I have seen rumblings in the news about placing “sin taxies” on ammunition in much the same way they are taxing tobacco. (Making it too expensive for people to afford) Being someone that uses large quantities of ammunition, I have been thinking of ways one might get around such a tax.

My first obvious answer is reloading. (Which I already do) However, I hit a snag in this line of thinking.
The Problem is primers.
If the gov’t were to place ungodly taxes on ammunition AND primers, the sport of shooting would quickly be relegated to something only the very wealthy could afford and IMHO, die quickly.

One can reuse brass cases and one can mould his own bullets from lead, one could even make his own gunpowder (Granted, a crude form of black powder). However, I have never heard of anyone making his or her own primers.

Speaking as someone who is completely ignorant of the science behind priming material, what are your thoughts on this subject and is there a feasible / practical method for hobbyists to produce their own primers?

(Yes, I realize this post sounds paranoid. No, wearing a Tinfoil hat in public doesn’t make me feel self-conscious)

I guess it would be back to the flintlock.
Pete

I remember seeing a book on this subject at a gun show recently. Didn't buy it. Maybe I should have. Still, I wouldn't want to be the first to try cooking it up in my sweetie's kitchen!
'puck

'Cause it's too dangerous. Primers are manufactured wet. You could do it, no doubt, but the priming compound is very very powerful and very very sensitive. It's lead styphnate.

It must also be quite the PITA to measure out those small quantities accurately.

JW,

I share some of your fears which is on reason I have ordered jacketed bullet making gear from Corbin.

I would consider be able to make/reload primers as being similar to getting the gear to make bullets from copper tubing. By that I mean for the additional cost of dies to make jackest from tubing, I can buy a wheel barrow full of jackets.

So I don't see primers as an issue because since they are so cheap you can buy 6 lifetime's supply.

In addtion, where primers are different to bullets is that they work in all calibers and for all uses.

By that I mean if you have a 270 or a 375 or whatver and you primary use of the caliber changes, the primer remains the same but you might need/want a different bullets.

Mike

I have news for you...your government already has a hefty tax on everything sportsmen use! It's called the Federal Excise Tax, and amounts to almost 13%! In addition, they also add on state and local sales taxes.

What still puzlles the hell out of me is that powder and primers are charged "Hazardous Material" for shipping, but ammunition (which is powder and primer) is not!

Actually, the Federal Excise tax is the Pittman-Robinson tax (11% at the manufacturer) on firearms and loaded ammunition. It is not levied on components. The Pittman-Robinson funds are dedicated to wildlife conservation and restoration and are the biggest single reason that the numbers of game animals today are many times what they were at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Could we get along without this tax? Sure, just like we could drop 35 cents off of the price of a gallon of gasoline if we didn't care whether we had any highways to drive on. Or maybe you figure we could just leave it up to "free enterprise" and Enron and Worldcom would provide us all the game management and highways we could use at a bargain price.

The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, popularly know as the Pittman-Robertson Act, was approved by Congress on September 2, 1937, and begin functioning July 1, 1938.

The purpose of this Act was to provide funding for the selection, restoration, rehabilitation and improvment of wildlife habitat, wildlife management research, and the distribution of information produced by the projects.
The Act was amended October 23, 1970, to include funding for hunter training programs and the development, operation and maintenance of public target ranges.

Funds are derived from an 11 percent Federal excise tax on sporting arms, ammunition, components and archery equipment, and a 10 percent tax on handguns. These funds are collected from the manufacturers by the Department of the Treasury and are apportioned each year to the States and Territorial areas (except Puerto Rico) by the Department of the Interior on the basis of formulas set forth in the Act. Appropriate State agencies are the only entities eligible to receive grant funds. Funds for hunter education and target ranges are derviced from one-half of the tax on handguns and archery equipment.

Each state's apportionment is determined by a formula which considers the total area of the state and the number of licensed hunters in the state. The program is a cost-reimbursement program, where the state covers the full amount of an approved project then applies for reimbursement through Federal Aid for up to 75 percent of the project expenses. The state must provide at least 25 percent of the project costs from a non-federal source.

In the past several years there have been reports that this money, paid by sportsmen, has been used for many politicians for their own personal and political interest! It wasn't that long ago that it was discovered that this very same money, ripped from gunowners' hands was being distributed to anti-hunting and anti-gun organizations!

That pot of gold has been dipped into more than the Social Security reserves!

I have thumbed through two books on making your own primers:

PRIMERS by Albert & Oelberg--1944 (!) only about 30 pages and costs 30$US (or more) when you can find it.

A much more recent book, 5 by 8 inches, less than 100 pages. This one talks about obtaining and/or making the chemicals for the primer. Two methods that I remember are: extract a chemical from the old GI fuel tabs--the ones that contain HEXAMINE, not the current issue; and, use the powder that is in CAPs for toy guns.

The "reloading" proceedure basically amounts to: clean out the old primer, use a flat punch to remove the firing-pin indentation, put in the compound, replace the anvil, load the cartridge.

Extracting the hexamine requires many steps and lots of chemicals, although the chemicals are fairly easy to obtain.

Both of these books were published in the USofA and deal exclusively with Boxer primers.

If anyone wants the name of the second book and/or its authors, give me a shout and I'll look it up.

the_captn

the afgans have done it for years. You can all so use strike any where match heads. But when I tryed that I only got about 40% to fire never actual loaded ammo with it. I just would go out and buy lots of primers and store them in differant places. so if a raid comes they don't get them all.

It's prolly not the hexamine itself, it's what you make from it. Hexamine can be used to make RDX (for C-4). Hexmaine is no longer used for the MREs, though. Now they use trioxane. If you want hexamine, better buy it now as you see it.

If you want to make picric acid for the primers, you will need aspirin, citric acid and hydrogen peroxide. A better way to go.

Chlorate is still probably the best for homemade.

Interesting about Pittman-Robertson! What a lot of people don't know is that the act merely REALLOCATED a previously-existing 11% excise tax on guns and ammunition tax from the general revenue to the specific uses mentioned above. Pittman-Robertson DID NOT, IN FACT, REPRESENT A NEW TAX BEING IMPOSED UPON SPORTSMEN, AT THEIR REQUEST, AS IS OFTEN ASSERTED (by us good guys)!! Rather than trying to figure a way around some imagined future infringement upon ammunition and reloading components, I believe our efforts would be better directed at preventing such an eventuality, rather than taking the position that this is an inevitable development.

While we're talking about stockpiling primers, does anyone know if any particular brand stores better than the others. I understand that there are subtle chemical differences between the brands. Does this translate into improved longevity.
I have used properly stored CCI primers that were 25 years old with no discernible difference to new primers.

either lead or mercury... yeah, those heavy metals.. the latter is the least trouble to MAKE

btw, mercury fulmanate, basically fuming sulfuric and mercury, is UNSTABLE until placed in a matrix. kinda scarey, and, VERY corrosive.

stock up...
jeffe