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After having a sort through of the cupboard under the stairs I discovered 5 boxes of remington small pistol primers, judging by the other stuff they were stored with they have gone through 3 house moves and are at least 20 years old. Any idea if they are still OK to use?

I have fired 303 rounds a few years ago that were dated 1909. Not only did they go bang, but they were very accurate at 300yds.
Fred

tfb wrote:After having a sort through of the cupboard under the stairs I discovered 5 boxes of remington small pistol primers, judging by the other stuff they were stored with they have gone through 3 house moves and are at least 20 years old. Any idea if they are still OK to use?

No they are highly dangerous you need to send them to me and I will dispose of them safely through my .357 magnum underlever.

I've recently finished off some primers I bought back in 1994 or so. No issues whatsoever.

Alpha1 wrote:

tfb wrote:After having a sort through of the cupboard under the stairs I discovered 5 boxes of remington small pistol primers, judging by the other stuff they were stored with they have gone through 3 house moves and are at least 20 years old. Any idea if they are still OK to use?

No they are highly dangerous you need to send them to me and I will dispose of them safely through my .357 magnum underlever.

Tell you what, once I've put them through mine, i'll send them off to you!

Thanks, I've used very old ammo before but a complete round is sealed and I wasn't sure how exposure to air would affect the primers.

I'll try them out in my next session.

I have some old large rifle primers that I acquired from someone else years ago No idea how old they are, but they work perfectly (although they require more effort to seat than their modern equivalent).

I still have pre-ban CCI small and large pistol and shotgun primers I am working my way through. Down to the last few thousand now :)

When I started reloading two years ago I bought 2000 CCI primers off a friend who had originally bought them when he shot pistols. I've now used them all and not one failed to go off.

I would imagine that if kept in a cool, dry atmosphere they would outlast the average human lifetime!.I'm sure I heard somewhere that old corrosive military Berdan primers last even longer than non-corrosive Boxer primers.