According to the Abilene Reporter-News, most Gibson's Discount Center stores went out of business around 1982 following a government victory in a lawsuit filed by the FTC.
That suggests the boxes of CCI small rifle primers with a Gibson's price sticker bought in Jonesboro, Arkansas, were probably purchased no later than 1982 - possibly earlier - making them at least 34 years old.
Those primers were stored - in their original tray - in a garage in Northern Arkansas until they were moved to North Texas and continued to be stored in a garage that was neither heated nor air conditioned.
Last week, I loaded 35 of those primers into some .223 Remington rounds (50 grain Hornady Soft Point over 19.5 grains IMR-4198) for use in a Savage Axis rifle. I took them to the family farm over Columbus Day and shot them with no problems or failures of any kind.
This has given me some confidence that the thousands of nearly four decade-old primers that I still have are probably okay to use.
That suggests the boxes of CCI small rifle primers with a Gibson's price sticker bought in Jonesboro, Arkansas, were probably purchased no later than 1982 - possibly earlier - making them at least 34 years old.
Those primers were stored - in their original tray - in a garage in Northern Arkansas until they were moved to North Texas and continued to be stored in a garage that was neither heated nor air conditioned.
Last week, I loaded 35 of those primers into some .223 Remington rounds (50 grain Hornady Soft Point over 19.5 grains IMR-4198) for use in a Savage Axis rifle. I took them to the family farm over Columbus Day and shot them with no problems or failures of any kind.
This has given me some confidence that the thousands of nearly four decade-old primers that I still have are probably okay to use.