Being new here, I may not have posted this in the correct forum, so let me know if that is true. Now, I have all my reloading supplies in my basement and even though I store primers in a watertight box with dessicant in it, the shelf life seem to be relitively short. My wife has one of these food saver vacuum machines. I was wondering if I vacuumed the primers in the plastic and then put in the watertight box would extend the primer life? Another thing, the primers in loaded ammo seem to last for decades, compared to the loose primers, what gives?

Here is something crazy I have primers that are ten years old and not had a miss fire .

I have some primers at least 10 maybe 15 years old and never had a problem.

Basements tend to be humid...BAD! Keep 'em in a cool dry enviornment and they have no shelf life that I've been able to ascertain. I've been cleaning up some old inventory...40 year old W-W SRP's shoot better than new stuff in one load I use...

I think primers should last at least a decade or two ....

Are your misfires all from the same package or bought at the same time? Perhaps they were damaged before you bought them?

Vacuum packaging can't hurt (unless you pull such a strong vacuum as to crush the factory container) but cool, dry conditions mean more for long term storage.

Back before the 'primer shortage scare' days I bought up a brick or two...maybe more of different primers. As long as I keep them dry I have no reason to believe they will go "bad" in my life time.........after that.....I won't care!

My grandfather gave me an early Christmas present yesterday.... about 1500 various assorted brands and types of primers, many full boxes, dating back as early as 1966. I have no doubts about their potency, but I hesitate because of collector values (Many Alcan and Herters, Winchester, Remington, and CCI boxes).

Cool, dry storage is the best, cool is the key. Heat will cause powder and priming to breakdown much quicker than moisture.

My go-to primers for dependability and accuracy are some RWS primers manufactured in 1973 (I had a pretty good stash of them). While I live in a relatively dry climate (and have always stored my reloading components ABOVE ground), I can't see that I have ever experienced any deterioration with any primers.

What symptoms are they exhibiting that causes you to characterize them as "the shelf life seem to be relatively short"?

Stored cool and dry they should last for decades. I store them in milsurp ammo cans and haven't had a problem yet, and the humidity here is usually in the 80's-90's year round.

I too have some old federal primers that are 15+ years old and kept them in a cool, dry place and have not had a mis-fire in the hundreds of reloads I have produced. Cool and dry is paramount here.

EA

I have the same setup and experience as Craigster.

primers last for years.....at least thirty I can attest to.....

I've even got them wet and placed them in the sun to dry.....they fired!!!!!

In general primers last a long time.

But I did have a problem several years ago with some Federal 210 primers - I was getting blown primers with loads that were well within what should be safe pressure levels. When I switched to another brand of primer without reducing my loads, I had no problem. So I concluded that the problem was not that my loads were too hot, and I finally concluded that there was a problem with the primers themselves. So I wrote to Federal about it.

Federal replied that these primers had somehow been exposed to ammonia, and this had weakened the brass so that it was blowing out. Given that ammonia does interact with copper, this seemed to be a good explanation to me. Moreover, I had bought these primers from a small store that had itself bought out the stock of another store that was going out of business, so I do not know how they had been stored. (Federal gave me a voucher for more than the value of the primers that were defective.)

I've used other Federal primers with absolutely no problem, and I had the problem only with this one batch. So I think that it was a storage problem, one that allowed the primers to be exposed to ammonia gas, and that this weakened the metal cup of the primer. Whether this has occurred to other people I do not know, nor do I know whether it has occurred with another brand of primers.

__________

Quit sealing them in a waterproof (airproof?) container and just store them in a dry storage area and they should last FORRREEVVVEEER.

I have some primers tha are over twety five years old and they work fine. I store them in zip loc bags and then in a military ro caliber ammo box. Keep them dry and stable enviroment and they should last longer than you think

Thanks Guys for the info, I store them in a 30 Cal. airtight ammo can and put a large descicant bag in with them. The disicant is fresh out of the oven just before going into the primer can. I usually buy W-W primers but I have several hundred Herters shotgun primers in the original boxes which are probably collector items by now. All the bad primers seem to have be W-W. But then I may have added to the problem as when the primers started acting up, I went out and bought more W-W. Maybe I should switch to CCI or Remmington. Thanks again for your help and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New. And keep your powder dry!!

As you may already discerned -cool and dry! they should last your lifetime.

Not only do primers last a long time but damp primers become active again if they dehydrate enough. I would take them into the house and put them up in a dry closet (not sealed; you want air circulation) for 6 to 8 months. If that doesn't resurrect them they are bad for reasons other than storage method.
Most of the pistol primers I'm shooting today are 24-25 years old, rifle are 10-12 (Federal in both cases) and I have no isssues at all. The oldest I still use are small rifle Alcans from the mid fifties and they produce .25 MOA loads in my match AR with complete reliability.

Al Can..... I sure miss reading those old Herter's Catalogs..... I think I learned to read with the Herter's Catalog!!!

Why do the good things in life have to go away?

LE270,

I had the same issue with Federal 210 primers. I fired one shot and gas came back through the bolt. I extracted the case and there was a hole at the edge of the primer. I looked at my bolt and there was some damage to the bolt in the form of a pit. I went home and loaded some rounds with the same primers in an old beater rifle with a badly pitted bolt from what I suspect was corrosive primer leakage. Four more rounds were fired with all having a hole on the edge of the primer. Also some more pitting on the bolt. I sent the fired cartridge cases to Federal and they replied that the primers in this lot were defective. I don't remember exactly what their explanation was but the only thing I received was their letter. No mention of any voucher, or even replacing the defective ones or asking me to ship them back to them. In effect, sorry, but you can just eat the primers. Hence, I do not use any Federal Products. Good to hear that your experience with Federal was a helleva lot better than mine.

Shelf life short?

I guess "short" is very subjective...

I have powder and primers which were purchased in the 1960's, and simply stored in a cool and dry environment. They still work just fine.

speaking of older componants....
A local shop was going out of business and I found 4 cans of "Dupont Improved Military Rifle Powder 4350" (IMR4350?). The cans are from the 1950's. The powder is perfectly good, but I am wondering if it has more collector value than shooting value. Does anyone collect old powder or old powder cans?

I bought some old Alcan primers 10 years ago, a gunshop found in their store room, they still shoot great, and $5 a thousand was a great price!

quote:

Originally posted by Hoot Murray:

I sent the fired cartridge cases to Federal and they replied that the primers in this lot were defective. I don't remember exactly what their explanation was but the only thing I received was their letter.

One possibility is that the problem occurred in the Federal factory itself, but Federal didn't know this or didn't acknowledge it until later. So by the time I wrote to them about it they were aware that their product was defective because of them, and were indemnifying people who complained, but before then they were trying to deny that fact.

I'm sorry that you did not have a satisfactory outcome to this problem.

Since I've had good experiences with other Federal primers and products, (although I do not like their shotshell hulls!), I've seen no reason to penalize them by boycotting their products.

When did they stop making alcan primers? I have a friend give me iooo, the box is like new. I also have some old dupont powder cans, 1 4320 can has a lot # of 38, i 4320 #41, 1 3031 lot #47, and 4350 lot # 142, the must be quite old. I emailed I M R but they diden't answer.

So far for me they have not use by date..............I suppose if there kept cool and dry I guess they will work for years.

JDS

I've been shrink wrapping primers for years. Can't hurt any, that's for sure...and I haven't had any problems.

WN

singleshotfred,

No info on the alcan primers, but Hodgdon purchaced IMR, So you might want to free mail them.

OR

http://www.hodgdon.com/

Announced about a third of the way down the page.

EA

I vacuum-sealed 3 bricks of them and stored them outside for two years. It is wet and humid and generally sucky most of the year in the Northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. This is why I moved to the dry, wide open expanses of Nevada. The primers work just fine. I stored my powder thusly, as well. It shoots just fine, too.

quote:

Originally posted by blaser93:
Here is something crazy I have primers that are ten years old and not had a miss fire .

Same here, except some of mine are more like 20 years old.......