Salvaging Ammo Parts and Age

[Bruce_in_Oz]

I've salvaged a lot of "dubious" ammo over the years, Boxer and Berdan.

Bullets? Use a serious bullet puller like the RCBS "collet" type. Those plastic hammer jobs are great for "short" runs but get "old-FAST" when you have a 4 gallon bucket ti clear. The press-mounted collet ones allso retain the powder in the case so it can be inspected and then salvaged or used as fertilizer on the garden as desired.

The one situation in which the plastic "kinetic" bullet pullers shine is when you need to dismantle ammo loaded with cast / non-jacketed / steeply conical bullets as commonly found in pistol ammo. The collet fingers of the "press" type will not "grab" the soft bullet very firmly and if you wind it up tight, you mangle the bullets. Horses for courses, and all that jazz.

Primers? Two things:

Firstly: "Popping" primers is noisy and NOT to be done indoors; LEAD residue and all that. Furthermore a LOT of older (pre 1950 "military") primers are CORROSIVE. REALLY old stuff may also be Mercuric primed, both Boxer and Berdan, but this is also often indicated by the COPPER primer cups that are not attacked by the primer mix like brass ones.

Secondly: NEVER "pop" primers in rimless cases. IF you do, you will probably notice that the fired primer has backed out of the case a little. What this means is that you have just seen the power of primers in action.The case has been driven forwads into the chamber and the shoulder pushed back. This is NOT a good thing; instant excessive headspace will exist with reloads on this brass. Results may include misfires, ruptured primer cups, etc. RIMMED cases like .303 Brit and 30-40 Krag headspace on their rims and don't suffer from this problem, similarly "belted" magnums. (or should that be "Magna"?).

As for ""neutering" primers, "oil' is slow, diesel fuel works, but it takes time.

I've never bothered. Just deprime them as per normal. LEE make a special depriming (decapping) die which is essentially a standard-looking 7/8" x 14 die body with a big parallel hole up the middle; one size fits all, apparently. A primer may occasionally go "POP" but almost never if you operate the press slowly. Wear ear protection, "just in case". On salvaged "military" brass, primers are usually crimped / staked in and thus a bit harder to remove, but just don't be in a hurry. And you will then have to remove the crimp / staking to insert a new primer. The BEST tool I have ever found for this is the Dillon "Super Swage 600" bench-mounted job. It actually works! REALLY well made and comes with swage tools for both large and small rifle / pistol primer pockets. You only need to "de-crmp" primer pockets ONCE in their lifetime, so it is a device that will probably outlast several owners.