I moved to VA 24 years ago. No place to shoot, they use shotguns to deer hunt, I stopped reloading. All my reloading supplies/equipment went into the attic. I don't monitor the temp. humitidy in the attic but when it's in the high 90's outside its gotta be 110 plus upstairs. In the winter it's below freezing whenever the outside temp is below freezing.
Yesterday I went up there and got my old primers. Amazing. Five 1000 primer cases of CCI primers. Two cases had price tags on them. One case of large rifle primers was marked $9.99 and a case of small pistol magnum primers was marked $11.99.
Anyway, took them to the shed, grabbed a box of small pistol primers, and dumped them in the Lee hand primer press and put six primers into six pieces of 38 special brass. I put the primed brass in my Ruger and begain to pull the trigger (darn those things are loud!!) but stopped after the first bang and covered my ears for the next five bangs.
I figure if those 6 went bang (all dumped into the Lee primer press and rolled around to get them bottom down pretty well makes it six primers picked at random from the box) the rest must be good, too.
Those primers have been on a shelf in hot/cold/humid conditions for 24 years and they still go BANG. I think I'll use the rest, too.
I've got some primers about that old also. Still go bang every time. O0
Doug
Apparently, they're sealed, as I've had the same luck.
I just finished off a box of Herters LR Magnum primers last month.
Herters quit selling reloading components in 71-72 so these are at least 40 years old.
Shoot very well thank you and quite consistent too.
The stuff is a lot more forgiving than supposed. Finishing off a bunch of Herters powder too. Still have 12 lbs left and it is real nice.
Sam
Yea powder is the same way if kept correctly. I got a 8lb keg that was bought in 81. Bought a bunch of supply's from a guy that had found out that he had the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease. :'( Great guy gave me a truckload of stuff for 350.00. :D
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I moved to VA 24 years ago. No place to shoot, they use shotguns to deer hunt, I stopped reloading. All my reloading supplies/equipment went into the attic. I don't monitor the temp. humitidy in the attic but when it's in the high 90's outside its gotta be 110 plus upstairs. In the winter it's below freezing whenever the outside temp is below freezing.
Yesterday I went up there and got my old primers. Amazing. Five 1000 primer cases of CCI primers. Two cases had price tags on them. One case of large rifle primers was marked $9.99 and a case of small pistol magnum primers was marked $11.99.
What's more amazing is that if you put them on GunBroker
right now you could sell them for $40 to $60 a box!
Nothing like a panic market.