Primed Cases and Storage

[k22fan]

In my experience the brass in old U.S. manufactured cartridges gets brittle before the primers go bad. The necks of Skeet 028's 1912 FA .30-06 cracking makes little if any difference other than as a warning to not fire the cartridges in a U.S. Springfield or a pre-64 Winchester Model 70. If they split down at the head there is risk of an eye injury or less significant facial injury. I watched that happen with a 1903-A3 that had a fairly tight chamber. The injured eye ball had to be stitched up. The gentleman was not wearing his safety glasses. The cartridge was a 50 to 60 year old commercial hunting round.

 

[otisrush]

I tend to get ahead on my priming activities relative to loading. If I start a priming session and need to stop mid-session it's easy to just stop. Loading, on the other hand, I tend to only do when I know I have an uninterrupted window of time. So when I get a window I want to grab a pre-defined count of primed cases and get going.

I put primed cases in plastic yogurt containers I have that have plastic lids. They're not airtight - but they keep the dust out. They'll hold 50 .223 or 50 .38 Spcl or 100 9mm and I make sure each caliber only has those counts in them. It makes it easy to keep track of not only what i have on hand but also I can grab exactly the number of primed cases I want for a loading session.

I've never had any issue with this method - although to be fair I've only been loading for 1.5 yrs. I figure storing primers in primer pockets using this method is no different than having them sit in their brick packaging. The dust protection is about equivalent and neither are airtight.

OR

 

[Lockport Redhawk]

I store primed brass and ammo in watertight containers with absorbent silica packs to absorb any humidity.
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[Skeet 028]

A few years after shooting that old ammo I found out that the early rifle rounds had a real problem with cracked necks. About 1920 or so(IIRC) they went to annealing the necks of the brass before loading. I still have some older military 06 with cupro-nickle jacketed bullets. As far as case fatigue I also had a 308 Win case split from the neck to the base of the shoulder. a non annealed case I think. I talked to the fellow I gave the FA primers to this evening and he has loaded some 30-06(Denver 43?) and has not shot them yet. He intends to do so this week he said. BTW the powder he loaded in them was part of a can of WWII surplus 4895 I gave him. It had a price of 60 cents on the can. I guess we'll see. I probably even gave him the brass LOL

 

[classichunter]

I just finished loading and shooting about 200 45acp cases that I had cleaned, sized, neck expanded and primed in October 1999. They were kept in a zip lock bag. I charged and loaded them up, and shot them earlier this year. All cases went boom. Just like they were made yesterday.

 

[Magload]

Ok what is the difference if the primer is sitting in the paper box it comes in or in a brass case in a plastic box. Neither are air proof. Only problem I see is if you run out of primers for the 9mm you need to load and the only primers you have are in cases of other calibers. Don