Engineer1911
member
I had 500+ rounds of 30 Herrett loaded in 1983 that did not have the necks annealed before resizing. When the ammo was new, it shot 3/4" groups at a 100 yards with a Thompson Contender, 10" barrel. In the last 2 years, I've fired 40 rounds, and 39 cases split the necks. Group size at 100 yards was 7". The bullets were 100 grain .308 short jacket M1 carbine bullets that are devastating on prairie dogs.
I used an RCBS collet pullet puller to remove bullets, dumped powder into plastic bottle. I used a 25-06 sizer die with an extended decapping rod to gently push out the Federal or Winchester large rifle primer using my Dillon 550. I had a supply of once-fired, annealed, cut to length, resized 30-30 brass for new 30 Herrett brass. Almost every old case had a neck crack with very little neck tension. I removed the primer from the primer pocket, inserted it into the primer seater, placed a new case in the shell plate, and seated the old primer in the case.
I did not have single "primer event" -- BANG ! I have 20 rounds loaded to take to the range for accuracy testing in scoped 10" and 14" barrels. The 480+ pieces of primed brass will then be reloaded.
I have also removed primers that were seated upside down in hand gun ammo, reloading errors made by others, that have never fired when being pushed out. There is a small dimple in the primer cup. I have resized brass and seated these dimpled primers into a box of 50 rounds loaded ammo. 9 MM or 38 Spl rounds fired every time without any problems. I have probably removed 500+ inverted pistol primers without a problem.
At current inventory levels or prices for primers, I'm not throwing away a good primer that is in problematic brass. The primer can be recovered, and I have more time than primers or $$$.
I used an RCBS collet pullet puller to remove bullets, dumped powder into plastic bottle. I used a 25-06 sizer die with an extended decapping rod to gently push out the Federal or Winchester large rifle primer using my Dillon 550. I had a supply of once-fired, annealed, cut to length, resized 30-30 brass for new 30 Herrett brass. Almost every old case had a neck crack with very little neck tension. I removed the primer from the primer pocket, inserted it into the primer seater, placed a new case in the shell plate, and seated the old primer in the case.
I did not have single "primer event" -- BANG ! I have 20 rounds loaded to take to the range for accuracy testing in scoped 10" and 14" barrels. The 480+ pieces of primed brass will then be reloaded.
I have also removed primers that were seated upside down in hand gun ammo, reloading errors made by others, that have never fired when being pushed out. There is a small dimple in the primer cup. I have resized brass and seated these dimpled primers into a box of 50 rounds loaded ammo. 9 MM or 38 Spl rounds fired every time without any problems. I have probably removed 500+ inverted pistol primers without a problem.
At current inventory levels or prices for primers, I'm not throwing away a good primer that is in problematic brass. The primer can be recovered, and I have more time than primers or $$$.
In all the years that I have been doing this I have never had a primer go off. Also I had a large crate of factory shotgun shells that had been submerged in water for some months. I let them dry oit for about a year and took some apart. Reclaimed everything but the rusty hulls and put the componants back in fired hulls. The propellant was clumped up so I broke it up with a pencil using the eraser end before putting it back in the replacment hull. Tried them and everything worked the same as factory test rounds. Some in 12 GA and some in 20GA. Reworked approximately 7K rounds and every one worked just like the factory ammo. Also all the reclaimed regular primers, in excess of 4K by now, have all worked for blasting ammo as long as I allowed them to dry out first. If you are comfortable reusing things like bullets, brass, and primers just use a known prioellant and do not load at max for a safe load. Just sayi'n.
