Should I use old corroded primers?

DangerRuss

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Helping a friends family go through his reloading stuff since he passed away in 2019.
Note - I’m saying corroded, not corrosive.
He had a LOT of primers that sat in his non-AC basement, so have corrosion on them like shown in the pic below.
Has anyone used primers like this? Would they still be good? Or not worth loading?
I was looking online about how to kill primers when disposing of them, and it sounded like people had a hard time permanently killing them. Like if they were were wet, they wouldn’t work, but then they worked once they dried out.
Worst case, I could store them away in case of a time when primers were a lot harder to get.
Thanks!
AF438DD1-19D5-4DE4-91B8-3E9F87AA5081.jpeg
 
I guess it depends on what “a lot” means. For less than 2k I’d just toss them. More than that I’d test and if they run better than 97% I’d use them for practice loads, any worse and I’d toss them all. They aren’t reliably disabled by water or oil, I might toss them into the camp fire a few at a time, but in the past I’ve just dropped them in my recycle bin and let the company deal with them.
 
It is true that they may not work while wet, but will work once they dry. I found a document once on proper shipment procedure for lead styphnate (active component in primer compound) and it is shipped wet. Also, there may be sealer used in the primer that will make it hard for oil to penetrate.

I would load some in empty brass cases and test them.
 
What do they look like inside the cup? The "shiny" side doesn't matter all that much. In my experience a little tarnish doesn't affect function and humidity doesn't kill primer compound.
 
What do they look like inside the cup? The "shiny" side doesn't matter all that much. In my experience a little tarnish doesn't affect function and humidity doesn't kill primer compound.
The cup side looks good. I was planning to flip a few and include a pic of that in my original post, but I spilled them trying to do it. :confused:
 
I'd load a few into empty cases, and then test fire the cases to see if they pop. Wear ear pro, because its still going to be loud, like a starting pistol. If you don't get any failures, I'd say they're good for practice ammo.

I'm still working through some primers that were in my late father's reloading equipment, some of which are 15+ years old and were not stored in a climate controlled area, and I've had very few failures. 1 or 2 per 1000, it seems.
 
Primers are reasonably available at this time from what I have seen on the internet. Get some new ones. Get some more new ones for when they become hard to get. Get even more new ones. Dispose of the old ones.

I have had hangfires and misfired from WLR primers that looked a whole lot better than those. I had two misfires out of a box of 50 30/06 reloads the last time I went to the range and a bunch of hangfires with a 45/70 several years ago. It could have been a bad batch of primers or it could have been from storing them in a dry but unairconditioned metal building for a while. I have no way of knowing for sure. I also had some 7mm RM factory rounds hang fire and misfire one time. They showed corrosion around the bullets and primers.

I tried killing some WLP primers one time by soaking them for a week in WD40. I loaded them into 45 Colt cases and took them to the farm the next day to see if they would fire. All 10 of them did.

You can have great fun with a 22 caliber air gun, some eye protection, and some large rifle or pistol primers by shooting them aginst a solid object. They make a delightful pop.
 
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