Lee Loader

Greetings all, There was a question awhile back on reusing primer that had been removed from the brass.
Well, got a new one for you all, at least it is for me.
Today I found a baggie with a ton of once loaded but removed primers, Winchester & CCI mixed. Been closed up nice & tight here in dry, warm Arizona for maybe 5 years?? Found them today, the inside of the bag is loaded with a yellowish, greenish, fuzzy looking powder??? Any Ideas?? It almost has to be some sort of reaction with the different priming compounds?? Or dissimilar metals reaction?? I'm all ears folks, let me hear it...

Nickle/copper/brass doesn't generally have a yellow hue . Nickle is 57 Chevy bumper chrome .

I would just wet those gently water , oil , or alcohol , and dispose of them .

I don't throw anything away as a rule until it's completely used up . Growing stuff in the explosives ? Not a warm fuzzy place .

RBHarter wrote:Nickle/copper/brass doesn't generally have a yellow hue . Nickle is 57 Chevy bumper chrome .

I would just wet those gently water , oil , or alcohol , and dispose of them .

I don't throw anything away as a rule until it's completely used up . Growing stuff in the explosives ? Not a warm fuzzy place .

Yup, unfortunately RB, I was thinking the same thing, I never thought about storing 2 different kinds together.
Never have before, & won't ever again..
It tears me up to toss them but, gotta to what I gotta do??
I do know from what little explosives experience I have that wet, sticky or growing stuff is not a good thing!!

This is what i'm talking about. Sorry, photographer I am not???

Sadly, I have to agree with the consensus. I'm guessing the yellowish dust you see is probably priming compound that has dried out and migrated out of the primers. Even if you got ignition from some of them, I fear the performance would be too inconsistent to be counted on. Just chalk it up to an expensive learning experience.

Froggie

When I pop any out to re-use I do so right away. Then again I've never had a bunch to recycle.

GasGuzzler wrote:When I pop any out to re-use I do so right away. Then again I've never had a bunch to recycle.

Yup, that was the plan Gas, load 'em back up right away but that life thing happened, moved new house,
5 years later, just found them the other day, knew right away what they were from but, instead of
" Yee-Haw primers ". It was, " Oh sheep dip, " what's this mess ??? Have NO IDEA how they got packed & sealed in my router case ???

I have a cup of about 250 LR primers that I pulled down about a year ago. They look fine. I think I will try them when I start working up a 7.62x54R in the next few days. I will be shooting them one at a time as they are made, so if they don't work I will just pull it down and replace the primer.

Yeah and I have been reading about rebuilding primers for re-use so this is interesting. I have almost every spent primer I have ever processed.

looks to me like priming compound all over the inside of the bag. yellow or greenish is surely that.. but no matter how desperate times are, I wouldnt use them..