Shotgun Primers?

Tex1001

Tex1001

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I was looking at shotshell primers out of curiosity and it looks
like they are almost unobtainium.
I have a few thousand put back, but I seem to remember an
attachment on my old Texan shotshell reloader.
Yep. I have an attachment that lets me rebuild a 209 primer
using large pistol primers.
My dearly departed buddy that left me all of his equipment
comes through again.
 
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Up until about the mid 60's, you could buy a small press to 'reload' the shotshell primer itself.
The primer companys sold the separate 'primer' itself that is a component to the Shotshell Primer.
I still have a some from CCI. They look like a LR or LP primer w/o any anvil in them.

With the small press, the reloaded de-capped the shotshell primer.
That pushed the fired primer (above) out along with the separate Anvil that is inside the assembly.
The shotshell anvil looks like a flat blade with a point on one end.
The Anvil gets recycled and used in the reloading process as does the outside so called 'Battery Cap' of the primer assembly.

Using the same press, the reloader now reassembles the primer with one of the new primers, the old anvil and Battery Cap.
They are placed in the press and simply pushed back in place.

All in all back then it saved about 1 cent per primer.

Once in a while one of those small presses shows up at a gunshow, garage sale, etc.
Most don't recognize them. Even if they do, they are of little use today.

Today there are lots of DIY reload shotshell primer info on the net.
Survivalist and 'Can't get any anymore' mentality drives most of it.

But there was a time when it was a somewhat common thing and the proper reloading press, tools and component were mfg'rd here in the USA to do so.
 
BPI has had cheddite 209 for 59.86 (plus shipping and half price hazmat) for 2 years now. Same for Precision Reloading.
 
I also remember reloading shotshell primers but never did it myself. And they did use special primers, not large rifle or large pistol primers. I also remember when Winchester and Remington used different sized shotshell primers. Remington shotshell primers and primer pockets had smaller diameters. But you could force a Winchester primer into a Remington case primer pocket, and many handloaders did that. I think at least all American shotshells made today use #209 primers.
 
Last edited:
Ivan the Butcher said:
I was at Cabela's last Friday. They had Federal 209A at $89.99/1000 Limit one brick a day per person. I passed.

Ivan
Click to expand...

I was very lucky. Years ago I won some bullets and primers in an auction. There were 800 shotgun primers in the lot. I don't load for shotguns but I do have a cap-lock muzzle loader so they come in very handy. Over the years I use about a half box or so and I sold of 100 to a guy who wanted them for lighting off some kind of a "toy" for his son. (sorry I can't remember what) I wanted to give them to him because of is son but he insisted on paying me $5 which was over the going price at the time.

I still have a little over 600 left so I'm guessing I'm set for life with the cap-locks I shoot lol. I'm glad I kept them since I didn't have a cap-lock at the time I won them.

I truly hope shotgun primers come back around for you.guys who load with them. Center fire ammo isn't the only thing that jumped in price. Shot shells are very expensive too. (I know you know that already)
 
I have seen nothing on line anywhere with the exception of Cheddite primers, which were available at several places. I did find some Fed 209 at Sportsman's Warehouse last week. I've loaded and fired lots of the Cheddite primed shells and they work just fine.
 
Here's a pic of those older orig primers sold for 'reloading' spent Shotgun primers.
These are CCI. ,,and yes they are stored in a jar.

 
How does one use a battery cup primer in a caplock? Or are you referring to the old primers used for reloading battery cups as pictured above?
 
Thanks 2152hq, I never heard of this before now. Very enlightening. Shows the level of DIY available in the past.

A local GS has had primers in stock for quite a while now. Every now and then they have them on sale for 60/K and then I buy.
 
Ballistic Products Inc has been selling cheddites for 60/1000 for a long time now...they always have them in stock.

Good deal if you buy 5,000.
 
You're right it's not that hard to do. Just as it's not that hard to reload the entire shotshell but with a few simple tools and a hammer.
A fully functional shotshell results.

The Reloading industry has always found a way to present us with neat gizmo mechanical devises to do the same thing and charge us for them.
Some do a better job, some a great job,,some did not so great a job and are long forgotten.
Old catalogs are full of pics of reloading presses and gadgets for reloading.

Reloading shotshell primers with new 'primers' just doesn't make any sense right now in terms of cost savings.
At one time,,it did.

Cheddite 209's are $60/1000 locally now.
LP & LR are $80 and up locally.

So why buy the $80LP primers to reload the spent shotgun primers.
(...unless you absolutely cannot get any 209's would be my only thought.)

It's just an interesting (IMO) fact of what was considered a common practice.
It was not something that was done for survival needs or supply shortages as it seems to be in todays crazy world.
 
Those "older" primers without the anvils in the picture above look exactly like the Berdan primers made by Tula, right down to the pink priming compound. CCI still loads some of their aluminum Blazer cases with Berdan primers. Any chance that those in the picture are or could actually pass for Berdan primers?
 
David Sinko said:
Those "older" primers without the anvils in the picture above look exactly like the Berdan primers made by Tula, right down to the pink priming compound. CCI still loads some of their aluminum Blazer cases with Berdan primers. Any chance that those in the picture are or could actually pass for Berdan primers?
Click to expand...

No these I got in a bunch of reloading supplies from an estate.
All the primers were in glass jars and with either the orig box end lable from what they were dumped out from, or in some instances very old packaging label like this one:



Most are 50's and 60's plain old LR,SR, LP/SP primers of various mfg.
I've been in primer heaven for quite some time since I got these.
But there are some odd ones in the bunch too.

Of course I lost the end label that was inside the jar for the CCI shotshell reloader primers but it was marked :
'CCI', No.209 B Winchester size shotshell caps '

Maybe they could be usable for Berdan primers.
I had given some thought to their use as Percussion Caps. But they are shallow in height so they wouldn't stay put very easily. Besides I have plenty of them anyway and don't use 'em much.

More stuff for the Big End of Life Garage Sale I guess..
 
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