protruding rounded primers / what did i see?

[soundguy]

I was out with the wife seeing her mother yesterday and stepped into a pawn shop next door to the some store they were visiting.. figured I'd kill time window shopping.

say some trays of reloaded ammo on the counter.. some of it was .223 and some .222

since I shoot .222 I looked the 222 over . everything struck me as typical.. brass wasn't polished.. had a good tarnish on it.. doid look like someone tried to anneal the case mounts and got aggressive as some of the cas emounts looked um.. scoured or like they were receding

anyway.. what shocked me was when i flipped them over to look at the headstamps.. all of them had rounded ( like a dome ) primers that were protruting visibly from the primer pockets.. like.. if you took the case head an started sliding it top to bottom on a straight edge, the primer would have SIGNIFICANTLY hung.... like maybe .03 protrustion..

i'd be afraind of bolt contact going into battery?

Wtf?

and what's with the domed primers?

ps.. of the ones I handled.. most looked like real 222 brass, not resized.. though i did see some that had unfamiliar headstamps and what looked like reamed crimps, etc.

any ideas on what I was seeing?

[Alpo]

I started to say "all primers", but I don't know about all of 'em.

All primers I've had anything to do with are slightly rounded on the bottom of the cup. And as they are seated, the priming punch flattens them out.

So it sounds to me like what you saw was "lousy reloads".

If I'm reading your PS correctly, you seem to be suspecting that some of the 222s were loaded into military 5.56 brass? Quite possible. The cases are almost identical, except for length. It would be very easy to make 222 out of 223 brass.

[steve4102]

Round primers were pretty common a long time ago. Must be fairly old ammo.

[soundguy]

that was my guess onthe brass.. some may have been military cut down / resizes. all the funny headstamped ones have reamed primer pockets... and yeah.. every single primer protruted from the case by some 'visual' thousandths.. somthething that would catch the edge of a table if you ran the head of the cartridge downt he side edge of a wood table... that bad.. really... I almost took a pic but figured it might be frowned upon.

I'd be afraind to use them.. without pulling reseatingthe primer and then recharging..

no money to buy anyway.. but I had fun looking! at least saw some examples of what not to do..

[soundguy]

Originally Posted by steve4102

Round primers were pretty common a long time ago. Must be fairly old ammo.

it has quite a dark patina on the brass...like almost walnut colored dark brown.

so dark I thought they were laqured steel at first..

[medalguy]

This is why most all of us won't shoot anyone else's reloads......just too many unknowns, including whether it's safe, or a bomb waiting for us.

The only thing I would even remotely consider, and the price would have to be extremely right, would be to pull down all the ammo, deprime it, resize it and gage it all, inspect it thoroughly, then reload it using my known components. Who knows how many times that brass could have already been reloaded, especially since it looked so dark to you. Personally, I'd pass on it.

[Hammerslagger]

This following is sound advice.

First, only shoot reloaded ammo that you loaded yourself, or that was loaded by someone that you know to be both knowledgeable and a careful person, and that you absolutely trust to put your well being in his/her hands. You are actually putting your hands, eyes, etc. in the reloader's hands when you shoot his/her ammo.

Second, never shoot any ammo that you find laying on the ground or abandoned at a range. I once had an acquaintance who related how his then deceased grandfather used to load a .38 special case full of Bullseye, seat a bullet, and deliberately drop the finished cartridges (bombs) in certain places where they were likely to be found by ethnic persons that he hated. Unfortunately, there are still sick perverts like this in the world.

[soundguy]

Originally Posted by Hammerslagger

I once had an acquaintance who related how his then deceased grandfather used to load a .38 special case full of Bullseye, seat a bullet, and deliberately drop the finished cartridges (bombs) in certain places where they were likely to be found by ethnic persons that he hated. Unfortunately, there are still sick perverts like this in the world.

OUCH! what a terrible thing to do!!

[soundguy]

Originally Posted by medalguy

This is why most all of us won't shoot anyone else's reloads......just too many unknowns, including whether it's safe, or a bomb waiting for us.

The only thing I would even remotely consider, and the price would have to be extremely right, would be to pull down all the ammo, deprime it, resize it and gage it all, inspect it thoroughly, then reload it using my known components. Who knows how many times that brass could have already been reloaded, especially since it looked so dark to you. Personally, I'd pass on it.

i was just window shopping that day anyway.. for sure didn't buy them. I think I have built up quite a few hundred empty cartridges of .222 anyway. i've deprimed and cleaned about half of them.. need to do the other half and then inspect them.

I was at a gun show a couple months ago and some guy was selling ziplock baggies of 50 spent cartridges fro 1$ each.. had his .222 rifle for sale, and a set of C&H dies for sale for it. I bought the dies for 10-15$ i think, and all the lil baggies of empty brass he had. i have a .222 in a remy700 bolt at home.. at that same show I believe ( or another? ) i aslo found abunch on either pmu/prvi or similar 20rnd boxes of .222 for quite cheap.. same deal..some guy selling his .222 ( were these a popular gun at some point? ) and a couple hundred rounds of ammo... i think he was selling the ammo at 5-8$ a box. at the end of the show, someone had bought the gun.. but only bought a few boxes of the .222 i found that odd, as at 5-8$ a box that was a steal... as I recall.. I bought all he had on the table at that price.. so have plenty of shootable ammo for my .222 tucked away... so for relaoding the .222 i think i'm set for some time to come on brass.

[JLA]

It was very popular until the .222 mag and the .223 rem came along. Then it was set aside like the red headed step child.

[soundguy]

i love mine.. it's a tack driver.. and for some reason I'm the guy in my shooting group that always has the odd stuff.

so this begs the question.. do people use 223 brass in 222. ar e the shoulders the same? is it a case trim issue?

[JLA]

no the .222 rem has a shorter case body and a slightly longer neck than the .223 rem.

Nearly the same holds true between the .222 rem mag and the .223 rem, where the .222 mag is the slightly larger cartridge.

Stood side by side they are very similar. sorta like different sized brothers. And ballistically the .222 rem mag and the .223 rem are pretty much identical twins.

[JLA]

Just took these from the hornady 8th. Cartridge dimensions for the 3.

[JLA]

I also notice by comapring these dimensions that the .223 rem has a bit more taper. Which is why it runs so well in autoloaders.