primer problem....

[growr]

A friend of mine that shot on the All Guard pistol team gave me an ammo can of once fired nickel plated .38 special brass that he shot in his M52....

Upon resizing and depriming in my recently rebuilt Dillon 550 I am getting a number of casings where the bottom ( where the firing ping strikes) is sheared off thus leaving in the primer pocket the rest of the primer....have had over 50 do this and it doesn't matter what mfg. the casing is......

I tried to extract the broken primer to no avail....

Anyone else ever experience such a problem?

 

[STORMINORMAN]

No. But a screw extractor might dislodge the rest of the primers...?

Cheers!

 

[growr]

Might try a tap and see what happens....kind of a puzzler....
Randy

 

[Alk8944]

50 out of a free ammo can full of cases? Just throw those away, they aren't worth the effort! It is probably caused by corrosion from being in a damp environment for years after being fired. this would weaken the primer cup too.

When I throw cases away for any reason I crush them to show they are junk if anyone finds them.

 

[drayks]

Primer cup sheared

I bought a couple thousand commercially reloaded 45ACPs from a National once-fired brass supplier. They apparently had been in a FLOOD and underwater. They were sold as takedowns ONLY, just for components. When I tried to fire some, about 1 in 8 would not fire. Either the primers were water duds or the powder was wet. Ended up using an inertial puller for a couple of days. Drove the primers out with a LEE manual decapper. NONE of the primers went off during disassembly, but about 30 of the primer cups did shear off from corrosion apparently, leaving the sides of the cup in the web pocket. IF you really need the brass, a finishing tap with a flat point of the appropriate size will start and you can pull the remains out. Saved the powder by letting it air dry for a couple of weeks and it lit off fine. Wasn't worth ALL the effort, but good learning lesson.

 

[gwpercle]

I have no idea what is "shearing" off the primer cup bottoms ...
never owned a Dillion press ,,,, but have picked up range brass that had the primer stuck in the pocket , usually moisture caused a lttle corrosion to form , sticking the primer in the pocket and the decapping pin just punches a hole in or the entire bottom cup out , just leaving a primer ring in the primer pocket.
The way I get the Ring-o-Primer out ... is to carefull pry it out with a ice pick ... just be careful not to stab any body parts or damage the primer pocket .
If you are very young and do not know what an ice pick is,,, it is a small hand tool with a sharp point used for chipping up a block of ice ...
just do one of the interweb search thimgs !
Load Safe,
Gary

 

[taz666]

There is thrifty and then there is ...

 

[SlamFire]

Been a long time since anyone used a M52 in competition. That ammunition could be decades old, if not half centuries old.

I think old ammunition with old gunpowder. As gunpowder breaks down it releases NOx, one constituent is NO2, that is nitrogen dioxide, a aggressive oxidizer. When NO2 bumps into a water molecule (called humidity) it turns into nitric acid gas. Also horrible oxidizer.

I was given several hundred primed WW2 cases. The bullets had been pulled and the powder dumped. I tried depriming all the cases. A good number, the primer sidewalls were corroded in place. What happened was, the Lee decapping pin pierced the primer, the primer went off with a bang, and typically the top of the primer was exposed.

I am going to recommend that the OP pull a few bullets and look for corrosion in the case. If so, stop shooting the stuff as this is something that happens when gunpowder deteriorates, and deteriorated gunpowder has burn rate issues. Many firearms have been blown up with deteriorated gunpowder. Many cases have cracked at the case head due to deteriorated gunpowder.

lack of corrosion is not proof the powder is good, corrosion develops when gunpowder is severely deteriorated. If the OP get over pressure indications with any rounds with this ammunition, stop shooting it. The best thing to do is pull the bullets, dump the powder, and see if the cases can be salvaged with old ammunition showing signs of gunpowder deterioration.

 

[cracker57]

OP's friend gave him empty cases, not loaded ammo.

 

[M29since14]

There is thrifty and then there is ...

Yeah, some of us have to stop and catch ourselves once in a while.

 

[mikld]

It's a condition known as "ringing". Often caused by corrosion between primer cup and primer pocket when the top of primer cup is pushed out leaving the sides (ring) in the pocket. Popular method of dealing with ringing is a tap of correct diameter or the scrap bucket...

 

[taz666]

Yeah, some of us have to stop and catch ourselves once in a while.

Straightened many a bucket of 16dd and 8dd nails for the old man with my brother. All of which were used to stitch together an addition on our house with used lumber he took home from the jobsites he worked.

That guy could get twenty out of a tenner, he squeezed so hard.

 

[AJ]

Toss them. .38 Special brass is dumped at our range by the boat load. If you need some just tell the shooters that you would like their brass if they are not going to keep it. All that I have ever asked for their brass have had no problem giving it to me.

 

[H Richard]

I have a scrap brass bucket under my bench. That's where those belong. When you get enough take to your recycle buyer, brass does bring decent prices.

 

[sjmjax]

I’ve experienced that problem from time to time with 50 BMG primers in old ammo. Usually fixable with a small tap. Manufacturing defects or some corrosion effects? Not sure. Fortunately it’s not too common and hadn’t produced any adverse effects on firing. Punching out the base always occurs during depriming. Probably made worse due to the military primer crimp.