depriming live primers

fetchingdrake

fetchingdrake

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I have recently received over 1000 rounds of reloads from a elderly gentleman and would like to reuse the cases as most look to be once fired. I know that all the reloading books say to never deprime a live primer but have heard of people doing it. My question to you experts is, am I pushing it by doing this with this many cases? Would a drop of water in each case help?

I know some will say to just leave the old primer, but i would like to use new primers for my own peace of mind.

What do you think? Start depriming or no?


Thanks

fetchingdrake
 
I don't know for sure, i tend to believe it's a hazardous activity. On the other hand i've done it myself when i was younger and still bullet proof, and never had a "bang". I would advise against it, but if you did try it wear good eye and face protection, or use a splatter screen, thick gloves, etc. Let us know how it turns out for you.

The other thing to do would be to chamber and fire them so all the primers are dead before you deprime. I've heard of people deactivating primers with oil or WD40 but it never worked when i tried it.
 
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Safest bet IMHO and through experience, WD-40 or Breakfree. Kills primers dead.

Have a bunch like you do, 2gallon bucket and any type of petroleum based lubricant will work. A gallon of WD-40 is cheaper than the loss of an eye etc...
 
Why deprime them any way? For peace of mind use them and avoid the hassle/time/danger of destroying 50 bucks worth of primers!
 
david doyle said:
Why deprime them any way? For peace of mind use them and avoid the hassle/time/danger of destroying 50 bucks worth of primers!
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking. Pull the bullets, dump powder and reload the cases.

BTW, you don't need oil to kill a primer, water works very well and is not nearly as messy. I have used water and even experimented with how long water takes to deactivate a primer. A little detergent added will help break the surface tension to help get the water into the primer compound.

The primer compound is manufactured as a water based slurry and if you soak primers in water for a while, the primer compound will just about wash out.

I think the "use oil" wives tales may have come from a long time ago when there were stories of WD-40 working its way into primers and creating misfires. Sure oil will work, but why bother with the mess.
 
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I have deprimed literally hundreds of live primers from cases that I wanted to reload with "known" components. Later I use those salvaged primers for fireforming my wildcat cases using the COW method. I have never had a kaboom, nor have I ever had a salvaged primer fail to work when I reused it.
Just wear eye and hand protection, and go slowly with your press. No sweat. Regards, Eagleye.
 
I cannot fathom why you would de-prime in the first place, just so you can reprime with essentially the same primer. If you were disposing of unwanted ammo, maybe. But if you intend to use the brass, why not the primers?

Anyway, I too have pushed out many primers from unwanted or damaged ammo with a de-capping die. Haven't had one or even heard of one going off.
 
If you remove the decapping pin from the die you can resize without decapping. decapping live primers isn't a problem. I've been doing it for years.
 
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