How Long?

[Doggorloader]

I feel like I just won the lottery.

A widow of an apparently quite active reloader dropped off a ton of components that anyone could grab for the taking.

I filled a box with 5000 of each (Federal,CCI, Remington, and Winchester) large pistol primers and 1000 each (Federal, CCI, and Winchester) large rifle primers like in 20,000 LP and 3000 LR.

Also scored a 5 gallon pail of once fired Federal 45 brass so it looks like my days of crawling around looking to recover my brass are over for a while anyway.

My question is the primers are all taped in the original bricks and all the primers appear to be right side up so I have to think they have never been opened and are what the boxes say they are. How long do these guys stay good? All are date marked and they start in 1991 and go all the way up to 2002.

Holy crap. there were multiple 5 gallon pails of 44 Mag, .357 Mag, .40, 45 ACP, and rifle brass to numerous to mention. 1000 pc boxes of lead bullets of all calibers and four 3 foot square boxes of AA shotgun hulls all for the taking.

I hope the primers are still good and will stay for a while cause it will take me some time to use them up.

[al503]

You must have been saving up some good karma for a while. Congrats.

With all that stuff from one person, I'd bet that he knew how to store everything so you should be fine.

However, I would load a few and make sure they go bang before going crazy and then having to pull all the bullets, just in case.

Edited October 19, 2005 by al503

[.40AET]

I took a long break from reloading. When I started again, the first rounds were all made with 15 year old CCI SP primers. They all went bang. They were in my basement with reasonable climate control. Load 100 and see what happens. You should be good to go. Nice score!

[jkrispies]

Sweet deal! If you're worried about it, a solution might be to find the oldest primer box and load them into revolver brass, primer only, and fire off a 100 of 'em. If they all go bang, you should be okay.

[JD45]

Man you scored big. All of those components should be just fine, except for the .45 brass. That stuff goes bad in a hurry. If you ship it all to me I have a device that recycles .45 brass so you won't have to worry about it.

[Clay1]

About 15 years ago I am chatting with an old timer who use to shoot a ton but was getting up there in age. He had a keg of powder that had to go 50 pounds sitting on the shelf. It was an old powder called 4831 but wasn't Hogdon it said Bonanza on it. It was reclaimed military powder and he bought it in the 70s some time. I smelled it to see if it was deteriorated and it wasn't. At the time I was pulling the trigger for fur a whole bunch with a .243 winchester in a Rem 700 action. I shot 3000 rounds of .243 that first year with that powder. I have shot many, many sub moa 5 shot groups with that old stuff that I thought might not be any good any longer.

Last week I was reloading for the upcoming deer season. My wife shoots my old dog gun in 243 win and I shoot a 7mm-08 and just used up the last of that powder. Sure wish I could buy some of that old stuff somewhere, I liked it as well as anything IMR / Dupont ever put out.

You have components from 1990 something. Damn that stuff is brand new. I'll be firing rounds deer hunting this year with powder purchased in the 70's and manufacturer well before that.

Rick

[RogerT]

I still have some Remington primers (small rifle) from the early 70's that my father bought and use from time to time in my .222 (from the same era) and never had any problems. They have been stored on a shelf in my garage the last 15 years, no problems at all.

[Kenpo Joe]

A friend gave me several hundred primed 45 cases that he had from the mid-70's and evey one went bang when I pulled the trigger. They had been stored in those 50 round plastic cases in who knows what kind of environment.

Back on mute.

[DougBarnes101]

If you are worried about not getting the Winchester LP primers before they go bad I would be happy to take them off your hands and get them loaded and shot immediately.

Congratulations on the great score

[Gulf690]

I'm still using Federal Small Pistol primers and some Clays that are well over 15 years old and have not had (and don't expect) a problem. Storage has been poor, in a shed with little insulation. Others in my club are using things much, much older than that without hassles.

gulf

[shred]

An old, old-primer thread : http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15391

Consensus there was 'stored properly, 15-20+ years old = no problem'.

[Dream]

I took a break from shooting... 15 years... Primers were stored in my old shop, sitting on a shelf in direct sun light. You could not read the side that was facing the sun. These primers were in orginal packaging. I have since shot all of them and had no problems at all with the old primers... by the way the building was not climate controled.

Edited November 15, 2005 by Dream