Sometimes while reloading it becomes necessary for one reason or another to remove a live primer. I've had to do this after buying fired brass that was primed with an unknown primer, or wanting to use normal primers after installing magnum primers.
One way to do it is to simply fire the primed brass with no bullet, however this is only practical if you can do it outside. No can do in a subdivision. So I had been told by several sources just to put some gun oil in the cases, leave me for a day or to, and decap them. The gun oil will ruin the primer so there is no chance of it going off while decapping. I believed this and used it a few times with nothing bad happening, until I recommended this to someone on CGN and was tod that it was a myth. That the primers will still detonate even if left in oil for a day or two.
So two days ago I took CCI LR, CCI LRM, Federal LR and Rem 9.5 primers. I took 6 of each of these primers, 2 of each were saturated with G 96, 2 in Hoppes #9, and 2 in 5W-20 motor oil. I left them for two days, then put them in cases and fired those primed cases.
G-96 resulted 4 complete duds, 1 very weak firing (barely audible), and 3 weak firings (audible but nowhere near a normal primer going off, maybe 20% normal strength.)
Hoppes #9 resulted in all 8 primers being complete duds.
Motor oil resulted in 2 complete duds and 6 very weak firings.
Both CCI types and Remington performed similairly, with motor oil giving very weak firings, Hoppes giving duds and G 96 giving a mix of duds and weak/very weak firings.
Federal primers were all duds across the board with all substances.
Conclusions: all substances resulted in firings that would not be dangerous if they happened during decapping, but Hoppes # 9 was the most effective in killing primers. Federal primers are more easily killed from contamination than the others. A larger sample size would be better, but who wants to waste that many primers?
One way to do it is to simply fire the primed brass with no bullet, however this is only practical if you can do it outside. No can do in a subdivision. So I had been told by several sources just to put some gun oil in the cases, leave me for a day or to, and decap them. The gun oil will ruin the primer so there is no chance of it going off while decapping. I believed this and used it a few times with nothing bad happening, until I recommended this to someone on CGN and was tod that it was a myth. That the primers will still detonate even if left in oil for a day or two.
So two days ago I took CCI LR, CCI LRM, Federal LR and Rem 9.5 primers. I took 6 of each of these primers, 2 of each were saturated with G 96, 2 in Hoppes #9, and 2 in 5W-20 motor oil. I left them for two days, then put them in cases and fired those primed cases.
G-96 resulted 4 complete duds, 1 very weak firing (barely audible), and 3 weak firings (audible but nowhere near a normal primer going off, maybe 20% normal strength.)
Hoppes #9 resulted in all 8 primers being complete duds.
Motor oil resulted in 2 complete duds and 6 very weak firings.
Both CCI types and Remington performed similairly, with motor oil giving very weak firings, Hoppes giving duds and G 96 giving a mix of duds and weak/very weak firings.
Federal primers were all duds across the board with all substances.
Conclusions: all substances resulted in firings that would not be dangerous if they happened during decapping, but Hoppes # 9 was the most effective in killing primers. Federal primers are more easily killed from contamination than the others. A larger sample size would be better, but who wants to waste that many primers?
