Reloading fired primers

[Timbo]

Hi all!

I was sent this video and thought I'd share it with the AH community. As reloaders (and some do-it-yourselfers) who like to go to the nth degree with their reloading, I thought this little video would be interesting to watch.

Enjoy, and may you all have a Merry Christmas!

"How To Reload Primers with Matches"

 

[tarbe]

There is a reason I have a large stash of Strike Anywhere matches!

Of course, now that I have 120,000 primers, I could probably lose the matches!

Nah!

 

[JimP]

Can you imagine doing this with 1000 primers?

 

[Longwalker]

He lost my interest when he talked about removing the primer for the bottom of the "bullet casing". If this is intended for public education at least they could use correct terminology.

 

[ChrisG]

This is a sure fire way to destroy your barrel unless you clean it judiciously after each session shooting. Not only that, but you will likely lose a lot of velocity and the shells won't work after a while sitting unless they are sealed against all moisture. The tip of matches contain Potassium Chlorate and the striker strip is Red Phosphorous. First off, this is called Armstrong's Mixture and is SUICIDALLY SENSITIVE and Burns at a rate of almost 1000m/s when made of pure ingredients. This isn't quite high explosive detonation but it is darn close. Making Armstrong's mix is very, VERY DANGEROUS in any quantity over a few hundred milligrams. When struck, the reaction produces Potassium Chloride (a hygroscopic salt which absorbs water from the air) and Phosphorous Chlorides. These will get strewn through your whole barrel on firing and the next bullet down the bore really mashes them in to the steel. In order to remove them, you would need to run boiling soapy water down the bore and then clean as per usual. Pretty much this is a last possible ditch scenario where running the risk is worth it.

Actual primers contain Lead Styphnate which is a very chemically stable, non-hygroscopic, crystalline high explosive. The only by-product of detonation is white hot lead vapor which is much better at igniting smokeless powder and has a shelf life measured in centuries. You would be better advised to purchase some high concentration Nitric acid and silver metal and learn to make Silver nitrate for this. It is just as dangerous but would probably last a lot longer.

 

[Ray B]

I recall an advertisement that involved a kit to reload rimfire (22 LRs) cases. Seems it involved scraping the tips off of strike-anywhere matches and stuffing the powder into the rim. Sounds like it out to be listed in the dictionary under either penny-wise and ton foolish, or just plain stupid.