Old pistol primers

[Sid]

I always thought that primers would last indefinitely and just found out otherwise. A short while ago I was out trying to buy primers and went to a gun shop that was just going out of business. He told me he had one "old box" of Remington small pistol primers left. I asked him how old they were and he said he didn't know, but I bought them anyway. I just used them to load 100 rounds of 9mm and had two failures to fire. I tried second strikes on both cartridges. It certainly wasn't the fault of the gun which is a brand new CZ 75B.

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[jimb16]

Could have been the fault of the loader.....If the primers weren't fully seated, the same thging can happen because te firing pin strike pushes the primer all the way into the pocket and wrecks the primer pellet without setting it off. Don't be too quick blaming the primers without checking primer seating first.

[MEHavey]

I'm still shooting (some) primers from the early 70's. If they were kept reasonably cool/dry, you should be fine.

[Kirk]

In my late father-in-law's desk, I found a box of 100 each LP & SP CCI primers from the 70s. I loaded some of the LP primers & had two or three FTF out of 20 rounds. I had no idea how long they'd been there (he died 19 years ago) or how they'd been stored beforehand. These were the first primer failures I've ever had.

[Steve85569]

I ran out of Dad's primers last winter. He quit loading in the early 70's. Shot up the last of his loads last fall. The loaded rounds ALL fired as did the primers. I'd bet on storage - a little moisture can cause a lot of problems. Heck even the 3031 still shot fine.

Primers and powder if stored properly will keep for generations. I'm the "old guy" now.

Steve

[Bruce McAskill]

I have large rifle primers made by Winchester and Remington for about 1950 in wooden trays and they fire fine. All depends on how they are stored as stated above.