Making a rimfire round inert

fljp2002

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Fellows

I am in the process of making a rimfire coaster with poured acrylic in which I encapsulate 22 LR,, .17 HMR and .22 WMR.

I pull the bullets and dump the powder and then can fire the primer in my 22 LR and .17 HMR but don’t have a .22 wmr to use.

Is there a method around that would render the priming compound in the .22 WMR inert : soaking in water, oil etc

Thanks
 
Is there a need to make the rounds inert? Once encapsulated, nothing can happen even if the coaster was set on fire.
Tests show that, unless the pressure is contained in a barrel, rounds are stopped by drywall and certainly epoxy would do the job.

I recently saw a show where the host encapsulated live rounds in epoxy and fired bullets at them.
None of the encapsulated rounds ever went off.
Even when hit directly, they just opened and spilled their powder. https://youtu.be/YLQGcAOeE_k
 
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I tried that as well with centre fire large rifle primers - no pop to them after a soak - then set on shelf - was in either oil or water - I do not remember - some weeks later - maybe had "dried out" - some of them did then "pop" - no real way to measure, but I presume less "pop" to them compared to when new. Surprised hell out of me - I had thought when previously dead, all would still be dead - did not work out that way.
 
When I oiled the 44 mag cases, I set them upright with one drop of oil in each case then fired one each day. After one day the primers went off as if they were brand new, then after that they slowly died out a bit more each day until day five when they were completely dead. Maybe the LRP's have a thicker primer compound that takes longer for the oil to penetrate? Don't know.
 
In my experience .22LR bullets are very neatly and tightly seated. Ordinary 10w30 motor oil isn't likely to penetrate deeply enough. If you're following that advice, I'd find something much finer like WD40 or mineral spirits or kerosene. The goal is to neutralize the powder and the priming compoung.
 
If you have removed the bullet and powder, just heat the case until the primer compound goes off. Clean it up and reassemble with bullet.
 
An experience today - after I posted earlier on this thread - was about 15 centre fire large rifle primers that I had pressed out of someone's handholds - I remember it was the brass that I was after - after pulling bullets and dumping powder, I pressed out the live primers - no clue what they were - Standard or magnum - no idea what brand - so into small container with 0W20 Mobile One motor oil - like a year ago - found them and decided to burn them off with some discard smokeless powder - not going to be doing that again!! In future, I will be popping them off in a rifle, after removing bullet and primer.

Even though soaking in oil about a year - flame from propane plumbers torch made about 2/3 of them "pop" - I was struck in my cheek by one - a few simply seemed to burn off, but many "popped" - is my opinion that most were not totally inert - after about a year soaking in oil - I have no clue if they would have responded to impact or not.

Picture below of what I found after burning them off - several primer "anvils" disappeared - I think I found all the primer cups, though.

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My buddy melts metals down and makes knives & such.

I gave him a bucket of" fired" 22 bras that I had for a few years.

When they got melted, they popped and threw hot metal all over his shop ! Those empty 22 bras are Nasty even when fired. seems like there's always something left in them.

he made me these ingots out of the 22 brass
100_7121.jpg
 
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In the past I have made dummy rounds for a friend who taught the PAL course, I chucked them in the lathe, drilled a small hole in the center of the base with a centering drill bit , shake out the powder, chuck them again and hit the rim with a punch to fire the priming compound, small explosion and flame through the center hole, bullet stays in the case, done several dozen that way.
 
My buddy melts metals down and makes knives & such.

I gave him a bucket of" fired" 22 bras that I had for a few years.

When they got melted, they popped and threw hot metal all over his shop ! Those empty 22 bras are Nasty even when fired. seems like there's always something left in them.

he made me these ingots out of the 22 brass
100_7121.jpg

lone ranger - is it possible there might have been a drop or two of moisture in any of those brass? When I started to melt wheel weights, I was benefactor of several visits from "tinsel fairy" - being dumber than a normal hammer, it took several occurrences before I realized that some wheel weights might have been wet at one time - towards the bottom of 5 gallon bucket, that no doubt had spent time outdoors - still contained drops of water - and I was dumping them directly into molten lead - water immediately turned to steam and propelled molten lead all over - onto my glasses and shirt, some on my cheek, onto my welding gloves. I never tried to melt brass, but would suspect same phenomenon could occur? Is hard to imagine there is any live primer compound left after successfully firing a round, but your buddy experienced what he experienced.
 
Update:

1. After pulling the projectile and dumping the powder I soaked the casing in wd 40 overnight

2. The wd 40 turned lime green

3. Quick rinse and dry and could only see brass at the bottom of the case. Tried to fire one primer and click only.

I suspect that since rimfire priming compound is made wet and left to dry in the case, it must be water/oil soluble.
 
lone ranger - is it possible there might have been a drop or two of moisture in any of those brass? When I started to melt wheel weights, I was benefactor of several visits from "tinsel fairy" - being dumber than a normal hammer, it took several occurrences before I realized that some wheel weights might have been wet at one time - towards the bottom of 5 gallon bucket, that no doubt had spent time outdoors - still contained drops of water - and I was dumping them directly into molten lead - water immediately turned to steam and propelled molten lead all over - onto my glasses and shirt, some on my cheek, onto my welding gloves. I never tried to melt brass, but would suspect same phenomenon could occur? Is hard to imagine there is any live primer compound left after successfully firing a round, but your buddy experienced what he experienced.

Oh boy... good point.
ya , you bet there could have been moisture in them.
I never thought of that. Very possible.
 
Fellows

I am in the process of making a rimfire coaster with poured acrylic in which I encapsulate 22 LR,, .17 HMR and .22 WMR.

I pull the bullets and dump the powder and then can fire the primer in my 22 LR and .17 HMR but don’t have a .22 wmr to use.

Is there a method around that would render the priming compound in the .22 WMR inert : soaking in water, oil etc

Thanks

Guaranteed to make it inert - pull the bullet, dump the powder, stand the case upright on flat metal, stand back and heat the case with a propane torch. It's surprisingly loud quickly. I use to use the element on an electric range. The case doesn't seem to move - just a bang.
 
Pull the bullet, dump the powder, scratch the inside of the case with a metal pick. Point the case mouth away from your face. Wear gloves.
 
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