I'm an idiot....

[bigheaddaddy]

Reloading 41 magnum a few months ago. The brass had been tumbled (corn cob media), deprimed, and new CCI Large Pistol primers put in. I didn't load the brass at that time, and when it came time to tumble more brass a couple months later, I mistakenly put the primed brass in the tumbler and left it in there for several hours.

My questions are:
1) Is it safe to load this brass without changing the primers? If pieces of the corn cob media get insude the primer or are blocking the "fire hole", will it cause ignition problems?
2) I am using a Lee Single stage press and Lee dies. Can i safely push these live primers out like I do with used primers using the Lee dies? Will the primers go off in the press if I try this?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Definitely don't de-prime the brass with the primers already in there. What I would do is this. Turn the cases up side down and tap on the side to drop any loose media out of the case. Look inside the case with a bright light and see if there is anything in the flash hole and if everything looks ok. Go ahead and load them with a mild load and keep them separated from your regular reloads and shoot them carefully. 8) 8)

...Jimbo

 

[Lost Sheep]

Definitely look inside the brass to make sure no particles of anything is blocking any of the flash holes.

If the flash holes are clear and nothing in the tumbling media chemically disabled the priming compound (which I think is highly unlikely, but I cannot say for sure - you could put a couple of empty cases in your gun and fire the primers off to see if they still work) I would just load them up and shoot them.

If you want to deprime them, I will disagree with Jimbo357mag. I would put on hearing protectors in addition to the eye protection you always use when loading (right?) and deprime them.

Primers are designed to be ignited by a sharp blow. An application of slow pressure seldom sets one off. I have crushed a few primers (sometimes, they have gone into the primer pocket sideways, which always results in severe mangling) and never set one off.

Just be careful.

So, my choice would be to
1) inspect them for clogged flash holes,
2) read the chemical composition of the tumbling/cleaning/polishing media you used to figure out how likely a chemical interaction might have occurred
3) test a couple with no powder and no bullet
3) load them and shoot them
or
If they may have been chemically compromised or any fail to ignite when tested, I would deprime them and turn them over to my local hazardous waste disposal site. Or toss them in a burn barrel (with proper precautions).

Lost Sheep

 

[VA Shooter]

I have deprimed some brass that the primers were upside down in my Lee primer and they were fine just use safety glasses and hearing protection

 

[Jimbo357mag]

The primers are not up-side-down. The de-capping pin will be pressing right on the anvil if he tries to de-prime. I don't think it is a good idea to de-prime hot primers, plus it will damage them. I do think it is a good idea to load a couple of shells up to pop just the primers and make sure they are working before reloading or you could just shoot the shells with the primers and then de-cap them and start over. You didn't say how many you have but 50 or so primers is not a big $ loss. Shooting brass with hot primers out of a gun at night is kinda interesting. :shock: :shock:

...Jimbo

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

I've deprimed live cases in the press. No problems (knock on wood?) but "gentle" was a word that kept going thru my head as I did it!

Started loading pistol ammo w/ one of the old Lee loaders, the "bang on it w/ a hammer" model. Like many who've used this tool, I had a couple of primers pop! I had my glasses on, of course, and the noise wasn't THAT loud. Otherwise it was more startling than dangerous.

HOWEVER...

Weshoot2 once told us a story of having the same thing happen to him, and he ended up picking bits of "shrapnel" out of his hide for a while. He suggested adding GLOVES to the glasses and hearing protection if you're gonna try to deprime live cases.

Since he's never given us any bad advice, I'd suggest following HIS practice.

Rick C

 

[J Miller]

bigheaddaddy,

I would do two things.
First I'd visually inspect the cases for plugged flash holes and then after finding them plugged up I'd decap them and clean them out.
Then I would reseat the primers and load them up.

Contrary to what some folks say it is safe to decap live primers if you go slowly and push the primers out of the case.

I prefer to use a universal decapping die for this rather than the sizing die because there is no resistance other than the decapping pin on the primer.
Raise the ram slowly till you feel the pin contact the primer.
Then slowly push the primer out.
I cannot use the word "slowly" enough. It takes an impact to detonate a primer. "Slowly" pushing them out is not an impact.
I've done hundreds of pistol and rifle primers that way with out a single detonation.

Oh, and if one does go off, no big deal, the case is in the die, the primer will just blow out the fired primer chute and make a pop. Primers are not C4, it won't blow up your press and cause a reading on the earthquake scales in CA.
Wear safety glasses just to be safe.
If you want, put a paper towel tube around the ram to catch anything that comes out.

Joe

 

[bigheaddaddy]

Thanks for all the help fellows.

I took the easy way out by loading the empty primed brass in the Blackhawk, and 50 pops later, my problem was solved.

It's good to have such informed and experienced friends to provide guidance when I need it.

Thanks again!

 

[mattsbox99]

You just wasted 50 primers....

They were perfectly safe to load and go. Oh well, lesson learned I suppose.

 

[Cholo]

You just wasted 50 primers....

They were perfectly safe to load and go. Oh well, lesson learned I suppose.

Yup, I agree. Now go clean your gun :wink:

 

[Pal Val]

Call me a fool, but I would rather waste 50 primers than have to deal with a squib, or a hangfire. I was going to suggest a squirt of Kroil into each case to kill the primer before depriming.

 

[mattsbox99]

Why would there be a squib or hangfire? I say the chances of a squib or hangfire are exactly the same as if he had not tumbled the primed cases. Its pretty easy to look in the cases and see if a tiny piece of media got in the flashhole, not that that would even matter since the primer blast would have dislodged it anyway. The only thing that might affect the primers is liquid cleaning.

Priming compound is handled wet, and put in the primer cup wet, when it dries its shipped out. Water or oil will not kill a primer effectively.

 

[Mobuck]

Take this for whatever it's worth. I've knocked out quite a few live primers over the last 40 years using both a press mounted sizing/decapping die and a LEE depriming rod and hammer. So far I've never set off a primer when removing either right side up or upside down. I expected the primers to pop when I hit them with the LEE decapper since it's just about like a firing pin but it didn't happen.
When the primer is right side up, you're hitting the anvil with the punch but the outer face of the primer is flat and has some give. When it's upside down, you're hitting the face just like a firing pin but there's little/no support for the anvil so it gives. Use your own judgement.
I'd inpsect the flash hole and if it looks clear, go ahead and load the cases with practice loads where reliability is not essential.

 

[RonS]

Everyone is going to have a different opinion but two of my friends have glass eyes. (Nothing to do with shooting, but I am not talking about the process, just the possible end result of an accident.)

I also would have fired the empty, primed cases in the gun. I can afford primers and they haven't released those Bionic Man eyes yet.

 

[Bucks Owin]

I've GENTLY deprimed live primers in the size die (had a helluva scarey bang once too in a moment of distraction) but I'd simply shoot the 50 cases inert and start over iff'n it were me... :wink:

 

[dacaur]

Ive used my sizing/recapping die to remove quite a few live .308 and 9mm primers, never a problem. Like those above said, it takes a sharp blow to set off a primer. A decapping die setting one off would be about as likley as a .22 round packed in a bulk box going off from the impact of another round. In both cases, If you are a big enough idiot, you can make it happen, but just go slow and be careful and you wont have a problem.

I also reloaded the removed primers and have never had an issue...