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Making inert cartridges, can you put used primers in cases?


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Hi I have a old rifle that I would like to make a load of inert display bullets to go in the magazine pouches and although I can get new inert primers would it be possible to put fired primers in the cases? 
I have no experience of loading bullets so a bit lost on wether this is possible or not. 

if this is possible does anyone have any they want rid of?

thanks all

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25 minutes ago, rovercoupe said:

Hi I have a old rifle that I would like to make a load of inert display bullets to go in the magazine pouches and although I can get new inert primers would it be possible to put fired primers in the cases? 
I have no experience of loading bullets so a bit lost on wether this is possible or not. 

if this is possible does anyone have any they want rid of?

thanks all

What caliber? Maybe some one has some once fired cases with the burden primers 

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I am looking to make some for Swiss 7.5 x55 (supposed to be 53mm) but don’t think it makes any difference for display purposes.

i have not found any used brass so was going to just shell out for new ones. 

To be honest I don’t know what size the primers are, did not even know they were different sizes!

Just checked and it says large rifle primer.

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3 hours ago, rovercoupe said:

Hi I have a old rifle that I would like to make a load of inert display bullets to go in the magazine pouches and although I can get new inert primers would it be possible to put fired primers in the cases? 

For two reasons don't do it using either inert primers or struck fired primers.

1) Regardless of that you know that the primers are inert (yes you can buy such) and unstruck the eyes of anyone else including the police won't. They will see unstruck primers and possibly assume it is fully viable "live" ammunition.

2) Regardless of you know that the primers are struck fired primers (yes reloaders have wastebins full of the same) the eyes of anyone else including the police won't. They will see struck primers and assume it is a fully viable "live" ammunition that hasn't fired at first attempt. 

I and most shooters of long standing have a horror of cartridges that are still intact with a struck primer as to all intents and purposes it is still very much a live round and it is a hugely dangerous practice to use inert cartridge made with struck primers as "drill rounds" as it is an accident waiting to happen. They cause confusion...are they inert...or are they live cartridges that have been tried to be fired but haven't "gone bang"? 

So the solution that I use is this. Either load with the old primer decapped and leave the primer pocket empty or take the now decapped primer and use a piece of stiff wire to prise out the anvil. Throw it away so you are left with the cup. Now use a flat ended round punch on a hard metal surface to flatten out the indent made jn that cup when the case was fired. No invert the primer so processed and insert it in the primer pocket the other way up. In other words back to front. The advantage is that it'll actually seat better that way and, of course, it can clearly be seen that there is neither unstruck nor struck primer in place but this inverted open bottomed "cup".

Edited by enfieldspares
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Thanks for the advice, I think to be totally safe that might be the way to go even though the bullets will not fit in the gun.

i did have a look at some ready made ones but the price is quite high and they do not have the paper patched ones I want to be of the right period for the gun. They do state that they oil the primers to deactivate which seems quite dangerous Given what you have said so will stay away from them!

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Good idea, they will be paper patched and will be pushed in by hand so will be easy to inspect should the need ever arise.

i did have a thought on the primers and making sure they were safe, if I installed them the right way round but drill a hole in them which would mimic the firing pin mark so it be obvious at close inspection there was nothing in there and it was totally inactive.

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7.5x55 Swiss cases are the same if you want to be authentic just trim to 53 mm but yes 7.5x55 will chamber no problem due to the generous chamber specs as the original 7.5x53 bullet being paper patched 

I had one a big ole beast with that 12 round mag I.ve yet to see one in bad condition considering there age beautiful triggers on them pretty accurate to and generally all matching serial numbers 

I might have a spare paste board charging clip for it if your interested they are as rare rocking horse **** nowadays 

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On 27/09/2020 at 19:58, rovercoupe said:

 

Drill a hole in them which would mimic the firing pin mark.

Been there and tried it. It's hard work! But yes it's how Kynoch used to do some of their salesman's dummy sample cartridges and if done well and perfectly cntred look very good. Just don't try it of course with live primers it could cost you an eye.

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On 02/10/2020 at 17:00, hafod said:

7.5x55 Swiss cases are the same if you want to be authentic just trim to 53 mm but yes 7.5x55 will chamber no problem due to the generous chamber specs as the original 7.5x53 bullet being paper patched 

I had one a big ole beast with that 12 round mag I.ve yet to see one in bad condition considering there age beautiful triggers on them pretty accurate to and generally all matching serial numbers 

I might have a spare paste board charging clip for it if your interested they are as rare rocking horse **** nowadays 

If you want it off your hands I will gladly take it.

 

Still waiting for my metal delivery to make up some authentic looking bullets which has given me time to find out that the paper patch can be made from masking tape, It should look right and I have tons of it kicking about.

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3 hours ago, rovercoupe said:

If you want it off your hands I will gladly take it.

 

Still waiting for my metal delivery to make up some authentic looking bullets which has given me time to find out that the paper patch can be made from masking tape, It should look right and I have tons of it kicking about.

Pm.me your details 

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15 hours ago, hafod said:

Pm.me your details 

On The authentic cartridge the bullet ( gp 90/21 ) was a steel tipped bullet with a slight hollow heeled base and was then paper patched to about 321 dia due to the generous throat diameter and was roughfully around 220 grains with its patch if I remember rightly hope that helps 

Edited by hafod
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Thanks for the info, I am working off pictures and trying to make them look period correct for the rifle, did a couple of test cuts today with a custom tool to get the curved bullet tip and they came out quite nice, the proper ones will be a lot smoother I really just wanted to try a couple and see if they looked ok. 
I tried to make a gp90 and a gp90/23 they are aluminium heads as steel would be too much grief to cut!

A92BA696-4F59-4EF0-BFAF-A453C4ECFADB.jpeg

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