Is it safe to reuse unfired but decapped primers?

[SamGoldstein]

Looks like there are those that say its fine and those that would toss them. I guess the possibility of using damaged primers is not worth wasting time and material. The fact that I can reuse the brass is good enough.


BTW, thanks to the ADULTS that answered my question without snark. And for those that think decapping live primers is a problem, you need to educate yourself:

If we look at how a primer is designed and put together we see that there are three parts to a primer.. Cup, Anvil, and Priming Mixture.
If we take a look at the Anvil, we see that it is 'pointed' toward the Cup. This creates a 'pinching' point where the firing pin will 'punch' the relatively soft Cup against the relatively hard Anvil with the Priming Mixture in between, which is what creates the flame to ignite the powder charge.

Now if we use a decapping pin to move the primer from the back, or the opposite direction, we see that there can be no 'pinching' taking place because we are moving the primer by the harder Anvil, especially considering the 'minimal' amount of force required to move the primer out of the pocket, compared with, the amount of force a firing pin exerts in an actual firearm.

The idea of using something (a decapping pin) that looks just like a firing pin to remove a primer does not set well in our minds, but in reality it is relatively safe to do so,.. with minimal force.
Just go slow and wear eye protection and you won't have a problem

[pacrat]

Look at my "handle". I've been reloading for 49 years. And deprimed and reused primers unenumerable times in the past.

Never had one go off while depriming.

Never had one FTF when reused.

JM2c

[bohoki]

i'd use them but i would not treat them as totally reliable even thought they will 99.9% go off

[Pitchfork]

I've been reloading since 1964 and have done that a few times with no problems. Look at it this way. If you get things put together to your satisfaction and it FTF you can see if you are controlling any tendency to flinch.

[garyvale]

I've done it many times too, with no problems over 50 years of reloading. Went bang every time. Having said that, I wouldn't advise doing it for anything important.

YMMV

[Redemption]

Look at my "handle". I've been reloading for 49 years. And deprimed and reused primers unenumerable times in the past.

Never had one go off while depriming.

Never had one FTF when reused.

JM2c

This right here +1 man.

[tonyjr]

46 for me - guess I did it wrong . 3 or 4 going off kind of teaches you .
After that I kind of figured it was not worth the time to try and save a cheap primer

[Redemption]

46 for me - guess I did it wrong . 3 or 4 going off kind of teaches you .
After that I kind of figured it was not worth the time to try and save a cheap primer

Heavy on the handle?
Tight primer pockets?

I would think either of those things would do it. I would also chance a guess that SPP & SRP are more likely to do it than LPP and LRP

Had an issue awhile back where SPP's in some .40 I was resizing & decapping was bulging out the old primers and in some cases popping the tops off the primers while leaving the side of the primer cups in the primer pocket... What I learned from the resulting post is that other people have had that happen also so I dont know. Sounds like we need a poll to find out if it was SPP or LPP's that people had pop on them.

[the86d]

I have never had a problem, and as long as I am loading mid-high velocity loads, not max, then I probably never will.

I have used hard-cup #41 primers in 9mm to see velocity differences, and if I recall correctly these are like magnums, and only increased velocity <50FPS vs. #400 pistol primers, in an M9.

[tonyjr]

This was years ago when I was buying cheap primers .
Back then I poked a hole thru quite a few .
Now I pay a lot more attention to what I am doing - only use CCI and any ammo given to me is either shot , saved until I buy that caliber gun or given away .

[Turbinator]

This was years ago when I was buying cheap primers .
Back then I poked a hole thru quite a few .
Now I pay a lot more attention to what I am doing - only use CCI and any ammo given to me is either shot , saved until I buy that caliber gun or given away .

What's a cheap primer? CCI are known to be a harder primer, so that's why they probably work well for you.

Winchester, Federal, CCI, they're all good makers, so which ones were you buying that were problematic?

Turby

[tonyjr]

That was so long ago , I don't remember the names .
I bought them at sears , K-MART and the traders . Bavk then I think I was getting about $4 an hour and few pennies meant something .
I had primer blow up in chute , bend , get stuck in chute, poke holes trying to remove . Now I only use CCI and hand deprime / prime .
Once in a while I still poke holes in the 308 / 762 but those are range pick ups .

[the86d]

FYI, my lady's stiker-fired SR-9 seems to have issues with CCI #41 hard cup primers,
so i wouldn't reuse those in an SR-9, but other than that, good to go.
( I don't know if M855 uses those primers, but thought i'd mention it...)

[Sunday]

For poking paper yes. I do it

[kcheung2]

FYI, my lady's stiker-fired SR-9 seems to have issues with CCI #41 hard cup primers,
so i wouldn't reuse those in an SR-9, but other than that, good to go.
( I don't know if M855 uses those primers, but thought i'd mention it...)

Huh? SR-9 is a pistol, CCI 41 is a small rifle primer...Unless you're reloading 9mm cases with srp.