Primer POP !!

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Ak Guy

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WOW ! I just tried something that I don't recommend, and will not be trying again. I wanted a de-activated primer for.....well, it's a long story, so anyhow.... I figured I'd just hold it on the bench w/ needle nose pliers and hit it w/ a long-nose lighter, and it would go "phshoooo" ....... WRONG !!! ........it went off like a rifle shot, and took off around the garage.....ping...ping...ping.... and I haven't found it yet........and doubt I ever will.
Yikes....there's some serious POP in those things !!!!
 
It being an explosive and all that jazz.

Next time, gingerly remove the anvil with a probe, and then rinse the priming compound (explosive, etc!) out of the cup with brakeclean. This has always worked well for me.

Note: the residue is still explosive after the brakeclean gasses off.

If you need to be told about eye pro, gloves, ear pro, etc, you shouldn't be doing this anyway.
 
I just want to know why you needed a spent primer? If I was in that perdiciment I would have seated one in a case, chambered the case and fired the primer off or used one in my decapping tube.
 
ohihunter2014 said:
I just want to know why you needed a spent primer.
Click to expand...

In my case, I have restocked or refinished several arms and needed new escutcheons or grip cap covers to replace mangled, ugly, or missing parts. I prefer to use a case head of the appropriate caliber, with a visually intact, but safe, primer.
 
Put the primed empty case in the gun, point it away from you (Using hearing protection), and pull the trigger, safest way to blow up a primer.
edwardware said:
Next time, gingerly remove the anvil with a probe,
Click to expand...
I wouldn't recommend that, safety glasses or not. Far safer ways. Even smacking it with a hammer is better than that IMHO. :)
 
I figured I'd just hold it on the bench w/ needle nose pliers and hit it w/ a long-nose lighter, and it would go "phshoooo"
Click to expand...

I suppose “WOW” is better than “Dude, you don’t have any eyebrows!” Or trying to explain to the emergency room doctor what the little spider looking piece of metal is and how it became embedded in your eye ball.

Be safe out there, that could have been a bad one.
 
Walkalong said:
Put the primed empty case in the gun, point it away from you (Using hearing protection), and pull the trigger, safest way to blow up a primer.
Click to expand...

Granted, but it fails to accomplish the goal of producing a visually intact, but safe, primer.
 
Granted, but it fails to accomplish the goal of producing a visually intact, but safe, primer.
Click to expand...

Not sure why you would want something that won’t go bang to look like something that should go bang but If that’s the goal, dig out a spent primer, remove the anvil and find a punch that fits in the cup and a flat surface to flatten the dent out with a few light taps of a hammer.
 
There seams to be a reading comprehension problem around here.

I remember the first time I fired a rifle primer in an empty case. I was expecting a little pop so I didn't wear any ear protection in my little loading room. I was rewarded with two ringing ears. Soaking in solvent like mentioned above should work. Good luck with your refinishing.
 
jmorris said:
Not sure why you would want something that won’t go bang to look like something that should go bang but If that’s the goal, dig out a spent primer, remove the anvil and find a punch that fits in the cup and a flat surface to flatten the dent out with a few light taps of a hammer.
Click to expand...

This seems like the safest approach to me. Has the added benefit of not wasting an otherwise perfectly-good primer!

Yeah, I'm a miser with primers after the last shortage/crisis...
 
A primer is, visually, just a little round piece of shiny steel, yes? Maybe just hit the hardware store for a piece of steel, aluminum, or brass stock of the right diameter, dress the tip, cut it off and bond it into the primer hole? Thats about as inert as it can get, and not terribly difficult or expensive.

Just another future option.
 
Post #10 is the winner! Soaking a primer in anything WILL NOT I repeat WILL NOT deactivate it!!!! I have posted the following on THR and elsewhere before but here it is again:

When I started reloading in the nineteen sixties, the “common” knowledge was; don’t touch the primers with your bare hand---you will “kill” the primer! During that time (and for some time thereafter) if I had to remove a primer from a damaged case etc. I dropped it into a small (airline liquor) bottle along with some really light weight oil. Later I learned I could have reused most of those primers and the little bottle got shoved to the back corner of a shelf. This subject appears from time to time on one or another of the sites I visit and I remembered that little bottle. SO----I went and found it. I dumped out the 20+ oil soaked primers and washed them in white gas (Coleman fuel). I let them dry for a day and then set them into some old 303 brass. The freshest primer in that bottle was at least 20 years old. Every one of those primers fired (to some degree)! Some only lightly “popped” but others gave quite an authoritative “bang”. I don’t know if they had enough power to set off a powder charge BUT I do know I will never believe you can “kill” a primer by soaking it in anything.
 
"...haven't found it yet..." It'll be stick in some wood somewhere. Best and safest way to do that is in the firearm.
The priming compound will go bang if you hit it with or without the anvil. It's not an explosive, but it is percussive. As in whack it with a hammer and it'll go bang. The anvil is just the hard place and the firing pin the rock.
http://www.academia.edu/3157491/Primer_mixes_composition_and_behaviour
 
Perhaps making false primers from a piece of aluminum rod might be easier...and safer.
 
Hhmmmm..........time for Plan B. I've cleaned them out before by popping out the anvil after they soaked in WD-40 for awhile, and before they dried out. (Lighting them seemed like an easier way, but not any more !) I think I'll seat some wet ones in brass, and see if they will fire while wet. If they won't, I'll go back to popping out the anvil (while wet) and digging out the compound ........ which is, by the way, an explosive !
 
Get a condensed milk can at the grocery store. Poke a hole in it and drain milk. Put a primer or three in the can through hole. Put can on heat source outside house and let them pop off. Cut can open and get spent primer..... You could probably do the same with a primer brass under the lid of a gas grill.
 
I live a reckless and dangerous life full of fast cars, alligator wrestling, and hang gliding so I decided to add primer tampering to the list. I crawled under my loading desk to retrieve all the dropped primer under there and popped the anvils out with a pick.

image.jpg

I soaked them in acetone in a plastic cap for about a minute which was long enough to turn the compound to goo. A quick swish with a small screwdriver and a rinse and they are clean

image.jpg

Next I took the rest of the untampered ones and went outside and set them off with a torch and a pliers. They all zinged off and you could here them landing in the woods about 40 feet away. Neat. Don't tell my Mom or she won't let me hang out with you guys anymore.
 
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