help with dating primers

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Last Post 26 April 2021
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sluggo posted this 23 April 2021

Hello to the forum: I recently purchased a large quantity of reloading components. there are about 18000 primers included with the lot. My question is on the age of some of them. Can any of our members give me a rough idea on the age of these by looking at the boxes? They were stored in a cool dry area so I think they will be ok to use. Should i be concerned if they are old? Thanks for any help on this.

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admiral posted this 23 April 2021

CCI's are from the 1970's, Federal's are 1970's, Winchester used that packaging from the mid '80's into the '90's, and the last Federal's are early '80's. I have dozens of bricks of primers that have the same packaging. The packaging is easy to age if you have copies of the old Handloader's Digest books. All the old primers I have bought over the years from estate sales going back to the ones that came in wooden trays (1950's ?) have always gone bang.

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Boschloper posted this 24 April 2021

I was given and used a couple boxes of CCI's in the same green boxes. They worked fine.

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sluggo posted this 24 April 2021

Thanks for the info. I will put them to good use.

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dale2242 posted this 24 April 2021

I would not worry about them one bit.

Since they were stored properly they are almost guarantied to fire at a 100%.

Primer are WAY HARDER to deactivate than most people think.

What a great score. Enjoy.

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 24 April 2021

Geoff Beneze did an interesting experiment a few years ago ... he took perfectly good primers and tried to kill them ... including WD40, ... often mentioned ... he was not very successful ... indicates good American primers are pretty hardy .... i doubt finger oil kills them .... i pick up all my primers and prime singly ...

on the other hand, i bot a case of russian 22rf about 30 years ago ( $80 ) .. real crap, but at first fun enough for large pop cans ... i still have a half case, but though proper storage, only half go bang now ... with lots of poofs and splizzles ... have to check barrel after each soft shot ...

local gun show has 1000 small rifle primers for $165 ... hang on to those middle aged primers ...

ken

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sluggo posted this 24 April 2021

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the primers. I figured they were older. The 1000 federal primers were marked $15.95. Now they are asking $165.00 talk about inflation.

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gnoahhh posted this 25 April 2021

Now that all the responses verifying the usefulness of the primers are in, I will address the issue of dating primers.

Since they are high maintenance expensive creatures, it just won't do to take them to a taco truck on the first date. They need to be seen in classy joint such as Taco Bell. You're welcome.