Making your own primers

[EP1990]

just google tetramine copper chlorate. but remember that manufacturing explosives is dangerous and just dont do anything stupid. you can use that stuff as your primer explosive.

 

[heviarti]

potassium chlorate should work as well...

and yeah, totally nuts. I occasionally do crazy shizzle. seems I only get caught when I'm attempting to DRT, never when I'm doing something dodgy...

 

[redneckdan]

Indians sometimes reprimed rimfire rounds using match head compound.

I doubt they did it often or when there was ANY alternative.

Actually it was very common for the native plains people to reuse the fired cases. Cases can still be found that have 3 or 4 different firing pin strikes on the rim. This is the reason cavalry soldiers started policing up their brass after skirmishes.

 

[Suicide*Ride]

I'm all for "learning how to", but I would think the quickest way to get on "a list" is to Google stuff like "tetramine copper chlorate, white Iodine mixed w/ Ammonia (pop rocks), make your own mercury fulminate, etc.".

Besides someone wanting to make primer compounds for reloading, who else would be interested in this kind of information? Google "diesel fuel & Ammonium Nitrate" & see how long it takes for wierd things to start happening to your computer. Now excuse me while I Google "How to make a tighter fitting tinfoil hat".

BTW - 30+yrs ago, we (my step brothers & I) cut the tips off of white-tip kitchen matches & made "bolt bombs". 2 big 1' bolts & a nut. Screw the nut onto 1 of the bolts, just far enough to make a pocket for the match tips. Fill the pocket w/ the tips & CAREFULLY screw the other bolt onto the nut, compressing the tip material. Go outside & throw assy. into the air & run!! The "trick" was to get the assy. screwed tight enough to go "bang" w/o going bang in your hands!!

The last time we ever made any bolt-bombs, my Step-Brother screwed his bolts together a wee bit too tight & BOOOOM!! 1 bolt embedded itself into the ceiling & the other bolt left thread material in his palm! Looking back @ my childhood, it's a wonder I'm still alive!!

SR

 

[Nate1778]

You guys need to be careful using any type of chlorates. There are professional firework producers that won't touch the stuff in certain forms. To reactive and unstable when used in certain applications.

 

[Polar Express]

ummmm, ok..... i'm all for learning, and trying something new. I would like to humbly submit that when you go to make this stuff, you only pull out a small amount, and put the remaining materials a LONG WAY AWAY, so that if it works, and goes 'boom', it doesnt take anything else with it... and if it doesent' work..... it doesnt take everything else with it.

learn? yes. Experiment? absolutly. Safety? PLEASE!!!!!! wear gloves and goggles, AND face protection, maybe some welding aprons and coats too?

ok, im done now.

 

[230RN]

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.

That would be me, among others, no doubt.

I had my own machine shop and made a punch to flatten the used primers out and annealed them.

I tipped the matches carefully, one at a time, away from each other. Some I tried damp, and some dry.

I forgot what gun I used them in, it was so long ago, but they sure smelled, and I was concerned about the ground glass screwing up the rifling. Only some proportion of them went off.

This was posted on the old packing dot org site.

A similar post of mine on another board went like this:

Wow. You mean SWAT finally got around to doing something I did twenty years ago? Wow.

BTW, my .243 bullets were made out of .22 Mag cases, not .22 LR. cases. I made a die and punch to iron out the rim, folding it back --it left a little ding where the primer had impacted, made a mold for lead cores for it, and another die for forming the nose over the lead core. Not very accurate at all, and I only fired about five rounds of them. My son still has the dies I cut for the project. I quit because the principle had been demonstrated, and I was getting a little concerned with possible adverse effects on the barrel I was firing them out of.

The .357 bullets were made by turning the bases of the .30 Carbine cases down to an ogive, leaving a big hole where the primer pocket was, trimming them to length, closing the hole with "something," I forget what, filling them with lead (by pouring --I did not bother making a mold for the lead cores,) and loading them into .357 brass. I do not recall what powder I used --probably Unique. Again, accuracy was "eh!," but the principle had been demonstrated.

I have also made .38 Super cases from .357 cases by grinding a tool bit to the profile of the .38 Super rim and running it into the .357 cases in a lathe. The nickel-plated cases came out looking funny because the tool bit cut through the plating at the head end, so I ended up with cases that were "silvery" at the front and "brassy" at the back. These actually worked pretty well in a Colt Airweight in .38 Super I had at the time.

I had been having trouble finding either brass or ammuntion for the .38 Super, so I went that route. Nowadays .38 Super is a little more popular, as people start realizing what a great round it is. I always regretted getting rid of that gun. AFAIK, my son also still has that tool bit I ground.

As far as priming from strike-anywhere match heads is concerned, you have to slowly cut the tips off one at a time, keeping this operation separate from both the uncut matches and the cut-off tips. This was the diciest operation I ever played with, and I made sure I only kept about ten of the cut-off heads in a shot glass before using them. They do ignite pretty often as you are doing this. I also kept an ABC fire extinguisher around. I had made another punch and anvil to iron out the primer cups and re-inserted the tips and the anvil and reloaded them into cases. Very dicey, and I do not recommend the operation as a substitute for using commercial primers unless it's a Real, Gen-you-ine Honest-To-Gawd SHTF scenario. Better to just buy a couple of thousand primers for future use and let it go at that.

All of this was done many many decades ago when I was known as an aggressive experimenter, and I am only providing this information as a benefit of my experience, not as "recommended practice."

But I was a darned lucky (and careful) "aggressive experimenter" and still have two arms, two legs, two eyes, ten fingers, and no wives.

Lucky, like I said.

I believe this post is within the purview of the original post, that is, regarding the feasibilty of certain operations in SHTF literature. My premise, as mentioned, is that almost nothing is impossible to the resourceful "main character."

Or to the "aggressive experimenter."

Terry, 230RN

My "design goal" was to find out if it was do-able, and it was, but was subject to considerable improvement.

Terry, 230RN