Long term storage of primers

L

locknloader

New member
How do you guys store your primers so they do not get damaged from moisture?

I like to keep my reloading stuff in the garage in case of an accident, which makes them more prone to moisture damage than keeping them inside where temp/humidity is relatively stable.

I always keep primers in their factory packaging.

I am thinking *plastic* ammo cans that has a rubber gasket and put some silica gel packets in each of them? (color change kind so i can check and re-charge them as needed).

I have seen some suggest a metal ammo can which probably gives a better seal to the environment but Primers + locked metal can = bomb.
 
I keep all my reloading stuff inside and have never had anything go bad due to heat/humidity.

If I had to keep primers in the garage, I'd suggest using one of the vacuum sealers to shrink the 4-mil plastic bag around the primers in their original boxes. The vacuum sealers evacuate all of the air (moisture) from the bag before it is heat sealed. If you use a large bag, you can get several opens and re-closures out of a single bag.

There are a ton of them on Amazon. Here's a sample, but check the others out also. https://www.amazon.com/NutriChef-Au...-11&keywords=food+saver+vacuum+sealer+machine
 
anyplace cool and dry will do, no need to get all OCD but I would not leave them on a car dashboard in summer with the windows rolled up

http://www.saami.org/specifications_and_information/publications/download/SAAMI_ITEM_201-Primers.pdf

5. Modern sporting ammunition primers will not absorb
moisture under normal or even severe conditions of
atmospheric humidity. There is no advantage to be gained
from air-tight containers. The factory containers in which
they are packaged need only normal conditions of storage.
They should be kept dry and not exposed to high temperatures
(in excess of 150° F). If exposed to wet conditions
or high temperatures, they may deteriorate, yielding misfires
or poor ignition of the propellant powder.
 
Did not even consider the vac seal bags, i have a huge roll and a sealing machine already. I think that will be the ticket... toss in a moisture absorber for good measure and i should be good to go.
 
Did not even consider the vac seal bags, i have a huge roll and a sealing machine already. I think that will be the ticket... toss in a moisture absorber for good measure and i should be good to go.
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sometimes I wonder why I even bother posting on this forum
 
locknloader asked:
How do you guys store your primers so they do not get damaged from moisture?
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In a kitchen-type cabinet in the work area of my garage.

I recently finished loading primers from a batch that I purchased sometime between 1980 and 1985 that had been stored that way.

They all went bang.
 
I recently finished loading primers from a batch that I purchased sometime between 1980 and 1985 that had been stored that way.

They all went bang.
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mostly what he said. I too have been using some vintage 1984 primers stored in my garage in Florida located less than 200 feet from a salt water marsh. talk about heat and humidity.

I think the damn things are nearly indestructible. I have taken primers and soaked them in detergent and water for several days and some of them would still go pop under a hammer on an anvil. to be sure they lost some wompf, but damn.....
 
I keep powder and primers on a closet shelf in the house under heat and air. When I lived out in the arid West, I kept them in the garage.
 
thats why i like to talk things out sometimes, you get caught up over analyzing the situation and overlook the simplest fix
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then in this case the simplest fix is anyplace that is not wet and less than 150 F. If my shop suffers either of those situations I will have greater problems than ruined primers
 
In the factory package , inside the house , on a shelf in a small closet.
Primers have a long life so stored.
Since the last powder and primer shortage I've been hoarding up , so I'm glad they they have a long shelf life and will keep.
Gary
 
Glad i asked now, a few vids i had watched on good ol' youtube were giving the impression that they did not store long. Seems that is not the case at all.
 
I too have been using some vintage 1984 primers stored in my garage in Florida located less than 200 feet from a salt water marsh. talk about heat and humidity.
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That's not your danger. If one of those Florida mosquitoes decides to peck on one, there goes your garage! :D
 
Primers do not get damaged from moisture.
"...on a car dashboard in summer with the windows rolled up..." Isn't going to bother 'em either. That'd probably lead to a break in though.
 
An addition to my post, above, with a big "ick" factor is I had a tray of CCI small rifle primers get left out of the cabinet. Sometime between 1995 and 1997 an unaltered male cat sprayed the primers with his scent. The male cat spray also got onto an RCBS shell holder. This was not discovered until some years later.

The RCBS shell holder was a useless lump of rust - a testimony to how corrosive cat spray can be.

The primers had a greenish corrosion but were otherwise recognizable as primers. I soaked most of the primers were soaked in denatured alcohol (lead styphnate is soluble in denatured alcohol) to dispose of them, but out of curiosity I decided to see whether a few of the primers would still work - - they did.

It was an object lesson to me in just how hard it is to "kill" a primer.
 
locknloader wrote:
...a few vids i had watched on good ol' youtube were giving the impression...
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There are good videos on Youtube. There are also videos that are worse than useless as they not only don't tell you how to do things, they teach you bad practices you have to first "unlearn".

On another gun forum, someone learning how to reload from Youtube videos didn't learn how to properly resize cartridge cases. When the new reloader tried to seat bullets in his cases, they just fell all the way in. Now he has to fix the bad lesson he learned and then invest more time to learn it the right way - for him Youtube was "worse than useless".
 
Primers do not get damaged from moisture.
"...on a car dashboard in summer with the windows rolled up..." Isn't going to bother 'em either. That'd probably lead to a break in though.
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reloaders must be pretty hard up where you live. I have not seen any shortages since 09 or so. I would be more worried about them cooking off
 
That's not your danger. If one of those Florida mosquitoes decides to peck on one, there goes your garage!
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Skeeters ain't nothing, its them thar Huri canes that level the garage (and other stuff)

Course we have Skeeter building codes up here and un-named Huri canes so maybe we are ahead.
 
Never got bit by an Alaskan skeeter when I was there, but when I got bit by several in Florida I would swear they had a beak the size of a woodpecker. Heck, the firing pins in my guns are smaller!
 
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