One of my friends showed up at the range this afternoon and showed us a small disc made out of plastic.The disc was solid with a small indentation at the center.Nobody could tell what it is;he assured us that this is a small pistol primer.The dimension sure looked like one.He says that after firing,the cup melts and becomes a solid disc.
Now that friend is not a guy who usually likes to pull a hoax on us.
Anybody heard about this before.Personnally,I'm quite doubtfull but hey!who would have said 30 years ago that someday they'd make a plastic framed pistol!

Was it just the disc & really thin? Like only .015" or so?
Or the disc on one end of an open tube. The dia & depth of the tube a perfect match for a small rifle/pistol primer
If it was,,
It may perhaps be a primer diffuser disc or the diffuser disc and primer insert that is being developed for some of the plastic cased ammunition. These small parts are also made of some special plastics but different from what the cartridge case body is made of.

Not the primer itself, but part of the containment for the primer to be used in plastic cased ammo to make the ammo more reliable in the field and for it's better transport and storage qualitys.

If it's just a solid, thicker piece like the same size as a regular primer,,then I have no guesses!

Had to look, but thought for sure April was months ago.

The thing was solid from end to end.All you could see was a slight spot aprox the size of a firing pin indentation.My friend said that the plastic flowed to a solid disc of plastic from the heat generated upon firing.Sorry,I didn't have a mic with me for I sure would have measured the diameter and height of said disc.
Like I wrote,might be an hoax but that guy is more like a scientific oriented guy than an happy camper.But up to now,any option remains open.

I wouldn't put anything out of the realm of possibility.
It may sound crazy one day be be real the next.
I know there is a real push for the plastic cased ammo for the Armys of the world. One of the several problems they have with what they've got so far is the primer system and the plastic cases inability to hold onto it to put it simply.
Maybe this is another attempt to fix that.

,,,and maybe it's April somewhere else in the world as bigggbbruce says !!.
Keep an eye on that guy with the plastic primers...
When he offers you some real plastic gold coins, then it's time to part company & for him to find his own ride home..

Well the Military is using ammo made with light plastic cases
for their rifle ammo now...........
More ammo, less weight and they work.

off limits to civilians.

They did not have plastic primers, though.

My guess would be the "primer" out of a snap cap

All I’m picturing is a single cap off of a ring for cap guns.

__________________
No gold. Only lead. Bobby

Old cap gun ammo. Popular in the '50s?

I saw some .308 plastic cases in the "brass" bin at the club a few days ago. They had metal case heads; only the case body was plastic. And more to the point, the primers were metal.

Yes, and the case uses a metal case head with a standard primer.

A Composite Munitions Company | True Velocity Inc.

Nope!I'm a kid from the '50s and I used to play with such.I would have recognised it.
I'll take a photo of it if he still got it and post it.

Where did he get it?? Think about that pellet for a moment... IF it was originally made like a type of regular primer cup, filled with priming compound, then when fired and it melted together to form a solid piece, where did all of the additional plastic come from to fill it like a solid 'puck'? It must be something else than a live priming system- the snap-cap filler makes sense - what else?

This is one of the cap gun ammos on a disc. the other I remember was a solid disc with notches on the circumference...;

Attached Images

caps.jpg (10.7 KB, 18 views)

Photos would be helpful.

I saw my friend this morning at the range but he didn't have it along.
He says that they came from some Winchester nickeled brass in .357 Mag.
He thinks they might be blanks but was unsure.
I asked him to bring it along next time so I'd take a photo.

Mistery solved.My friend brought it at the range this afternoon and showed it to me.Last time,I only had a glance at it but now I was able to look closely at it;it is a snap cap.
Guess the idea is out and some crafty guy will try to really invent a plastic primer.