance top examine and clean the primer pockets and an additional inspection of the brass. Always use a hand primer much better feel than doing it on a press. Gives me a chance to easily inspect the seated primer before powder goes in. Keep the primed cases in zip lock bags or tupperware.

 

[Idano]

Even soaking them in WD-40 for 24 hours doesn't always do the job.

That is not accurate. I killed three rounds in my M70 one year hunting with WD40. We had spent the day hunting in a wet snow storm and the gun was soaking wet so when I got back to the truck I unloaded the chamber and sprayed down the gun , barrel and action with WD40. When we got back to camp I removed all the ammo in the magazine and wiped it and the gun down plus swabbed out the barrel. The next morning I loaded the gun with the five shells I carried in the magazine the day before and when I pulled up on a nice 4-point and all I got was click, three out of the five rounds that had been in the magazine the day before when I sprayed down the gun with WD40 would not fire. The WD40 had penetrated the primers. Ever since that episode I am a firm believer that WD40 is a primer killer.

 

[Winger Ed.]

This comes up from time to time.

You hear good reasons for both sides.


Personally,

I've had primers (in thier little cardboard cartons) sit out in the garage in my reloading cabnit for 5 or 6 years before they were loaded--- and never had a missfire, even if they sat in a loaded round stored in a ammo can after that.

I can't imagine how they'd know the difference from being in the cardboard carton all that time, or if they were loaded in a brass that was stored in a dry plastic bag until you got around to loading/shooting it.

.

 

[The Real Wyatt]

Well, let me add a "me too" to this thread.

I use a Lee Autoprime whilst sitting in my living room. Gives me the opportunity to visually inspect each case before priming. Also gives me the chance afterwards to hold the reloading tray up to almost eye level and inspect the primed cases to ensure that all primers are seated to the proper depth.

 

[Walkalong]

I tumble my brass when I get home from shooting. I resize and decap in my progressive and then sit down at my leisure to prime with my RCBS priming tool. Then when I reload it I don't have to worry about that step in the process slowing me down and I can pay more attention to "is there the right amount of powder in the case" as I am seating a bullet. Things generally go smoother when the press does not have to prime also.

 

[nitesite]

Most of the time I've got more primed and ready to go than I have ones that I have loaded.

They look so nice in their Zip-Loc bags!

 

[snuffy]

Nope

I prime when I'm in the process of loading. Priming ahead of time becomes a problem IF you want to try a different primer for some special application; as in using a federal match primer instead of the standard ww LR that you have pre-primed with.

Also when loading in bulk with the dillon XL650, it slows you down to the level of a single stage to prime seperately from the press. Might as well go shooting with a pair of handcuffs on!

As for the primer being affected by waiting in an unloaded shell, there can be no reason why it would be. Except if the primed empties were stored differently that they were while still in their boxes.

I once was gifted a 5 gallon pail of military 30-06 brass that had all been primed. With what primer, or for how long, or under what conditions was unknown. Some had even been forced into crimped pockets, they were deformed. A recycler had refused them because of the live primers. I loaded a few,(20),, none failed to fire, but one was a click--------bang! So I went about depriming them all! Now for those that won't deprime a live primer, none of them popped!

 

[DWARREN123]

I tumble, decap, reprime, load powder and then the bullet. Works for me.