Hordeing Primers

[Jack Ryan]

I've been reloading a long time. Shotguns, rifles, pistols, black powder, they all have the same choke point. PRIMERS

I've bought a lot of primers and caps in my day. Enough to know that THEY WILL GO BAD if you keep them long enough and don't take some kind of effort to keep them good.

I just always bought them to USE. I never bought them to horde before.

Now if I'm going to buy a lifetime suppley, do ya'll have and good tricks, tips, or suggestions on keeping them good?

My plan so far...

Buy enough primers, large&small, rifle & pistol, and 11 caps to burn all the powder and lead I have now plus a little. Seal them in those pump out bags they sell to freeze food in. I plan to put an extra bag inside each one with the goods to reseal at least once if opened. I know the comercial desecant is best, I was fortunate enough to work in shipping and packing once and collected a lot from the trash from incoming shipments. That stuff still protected some reloading equipment of my for 10 years of storage in a bad enviroment. But... I don't have that option any more. Don't know what it cost. But I thought I'd super dry a couple pounds of rice in the dehydrator and pack a hand full in each freezer bag before pumping the air out and sealiing it. Keep it all in a dark room temperature enviroment.

Any better plans out there for saving primers forever?

[bilmac]

I like the rice idea, better than taking a chance with chemical dehydrators.

Heat will probably be detremental, but with them super sealed the way you are, you can probably store them in a moister but cooler environment underground .

You picked a lousy time to decide to hoard, Jack. I hope we all get another chance to do it when they're easily available and reasonably priced again.

[Graybeard]

Just leave them in their factory packaging and keep them in your house where it is heated and cooled to maintain a stable temperature. Store them in a closet so they will be in a dark place. That's really all that's needed for them to last your life time.

[Jack Ryan]

Thanks guys.

Yeah I noticed those prices. I always seem to like to buy as high as possible. Now that lead is coming down I need to find some place else to spend my money frivously. May have just me stashing my lead hording that drove the prices up there.

Looking around a little it looks like it cost as much or more to shoot my cap and ball pistol as I use to pay for loaded 44 mags.

Caps are over 5 cents a shot. Used to pay that per shot for the cap, ball and powder.

[G Curtis]

Pumping out the the air and keeping them in a state of partial vacuum is asking for trouble. Same thing goes for powder in a partial vacuum. The lowered pressure will cause the volitile chemicals to evaporate out of the priming compound and possibly make them go bad.