shelf life of primers (VA)

[citizen16]

hi
what is the shelf life of primers? I stopped reloading 10 years ago & still have 900 cci Large pistol & 600 small pistol (federal & cci) primers.
Thanks
Peter

 

[Der Verge]

Let me put it this way. I am using primers my grandfather bought, and he passed away in 1985..........

 

[P5 Guy]

How were they stored? Out in the garage or in the closet in the house?

 

[citizen16]

stored

they were stored in a plastic tool box , in a cabinet, in the garage

 

[HisSoldier]

Which brings up a good subject. Environmentalist say they want us to stop using lead styphnate primers, a health hazard. They want us to use primers that have another more healthy compound, but, uh, they don't last very long. Surely they wouldn't be lying to us would they? I Mean, they wouldn't have some ulterior motive. Would they?

 

[dtalley]

I recently load some primers that were 20 yrs old and every one went pop when the trigger was pulled.

 

[ranger335v]

"what is the shelf life of primers?"

I don't know yet. The oldest I have are a few boxes of WW II surplus GI large pistol caps and they still work fine.

 

[Hey_Allen]

The one thing I would be cautious about with truly old primers is the corrosive salt primers that were available until around the early 70's. (If I remember what I've read correctly)

Possibility of causing brass failure as well as etching the bore just isn't worth it to me, but then again, I don't have access to that old of primers, either!

 

[raborlin]

I also have CCI primers from the early 70's. They're non mercuric and present no difficulties from the corrosive point of things. My primers have also been kept in my primer magazine located in my inside the house reloading room so temperature and humidity have been under control.

I would try loading a few rounds and run them against a control group of CCI fresh primers to see what if any fps fall off there might be. This assumes you have access to a chronograph.

Further, if concerns continue to dog you, I'd suggest contacting the manufacturer and asking their tech folks for their considered opinion. I suspect you should have no issues.

Good shooting,

Ramon

 

[jcwit]

I've used primers from back in the 1940's with excellent results non-corrosive of course.

 

[jcwit]

opp's

 

[Der Verge]

The ones I had were in the origional packaging, under some crap in a drawer. The drawer was in a "dresser" that was used as a loading bench. It was in the basement. Dark and damp.........All the powder had gone to hell, but the primers are GREAT!

 

[ArchAngelCD]

The oldest primers I have right now were bought in 1989 and they work fine. I've hear of primers working perfectly after 50 years so I wouldn't worry a bit about your 1998 primers!