Unknown new primers on used brass

maxman1

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In one of several recently acquired bags of brass, several cases have unstruck primers. Would anyone trust these or should I just pull them and seat new ones with the rest?
 
In one of several recently acquired bags of brass, several cases have unstruck primers. Would anyone trust these or should I just pull them and seat new ones with the rest?

If you are doing load development, it is good to start with known components.
Those primers are not known. I would size those cases again, removing those primers,
and start fresh. D.
 
In my opinion it would depend on what you plan on using the brass for. If you are going to make up general purpose rounds for making noise at the local range then I would give the primers a try. If I was going to assemble rounds for serious hunting I would replace the primers.
I have also received primed brass from time to time in similar circumstances to yours and to be honest I can only recall very few primers being duds in any of them.
 
You said "several", which to me means "not many". For about 5-6¢
each for large rifle primers punch them out and be done with it. You're probably going to resize the brass anyway.
There's no telling what they are, or how damp they've been.
 
I'd just chamber the brass, and shoot them off, so I didn't have to dispose of live primers. They are quieter than a kids cap gun going off. Then resize the brass and reprime. Unless you are just making generic ammo to blast off at the range. I'd just use as is in that case. (as long as the brass chambers your gun). Remember to at least run a bore-snake down the barrel after shooting off the primers, at least I do.
 
Whether they’ve been damp or not they’re likely still good for plinking rounds. I’ve wet tumbled a batch of 38 brass I won at auction that were already primed hoping to make the primers inert to punch them out safely (over 1000 brass). After they dried I tested a few and they were still good. I ended up reloading them as is and didn’t get any duds out of that batch.
 
Are you sure they're even good? S&B had a bad batch of primers a while ago that a large percentage didn't go bang, could be why the seller didn't use them. Kinda frustrating to load ammos just to have the bullets off to save 3¢ per round.
 
I would not hesitate to use them for casual shooting/practice use. For more reliability-critical applications like matches or hunting, use known primers of your choice.

Especially with pistol ammo, primers are pretty much interchangeable.
 
Since there isn't that many, I think I'll pop them at the range and start with known components. I probably wouldn't save much.
 
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