[Recoil Sissy]

One of my pet peeves is LIVE (mostly pistol) ammunition discarded on ranges. Over several years I have picked up a 3 lb. coffee can full. Examples run the gamut from .32 acp, .380, 9mm Luger, 9mm variants like 9x18 Makarov and 9x21, .38 super, .40 S&W, .45 acp, and a handful of .223/5.56. Some are clearly somebody's competition reloads. The odd ball calibers almost certainly not.

Most appear to be cartridges that wouldn't or didn't chamber. A handful were loaded with the primer inserted backwards. Some may have resulted from competitors jacking a round onto the ground to clear the chamber after finishing a stage of fire. What they all had in common was a LIVE round with a LIVE primer.

So... at this point I've pulled all the bullets. The powder was dumped in a flower bed. I'll recycle the brass and I'll cast fishing sinkers with the resultant lead. Now I'm left to deal with the live primers.

I've sold all my guns but I borrowed a few in common calibers from guys that still shoot and used them to fire live primers in otherwise empty brass. However, I still have a LOT of odd ball or damaged brass that won't fit ANY firearm available to me.

Short of pounding them with a hammer, how do I permanently neutralize these things? I've read about soaking them in oil, penetrating oil, solvents, kerosene etc. but the general consensus is that petroleum products are only a temporary fix. Apparently when the liquid is drained and the primers dry out, the dang things "come back to life".

I really don't want to expose anyone - like my friendly garbage haulers- to a potentially hazardous item. So... do any of my learned friends have a solution or suggestion?

sissy

 

[alant]

Soak them in water.

 

[Deryk]

lmao

 

[Gross Man]

I was told to soak them in oil. Does anyone have experience with that? Billy

 

[oleww]

Cast iron pot with a heavy cast iron lid on a propane burner.

I have a “non-potable” pot dedicated for melting lead.

Sounds like popcorn. I don’t go near it until I here the same number of pops that I put in it.

Tossing off a bridge might be safer.

 

[halfmile]

put them on the railroad track when a train comes by

HM

 

[Harley Lekvold]

I've always just put oil in them. Never had a problem.

 

[pyrdek]

I used the Coleman stove and a gallon size old empty paint can to detonate some primers. It worked but these were shotgun primers for the most part. A few would actually penetrate the side of the can. Remember that the primer alone can launch an oz. of shot and a wad ten or fifteen feet so they do have some power in them. I put some nail holes in the can to allow for the venting of the higher pressure gasses from the primers detonating and the lid was used in the normal way. One interesting thing was that with 10 or 15 in the can, it may fire one and then another but then there would be a chain detonation where the first may cause the next five or ten to go off as a group.

These shotgun primers were ones that mis-seated in the reloader and had damage that would not allow them to fire in an empty shell so that was the only way I could make sure that they did not end up in some other place where they could have been dangerous if they were crushed or heated.

Prior to that I tried a couple soaked in WD-40 for a day or so and they still went BANG when heated a few days later so WD-40, for me anyway, did not deactivate the primer. Most shotgun primers are now sealed so the oil will probably not even get to the primer mix.

 

[DD89521]

WD40 is what I have used in the past, penetrates quicker and better than oil in my opinion, and has worked for me.

 

[flashmax]

WD40 is what I have used in the past, penetrates quicker and better than oil in my opinion, and has worked for me.

Prior to that I tried a couple soaked in WD-40 for a day or so and they still went BANG when heated a few days later so WD-40, for me anyway, did not deactivate the primer.

hmmmm. Contradictories. Who’s right? The guy who exploded the WD soaked primers.

 

[1straightshot]

I take an old pill bottle put the primers in and add some WD40. Cap it and throw it away.
Maybe not the best , but nothing good can come from popping them off over a fire.
Accidents happen and it only takes one. Wayne Mayes Just burned off some powder.
Skeet Shooting World Record Holder, Wayne Mayes, Passes

 

[Dale R K]

Toss 'em in the wood stove, pop pop and they are done.

 

[oleww]

When I get ahead of myself reloading on my 9000H, sometimes I’ll miss the occasional flipped primer.

I have been putting those smashed “live” primers in my spit bottle. I assumed they would inert by the time they made it to the landfill. Copenhagen causes cancers, you’d think it would kill a little bitty primer.

 

[Driftwood]

Dillon Precision advised to spray with WD-40 throw it away

 

[H M]

At our Pistol/Rifle range we have a 1/2 Gal Jug with oel in it ,for disposal of life brass shells . Shotgun shells we either cut open and dump the contens or throw the whole shell in a fire. It is safe ,they just "hiss " . No Explosion

 

[dls guide]

Sounds like you have way too much time on your hands.

 

[Steve12]

When your on the line in a tournament and you get a no fire. Do you Chuck it / pick it up later.

 

[Harley Lekvold]

NO!!!! I spent 22½ years mowing Trap & Skeet fields and never enjoyed hitting a live shell with the mower blade. At least they were riders, so I never got hurt. I stopped anyone shooting at the range from throwing live shells that I saw. If they persissted, I TOLD them to leave and don't come back. With 8 trapfields, I couldn't catch them all.