My Uncle gave me his old reloading stuff. There are some large rifle primers Winchesters in old yellow and red boxes might be 20 + years old are they still good safe to shot?

I'd use them.

Don

If they were stored properly they will still be good and safe to shoot.

I don't anticipate any problems as long as they have not been exposed to water. I'm using some small pistol primers now that are at least 15 years old.

F. Prefect

The first liar never stands a chance.

The few remaining boxes I have of a formerly large lot of my favorite primer (RWS Sinoxid) are factory date stamped 1968. I have some Herter's (Made in Japan) that are older than that which also perform flawlessly.

Lord only knows how old some #11 Remington percussion caps are. But I loaned some to a friend to use in his replica Hawkin rifle and they all went "bang" every time he pulled the trigger.

Watch it with the "old primer" cracks, sonny boy

It all depends on how they are stored.

Finally used up my Win LR primers that I bought in 1984, and have shot some that my father had from the mid 70's.

Kept in the factory sleeves, in a controled temp room all these years.

James Wisner

quote:

Do Primers go bad

I'm sure they do but not sure how long it would take. I've fired quite a bit of 50+ year old ammo with fine results so it would take longer than a half century.

YES THEY DO...Send them to me and I will properly,,,,,you know.

Yes they do !. I've got a crap load with small dents and blackened pockets which are definitely bad !.

Oh yea those were good then I used them !. If storage was reasonable then they

shouldn't be a problem .

There is an easy test. Take an old piece of brass, decap it and install one of the primers in question. Take this piece of brass with no powder and no bullet and chamber it in the appropriate gun for that caliber. Pull the trigger with the barrel pointed in a safe direction. If the primer goes bang, the great probability is that the rest of the primers will also function.

On several occasions I have traded or bought older primers. The first one always gets sacrificed for a test of the batch. When the first one went bang I have never had a problem with the rest of the batch.

"I don't anticipate any problems as long as they have not been exposed to water"

I was storing my primers in a old refridgerator in the garage to maintain a constant and low temperature to prolong their lives (probably well past my own). The primers were in sealed plastic storage boxes. One of the boxes developed a crack in the lid and dripping moisture eventually filled the container which held well over a thousand primers. The primers were literally immersed in water probably for some weeks before I noticed.
I drained the water and allowed the primers to dry out slowly over some weeks in the shade and apart from damaged cardboard box and a bit of staining to some primers they all went bang and seemed to be perfectly normal although I did not chrono loads or use them for my important loads. Not a single failure.
Primer compound is placed in the cups as a water based slurry during the manufacturing process for safety reasons so it seems that rewetting them is not the problem we imagine it to be.
As for normal longevity, WW2 era non corrosive primers with doubtful storage history that were given to me have all been 100% reliable.