PRIMER rebuilding?
OK, OK,[:)] I'm NOT that far GONE,even if I do have a [:I]pig and a[:o)] tiger for a friend? HAS anybody tried to reload PRIMERS? I have a punch that flattens the bump in the primer body and I spread the anvil so it fits tightly and press them to together(very carefully). ALL I need is the REAL ingedinace for the primer compound! I've tryed a match mixture, they work kind'a. I know primers aren't that expensive. but, [8D]I have nothing but time on my hands,[;)][xx(]cancer has got me. Just wanted to know??? Thanks.
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partsman,
I understand your thinking but I disagree with your solution. This is a very dangerous process and should be avoided at all cost.
"Primer manufacture and insertion is the most dangerous part of small arms ammunition production. Sensitive priming compounds have claimed many lives including the founder of the famous British Eley ammunition firm. Modern commercial operations use protective shielding between operators and manufacturing equipment.[3]"
Ask the folks at Lake City Arsenal about the fire they had there a few weeks ago... Actually, they won't say a word since ATK and the FEDs locked the place down and sealed it off.
As much as I dislike 'Wiki' anything, this has a fairly good description of the chemistry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_primer#Boxer_primer
Best.0 -
Trust me on this one- I have worked with commerical and military explosives for 50 years. Modern primers are mainly lead azide or lead styphnate, or DDNP for lead free primers. In a dry state, they are incredibly touchy, to the degree that, in bulk, it cannot be legally shipped in the US. The product, along with other ingredients, such as powdered aluminum is placed in the primer body as a wet paste which dries in place. Machinery is automated, has blast channelization and shielding, and there is STILL a man-load limit (restrictions on number of people that can be present in that area at one time). It IS possible to make a crude replacement using "strike anywhere" match heads, but would not want to attempt, or to USE them in anything but a final TEOTWAWKI situtation.
That stuff will blow your fingers off.0 -
Is it *possible* to reload a primer? Yes. If you wanted to try this, its probably easier to reload rimfire ammo, by the way.
It is a good idea to try it? Hell no.
As mentioned, most of the traditional priming compounds use heavy metals (lead, mercury, or in some cases antimony) and are intrinsically toxic.
And of course by design, priming compounds are friction and pressure sensitive and extremely dangerous explosives. It doesn't take a lot of this stuff in terms of mass to cause a BIG problem.
Meanwhile commercially manufactured primers are readily available, inexpensive, and likely far more reliable and safe than anything you're going to be able to cook up at home.
Even in all kinds of hypothetical duress situations, I find it hard to imagine one where it would make more sense to try and reload your own primers rather than just to find some already loaded ammo or primers, or find some other alternative.
For example, even assuming you had the technical ability to synthesize priming compound safely, if you're in some middle-of-nowhere place or post-apocalyptic world where you can't locate primers, how are you going to locate dry nitric acid, mercury, etc to synthesize the priming material?
If you're really out in the middle of nowhere or things are really that far gone, you'd probably have a better time going back to older flint/spark priming for single-shot guns, devising some other single-shot electrical priming system, or just using a bow and arrow!
Edit: Incidentally, you can read about the contents of "strike anywhere" matches in this cool blurb:
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-07/st_whatsinside
Note that one of the main ingredients is potassium chlorate, which is also used in the older corrosive military primers. So your self-created matchhead primers should be considered corrosive.
Again, begging the question of how exactly you're going to get your hands on strike-anywhere matches if/when you can't get primers, this video shows how it might be done. I still wouldn't try it, but here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7nphPRG6JA
In real-world scenarios where ammo components are banned by law (and there are many) the typical "solution" is to smuggle them in illegally.0 -
With all the dangers involved in attempting this process and the costs you would be looking at to do it with any degree of safety you could probably buy enough primers to keep you shooting for a LOOONG time. 0 -
There was an article in a survival magazine in the early 80's about using the head of "strike anywhere matches" as the priming ingredient to reuse primers. This would only be used in a worse case situation. The article showed the primers being used in .308 ammo and shot in a HK 91 rifle. Very interesting indeed. 0 -
I think you have entirely too much free time on your hands. If you need some primers that bad, I will give you a couple hundred (as long as you pay the haz mat shipping)[;)] 0 -
quote:Originally posted by CS8161
I think you have entirely too much free time on your hands. If you need some primers that bad, I will give you a couple hundred (as long as you pay the haz mat shipping)[;)]
I do not think the issue of free time and/or an intense need for commercially-made primers is motivating the author. He seems to be seeking information here, not trying to make do on-the-cheap. Nor do I think the toxicity of the components is worrying him much at this point.
Regarding "making primers", however, some time ago, I read of a device that Dixie Gun Works had for sale that one could use to make percussion caps to fit over the nipples of cap-and-ball revolvers and muskets. The device required aluminum soda-pop cans as basic stock to press the percussion caps from. I do not recall the ignition compound for the caps. Conceivalbly, that device or something similar might work to make primers for cartridge brass. A good, intense Internet search should deliver a decent ignition compound recipe and a search of e-bay might produce the technical grade chemical components for the compound.0 -
Some have reloaded 22RF ammo.
You might research that but again, fulminating compounds are VERY dangerous.
If you must experiment with it do it in tiny quantities away from anything else that could go off either directly or sympathetically.
As a kid I made fulminate of mercury and gave nitroglycerine an unsuccessful try.
It's a wonder I survived my youth.0 -
V35 I was the same way, It is amazing i survived childhood, even so i lost so may finger nails. I was the local Pyrotechnic expert and started working with Dynamite at 14.
I don't think it was Anarchist cook book which is still avail though toned down. But other 70's-80's Survivalist publications showed the match head primers, but also 2 other formulas for primers and detonators. Many here have said and its true they are VOLATILE !!
Seems i recently read something about Lake City had a bad fire, Who makes more or has more safety systems, experience,inspections than them??0 -
quote:Originally posted by Wolf.
Regarding "making primers", however, some time ago, I read of a device that Dixie Gun Works had for sale that one could use to make percussion caps to fit over the nipples of cap-and-ball revolvers and muskets. The device required aluminum soda-pop cans as basic stock to press the percussion caps from. I do not recall the ignition compound for the caps. Conceivalbly, that device or something similar might work to make primers for cartridge brass. A good, intense Internet search should deliver a decent ignition compound recipe and a search of e-bay might produce the technical grade chemical components for the compound.
How about using the caps for toy cap pistols? They used to make some pretty powerful ones when I was a kid but I don't know what is available now.
I seem to recall they did sell the component to reload shotgun primers. You could reuse two of the three parts of the primer.0
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