primer shelf life??????????

[30-06 boy]

i read on another post that old primers (1 year old or older)loose thier consistency.so i would think long range groups would suffer.i've been using cci br2.does this affect all primers or just some?does smokeless powder have the same shelf life?thanks jason

 

[älg]

if properly stored they´ll not be affected, and certainly not within a year.

 

[30-06 boy]

what is proper storage?mine are in the small cardboard boxes on the shelf of my loading bench.out of heat,dampness etc?

 

[GREYGHOSTt]

Don't know still shooting bung holes with some I bought in the late 70dys.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bart B]

You're right. Primers do lose consistancy over time. But the effect is less noticable the closer one is to the target. It's at ranges greater than 500 yards that their uniformity starts being noticed. And then only by folks and hardware that shoot real accurate.

At a hundred yards, one won't notice any difference. But then one can meter powder charges directly into cases primed with most anything and shoot groups in the ones, too, at 100 yards. Can't do that at 1000 yards; gotta weigh powder charges and have very consistant primers to be accurate at that range.

 

[James Jones]

I had some that were over 5 yrs old (Fed 215M) and they worked great and the load data never changed.

But one day in the late summer down here in south Louisiana my AC gave out and my house heated up realy well throughout the day , well when I got home and finaly got the AC guy out to fix my unit the house tem was in the low 100 deg range and the hunididty down here stays in the 80+% range , well we got the AC going and it ran all night till it cooled the house down , I noticed that their was some condinsate on some stuff but the folowing weekend I loaded some ammo and all my primers were FUBAR from the drastic humididty and temp change.

But so long as they stay dry they should last for years and years

 

[uncleB]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't know still shooting bung holes with some I bought in the late 70dys.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]GREYGHOSTt,
Could you post a picture of this, I am guessing it is somewhat more vertical than a bughole. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
UB

 

[GREYGHOSTt]

Sorry no hi tec camera and my scanner is fried..
You'll just have to use your imiganation /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[C1PNR]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't know still shooting bung holes with some I bought in the late 70dys.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmmm. I wonder if he's using pistol primers in San Francisco County. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[sewwhat89]

I have used primers that are now 40 years old. They are pistol primers, and they all go bang. They have been stored in garages, shops, sheds and now in pistol brass. I have never had one not go bang.

I am not sure there is too much to the degradation of primers by moisture. If they dry out, they should still go bang. I have shot shotgun shells that spent three years under the floors of my duck boat. They all shot fine. They were not sealed primers like the Federal Premiums. I cut one of the shells open, and some of the shot was actually rusted together. They were No. 4s, so not much chance of barrel damage due to pellets going out lined up like would be the case if they were BBB or Ts. The ducks I shot did not fall, so maybe they were defective; however, my shoulder would argue otherwise.

Bart made the correct point I guess, "You may not notice anything until you get out 500+ or to 1k before you notice the difference."

 

[River Rat]

Extreme heat or cold, for long periods, will ruin your ammo. I preached this to my father in law, who kept his revolver under the front seat of his truck. Going home one night, he stopped and let his dog out after a coon; when treed, the old man tryed to shoot the coon, but could see the bullets in his spotlight, traveling about as fast as if launched from a sling shot.

<font color="red"> </font> That cured him, and he switches out his ammo every few weeks, now.

 

[Utah Shotgunner]

I just shot up about 500 shotshell primers from the '50's that I bought with a bunch of other reloading stuff. I have no idea how they were stored.

I used them in blackpowder shotshells which is easy to ignite and not as finicky as rifle loads, but they all went bang.