Just got back from an exteded sandpit shooting trip with the boy. Odd thing occured- I had just loaded some Winchester 218 Bee brass for my Win 43 with 11.5 gr 4227 and Hornady 45 gr Hornet cundrum bullet and same load with Hornady 35 gr V-max cundrum. Yeah, I know it's the CAST BULLET forum, but I'll get to that. Anyhoo, the primers in the 218 rounds were Federal 200 SR. They're at least 25 years old, but appear as new. Out of 35 rounds I had 12 that pierced! No other signs of pressure, the primers still have rounded edges. They peirced with both bullet types, and the firing pin strike is rather light. Ever heard of primers being brittle? Any thoughts would be welcome. We also put a couple boxes of 44 Special through the Charter Buldog, 246 Gr stuff from Winchester. Had to shoot it up for the brass ya know. This lot shot like crap- 4" at 75 feet. Maybe it was me and my aging eyes, but the S+W 1917 45AR with 215 Gr 452423 did just fine. Also got to finally wring out the 9 1/2" Ruger SSM 32 Mag with factory stuff! I may have to scope this one, cuz it shoots way better than I can hold. Maybe I'll have to go see a real eye doc instead of the bird at Walmart who reeks of cheap booze and B.O. Finally, we put 50 rounds of 358315/13 Red Dot/35 Whelen through the old 03A3 rebore. Even with the Weaver 1.5 Micro-Trac, (this was my deer gun when living in the central Adirondacks, knock 'em down fast and close), we had goups that were just one big 1 1/2" hole in the paper for 10 shots. This was old ammo I found in a can that I loaded at least 10 years ago. I was never thrilled with that bullet, but the sucker shoots in my rifle. All in all, a nice afternoon.

I have heard of primers with the cups to thin being pierced by the firing pin and I have also heard of small semi-sharp or with a sharp burr. firing pins piercing primers. I have never had the experience, but I have heard of such things. I have thousand 1964 vintage Winchester SR primers that I am going to shoot up in my 25-20s. I suppose they will still light the fire.