Removing Primers

This comes up about every six months.
Live primers can be removed the same way you remove dead ones, in your press.
I suggest you wear safety equipment such as gloves and eye protection and ear protection, however, the primer is well shielded from you by the press and dies.

Incidentally, I've done it that way many many times, and not one single primer has ever gone off.
Even de-primed a few in a Lee Hammer type loader, without incident.
I've even re-used some, and they worked. Not that I'd want to depend on them working.
 
If you want to deactivate them before removal, just use water. Some people say use oil, WD-40 etc, but water does the job very well and doesn't leave a coating on the inside of the cases.

Primers are manufactured from a water based slurry, so why use oil?
 
Just run them through a depriming die. Go slow, and at the very least wear eye protection.

I've reused a few dozen primers I had to deprime, they all worked fine.
 
"...Go slow..." Very slow. It's not really a big deal. A slow, gentle, push, in the sizing die, pops 'em out with no excitement or loud noises.
 
Make em safe by running them through the gun and popping them off if you are at all worried about them going off in the press.

I've pushed out a lot of live ones too over the years and never had a problem. Put the powder all away first thou... :)
 
At least the threads on primer removal are consistant every six months.
50%,push them out, 25%,deactivate with oil, 15%, deactivate with water,
10%, none of the above.
And the fellow that asks the question always gets an asnwer!
 
I have even pushed out crimped in military primers with no problems, I just gently lower the handle until I contact the primer then just keep going until it pops out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom