[76Highboy]

Originally Posted by Rogeritall

First time poster, long time shooter... I just bought a bunch of reloading equipment off of a buddy of mine, and he tells me "don't buy any primers, or powder, I got you covered". Turns out the powder is a half jug of Win 748, and the primers are CCI 400's (200 count) small rifle primers. But, it turns out they are both 10 years old.

Now I'm brand new to reloading, as a matter of fact I have yet to reload anything, just getting set up. My question would be do any of you think that it would even be worth my trouble to test load a half dozen .223's, or so, to even see if they fire. (I don't have a Chronograph to check velocity), or would you... thank my friend kindly, and just dispose of the old supplies in a safe manner, and get all fresh powder, primers, and so on.

How old is too old????

Primers should be fine. You can always pop one with a hammer on a concrete floor and if it pops they are good (that is my redneck way of checking them especially when I buy them from a friend that can't tell me anything about them. I put one on the ground and smack it with a hammer. If it pops they are good). As for powder, I have some that is much older then 10 years and it is fine. If the powder smells like ammonia, it is bad. If not, load it up. Do like you stated. Load a few and test them.

Welcome to the forum.