Old Primers

I don't know what year I bought these primers but I am sure they have been around awhile at $1.69 a box. Don't shoot much small pistol magnum stuff.

I inherited some like that appear to be from that vintage from my grandfather. I like the packaging design.

Those are obviously older but I bought some 25 year old Winchester LP primers a few years back. Not one dud. I have some I bought just before everything went crazy and I have had a few duds.

Bill

Greetings,

I did have a carton of CCI primers about the same vintage as yours.

The priming mix had become contaminated and they did not fire. There was green/yellow powder inside the cardboard sleeve.

I wrote to CCI and asked the year of production based on the lot number.

Their reply, "That Lot Number is not in our system".

Anyhow, you can safely use the Magnum primers with target velocity loads. This is documented in Gil Hebard's Pistol Shooters Treasury in the CCI primer chapter.

I have several boxes of Grandpa's old primers with the radius/domed heads in the wood trays. They still go bang.

Conclusion. If stored properly, primers have a long life.

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Dave, my father left me some of those domed/radiused head Federal rifle primers. They also were in wooden trays.  I tried them in one of my rifles and the accuracy with them was terrible.  I don't know if the primers went bad or not. They are no longer with me and I wish I had saved one of the original paper packages with the wooden tray.

Greetings,

I had to schmooze my friend Bruce at Star Machine Works for a radiused primer punch.

Did you use a radius punch or a flat one?

Cheers,

Dave

I still have some of those very same CCI primers from the 60/70s. mine still work

I still have some of those in magnum small pistol primer, I believe they are from the early to mid 1980's

fc60 wrote:Greetings,

I had to schmooze my friend Bruce at Star Machine Works for a radiused primer punch.

Did you use a radius punch or a flat one?

Cheers,

Dave

At the time I was using a Lyman Spar T turret press. It came with primer seating punches for domed priers. So, yes I was using a domed punch.

troystaten wrote:I still have some of those in magnum small pistol primer, I believe they are from the early to mid 1980's

That sounds about right. It was in that time frame that I purchased my first 357 Magnum. Haven't shot it much. Still have the original primers for it.

Hi new to the forum and came across these . Any information would be appreciated

As long as they are dry and kept away from oily substances they will work

Those small boxes from CCI were easy to store

Any idea on age? Rifle primer look like 75?