Cold Weather, Primers and Dies

waynewjw

waynewjw

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Only desert in Canada overlooking the Thompson Riv
So I'm new to reloading. After getting the bench built over xmas and setting everything up, I have finally got the 1st five rounds loaded ready to range test. However, I want to insure that all will be well with primers, etc.

So, located in Surrey, and over the past week the "cold" arctic front has moved in, plus it's been a bit colder that normal. So, I loaded the primers into the auto primer feed (Lyman press and all), loaded 50 primers but only used 5. My question is can the primers just sit there in cold and possibly damp conditions without any deterioration or failure to fire in future loads??? I just want to ensure I can leave the press, dies and primer feed without issues? I'm plan to use it every weekend, so that is the most it will sit around.

Also, is it a good idea to leave dies sitting in the press once they've been used i.e. press out the primers and reformed....or once I've finished that operation, take them off the press and back into the case?

Any other suggestions, comments, experiences based on our West Coast weather conditions would be helpful.

Wayne
 
Garage

I'm set up in my garage, concrete floor, insulated, with pretty tight fitting overhead door. No heat other than when I turn on my little heater on those colder nights and I'm working on the bench or reloading. Condensation isn't an issue, I have many cardboard boxes of "stuff" on shelves and they are all dry, no moisture or rot or stuff like that.
 
He said cold and BC in the same sentence!!!! :p

I do my re-loading in the house basement where the temperature is fairly consistent. I do however have a de-humidifier since we have dry and damp extremes here in Saskatchewan.Not sure how your humidity changes where you are.I can find rust on certain items here in the basement.:eek:

Like others have said it is moisture and condensation that will be killer.
 
I would just leave the primers in the thingy you load them with. Cold can't possibly affect them. Extremely unlikely that higher humidity air could effect them, either.
If other things don't rust in your garage, I see no reason to take the dies out. Simple operation though, to take them out and into the house, if it makes you feel easier about them.
Just a tip for a new reloader. When you have the dies set for using, make sure you have them locked in the correct postition, with the locking ring, so they simpley can be screwed back to the same place.
 
I would be concerned about rust on and in dies, and bare parts of presses like the ram. When these tools are new they have oil on them, and then you clean it off and out of the dies at least to use them, leaving them prone to rust in the right conditions.

I would also be worried about primers having problems if dampness is a factor. That said I had a brick of 70's-80's made primers sit on a shelf in a damp basement for well over 10 years with several floods (primers did NOT get soaked) and every one of them fired when I started using them to reload.
 
Kelly Timoffee said:
He said cold and BC in the same sentence!!!! :p


Sort of had the same idea!
Of course, he lives in Surrey, a more or less suburb of Vancouver, and do you realize the average low temperature at this time of year is about 2 degrees Celsius!
That's not much above freezing, and man, that is COLD!
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It is cold

What do u guys mean? It is very cold, if you noticed in my initial post I qualified with "Arctic" front which has been here for the past 10 days. And yeah by now we are usually in warmer weather, and best case already shorts and t-shirts, but not this year.

I want to leave everything as is on the bench and in the garage, so that I can wander out there when I have a hour or two and on the weekends and reload without wondering about the primers, etc.

So sounds like everything is good where it is. Condensation not an issue. I've got stuff in the garage attic which sits all year long and not an issue with anything, so I think I'm good.

Just didn't want cold weather to affect the primers, load some rounds, go to the range and then go psst'. Seems it won't be the case.
 
Don't worry about rust on the press or dies, especially the resizer. The ram and pivot points are (or should be) lubed, and the lube frim the brass leaves a film on the critical parts of the die.
 
Kelly Timoffee said:
He said cold and BC in the same sentence!!!! :p
Click to expand...

Interior BC, especially Northern interior BC can be brutally cold! But not in Surrey.

As for non-condensing moisture and primers, I don't believe it's an issue. From what I read, oil is the killer of primers.
 
What do u guys mean? It is very cold, if you noticed in my initial post I qualified with "Arctic" front which has been here for the past 10 days.
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Ahwwwww pumpkin.

Its cute that you think it gets "cold" in the lower mainland.

It has been -25C here in Calgary for like the last three months. You don't know the first thing about what "COLD" means till you have to stand outside in that kind of weather with a -35 windchill solidifying any exposed flesh within minutes.
 
wood and cardboard wont really atract condensation, But cold metal is a condensation Magnet if there is humidty in the air . Just think of it as a cold beer on a hot day......
 
Suputin said:
Ahwwwww pumpkin.

Its cute that you think it gets "cold" in the lower mainland.

It has been -25C here in Calgary for like the last three months. You don't know the first thing about what "COLD" means till you have to stand outside in that kind of weather with a -35 windchill solidifying any exposed flesh within minutes.
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You have a dryer cold back there , our moisture in the air go's right to the bone ;)
 
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Dry air, wet air..-25 to -30 is still goddamn cold, then factor in a wind. I think yesterday was the first day we had since early Feb. that the temp struggled above minus 5 or so. Been averaging -15 or -20 the last few weeks, here in central Alberta. We had warmer temps in early Feb. than we have had up till now.
 
That's Why I Moved

Suputin said:
Ahwwwww pumpkin.

Its cute that you think it gets "cold" in the lower mainland.

It has been -25C here in Calgary for like the last three months. You don't know the first thing about what "COLD" means till you have to stand outside in that kind of weather with a -35 windchill solidifying any exposed flesh within minutes.
Click to expand...

Used to live in Alberta, in fact, born and raised, and had enough of freezing my arse of in the "dry" cold, so loaded up the truck and moved in 84'. Been back to Alberta once, the family named it the "Christmas From Hell" 10 days of black ice, minus 40 plus the wind chill, boosting batteries....then I snapped back to reality and got the hell outa there. Have not gone back since.

So cold in the tropical temperate rainforests of B.C. is like minus 5 or 10, unbearable, but we put on our best smile, brave the elements, and survive...somehow! ;)
 
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