Making your own primers

Status
Not open for further replies.
Z

Zombie_Flesh

Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2009
Messages
138
Location
Larkspur, CO
Ok.. I have a mountain of brass, I can make my own bullets if needed. I have some powder...

I cannot find primers anywhere, I was bored the other day and was playing with the de-capped primers from a previous reloading session.

if this guy is able to make his own blasting caps what cannot I make my own primers.

I was able to remove the anvil with a small pick and then using a hammer and brass punch was able to de-dimple the primer. I was able to place the anvil back into the primer. All I need is the explosive to place into the primer.

It is a LOT of work, and I have not intentions of doing this, but I still like the concept of doing this...

Also any thoughts on making your own powder - I don't want to go that direction.
 
I agree making my own powder and primers would be aPITA and could be foolish/bordering on stupid.... but I still want to know HOW to do it.
 
There have been threads in (I think) either the BP or handloading forums regarding this. IIRC, some had success using strike-anywhere match compound, ground with water and allowed to dry in the primer cups.

A search would probably turn it up.

J
 
+1 on the nice information to have.
I've thought about the stuff they coat the little rocks in the Chinese Pop Rocks. You know, the little paper thingys that pop when you throw them on a hard surface.
A quick google shows lots of ways to make mercury fulminate. There's even a Youtube. But in an instance of having to make it, the chemicals would likely be as difficult to find as a brick of CCI primers.
I can't help but think about how far down the hole things would have to be for this to be necessary. Let's face it, nobody is going to do this for a weekend IDPA match. We'd likely be at the subsistence level. Target shooting would be a fond and distant memory.
There are certain advantages to being old. Hopefully I'm gone before this ever happens.
 
If it's down to subsistance survival, you won't find me wasting my time and energy making primers. I'll be knapping flints for me flintlock, or mixing up a batch of BP for the same.

It's great to know how to make a thing, like primers, but realistically, if you find yourself needing to do so for any reason beyond your own amusement, you probably need to have a second look at where you're spending your limited resources.

That's how I see it.

J
 
I personally find not only the prospect of making your own primer compound at home very frightening.

But I question the structural integrity of a used primer cup that has been pounded out flat again with a punch & hammer.

Shoot them?
Not in front of my eyes I wouldn't!

If you don't want to be primer dependent, get a flintlock.

rc
 
I have made my own BP that works very well in a cap and ball revolver. Even if you could re-use primers safely it would seam to me its an awful amount of work for a .03 component.
 
Information is like a gun. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. :cool:
 
Last edited:
Strike anywhere matches aren't as easy to find as they used to be.
Click to expand...

OMG!! The Panic has even constrained supplies of strike anywhere matches!! Fortunately, I bought well before the panic. I have tens of thousands. I will sell you my strike anywhere matches for $0.13ea.:D
 
Funny I was just talking about this yesterday with a guy at the range. He said he made them with a mixture of ammonium and vitamin e(?). He said pounding out the dent from the primer was the hard part, but could be done. He also said you couls use pistol primers for rifle loads if the charge was small enough. He shoots cast loads with around 17 grain of powder for a 30-06 so he probably could get away with it.
 
Are you people serious?

Before you begin contructing your own primers, take a look a "Bullet Proof Vest Boy".

Good LORD.
 
Before you begin contructing your own primers, take a look a "Bullet Proof Vest Boy".
Click to expand...

If people had never decided to construct something for themselves we'd all still be swinging rocks at mammoths for dinner, and waiting for lightning to strike to get us a nice fire going.

Safety certainly, but making things for ourselves isn't outside the realm of possibility with the right knowledge and tools.
 
I took the scenario to mean there were NO primers available at any price anywhere and weren't going to be anymore. Nobody in their right mind is going to try and make them to save money. But I've done a lot of things in my life just to see if I could. Some things worled out better than others.
 
Are you people serious?
Before you begin contructing your own primers, take a look a "Bullet Proof Vest Boy".

Good LORD.
Click to expand...

I'm glad we don't all think that way, or technology would have never advanced.

I don't think there is anything wrong with doing things for yourself.


...
 
match heads can supply both a priming compound an a propellant. I know this because I have done it. 12 years ago I was working on an old lady's farm, and received a call from someone stating they were coming out to do me harm. a quick trip to the shop with a box of ohio bluetips and I had a simple muzzle loading pistol with about an inch bore. tips shaved off and taped with some fine sand against the touch hole for ignition, the remaining compound as propellant with a second charge ahead of it out of a ground bloom flower. a piece of canvas as wadding and some paricularly nasty 3/8 rivets as projectiles.

It was enough to run the rivets through a car door (and stop inside). It was effective enough at intimidation to run off the J frame smith waving classmate... I don't know if it was the ragged holes the rivets punched, or the muzzle flash (impressive out of four and a half inches of one inch galvanized charged with ground bloom and match). He and I were both lucky. I wasn't aiming for the car. Never want to do that again. I was seventeen at the time. Luckily the other kid didn't understand I didn't have a second shot and was freaked out enough he got in his rig and left. He was shaky. I stood still so it wouldn't be obvious I was shaky myself.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

E
  • Locked
Reuse of spent pistil primers for cap guns
Replies
7
Views
970
Jim K
J
T
  • Locked
Making guns/ammo
Replies
21
Views
1K
BeLikeTrey
B
M
  • Locked
primer conversion for lyman trade!
Replies
5
Views
687
Chawbaccer
C
T
  • Locked
Why a Flintlock maybe what end up with in the apocalypse.
2 3 4
Replies
78
Views
4K
Robert
Robert
G
  • Locked
Berdan to Boxer Conversion
Replies
3
Views
1K
salpal48
S
Back
Top