Vintage Primers - Can I use them? - If not what to do with them? - Pictures

[Bossloper]

Hi All,

I went to an auction yesterday and picked up a few things, one of which was a lot containing primers among other things. I bought it for the modern primers but it included about 2,000 vintage primers. Half are cardboard boxes with strips of wood seperating each row of primers, the other half are the kind with the small plastic conainer that holds the primers sideways in tight rows like the Alcan rifle primers below. Most are new & unopened. There's Peter's, Winchesters, Alcan and Remingtons. There's also a red Winchester tin with a couple different kinds of primers in it, but it's not in too good of a shape. I put some pics below.

Not too long ago I got some older Western & CCI large rifle, small & large pistol primers that had the pimers on their sides in plastic rows like mentioned above. I tried some and they all went off and I've been using them for general shooting and my CAS loads, and have had no problems to date. Would using these older primers, if they go bang in an empty case, be a problem or cause any problems? Where could I find out what some of them are for? Some have numbers but don't specify rifle or pistol. Thoughts?

Also, I know folks collect metallic & shotshell cartridges, powder tins & cartridge boxes, but do folks collect these old primer containers as well. Thanks, Brett

[wncchester]

Well, if they were mine they would get loaded and shot.  Some of them are likely to have concave caps, not flat.  If so, you will need a primer seating punch to match.  I do.  But, I'm as old as those primers!

IF they fail to fire it will be from long term storage in excessive heat, not age.

[Bossloper]

That's what I'm leaning towards and then just making a nice display out of the old containers.

[Badnews Bob]

Sounds like a good plan to me.  Cool boxes thou.

[mauser98us]

use em I had somebody give me 2000 alcan primers and they all lit off fine

[Graybeard]

If they were mine I'd use a few of each in loads just to make sure they had not been exposed in some way to damage them but basically they should be fine. The boxes are nice collector items to put up on a shelf tho I doubt they have any real value as such. Still they'd make really neat items for an old shooter to have around on a shelf.

[Cheesehead]

Load five, test five.

Cheese

[Cowboybart]

So far all of my primers from the 60's have gone bang. 
The Rem 9 1/2 primers are large rifle.  The Rem 6 1/2 are small rifle.
Win #108 are small pistol.  Win #116 is small rifle.
I think the Alcan 220 are shotgun
Can't help ya on the Peters or the Win 225.

[Couger]

Two points you may want to consider .....

If you could find a home for those primers with someone who collects such things, I certainly would NOT use them if the primers in their containers were more valuable that way than the price of new caps. (of course as scarce as primers are presently, this point may be moot!)

Point two, are they that much older than the 1960's?  If so, could any them be mercury based?  Mercuric primers were before my time, but they were supposed to rust and pit a gun's bore quite badly if that gun wasn't cleaned real soon after shooting such ammunition.  

[84Jim]

When I started loading I inherited a bunch of old primers like the red box remingtons (3rd from top) and the 2 yellow, red and blue winchesters (4th and 5th from top).  I figure that they date back to WWII.  When I first started out I used them and they all worked.  I gave most of them away many years ago to a buddy who collects old shooting memorabelia.  I still have a couple of boxes of red remington 8 1/2's and loaded some 25-35's with them a couple of years ago.  The ones I shot all went bang.

I did save some of the old loading manuals, and apparently there were two sizes of large rifle primers back in the day.  Rem 8 1/2 and Winchester 115 are an intermediate large rifle size.  The Rem 6 1/2 and Win 116 are small rifle (apparently 7 1/2 wasn't invented yet).  The Win 108's are small pistol primers. The only caliber in the book that calls for Rem 9 1/2 is the 30-06.  BTW, it is a 1941 B & M manual.   

[84Jim]

Winchester 225 was a special size for certain Winchester cartridges, and was discontinued prior to 1937!!

[Bossloper]

That makes sense. They are longer than most primers and my 1st thought was that they were for the older brass shotgun shells with the smaller primers. What Winchester cartridges were the 225 primers for? Also, does anyone still make this sized primer & are these cartridges still used?

[84Jim]

Fish,

I can't find any reference to what they were used for.  A 1937 B & M manual says:  "Winchester or U.S.C. company No. 225 was a special size adapted only to certain Winchester and U.S.C. cartridge cases and is no longer manufactured."  I suspect by that time the industry was standardized to the current sizes, as the old Winchester carts (38-55, 303 winchester and 405) call for the 8 1/2 or 115/120 primers.  A complete list of primer sizes in that book is:

Large rifle (0.211) Rem. 8 1/2, 9 1/2, winchester 115, 115 1/2, and 120.
Small rifle (0.175) Rem. 6 1/2 and winchester 116
Large pistol Rem 2 1/2 and winchester 111
Small pistol Rem. 1 1/2 and Winchester 108.

I also have a 1931 Ideal manual, but it is sketchy on primer sizes, only saying to use the same size as the original cartridge used.  I can find no mention of those Peters No. 65's.

Jim

[Bossloper]

Thanks 84Jim.

Since Peter's was owned by Remington, my guess is that their "No. 65" is the same as the Remington 6-1/2 small rifle primers. It seems to make sense, and probably just a way of marketing one product as two different products to capture more of the market. Kind of like the powders H110 & W296, they're the same powder just marketed by two companies. But, that's just my speculation.

I'm really intrigued by the Winchester 225's. I took some pictures of one of them next to a modern large rifle primer. The 225 is on the left and as you may, or may not be able to see, it has a slightly larger diameter and is more rounded and a little wider. Anyways, I thought these might be able to help the pursuit of knowledge.

[rbwillnj]

I just started using some 30 year old RWS Sinoixid Large Pistol primers that were stored in a gass jar.   Shot about 400 so far and not a hint of problems.

[rem700-3]

I had a fella give me almost 2k winchester primers the other day that he found in a closet while packing to move.  He stopped reloading about 25 years ago so they are at least that old . We loaded up a few to test (30) and no problems at all.

[Bossloper]

So far everything I've tried has gone bang. But I am still trying to find out what cartridges used the Winchester 225 primers. Thanks, Brett