About five years ago, I loaded some '06 cast loads with 1937 US GI corrosive primers. Every one of the them fired perfectly. Think there is about 800 left if I ever need them.
Two years ago at a gunshow, I bought a small plastic storage container (maybe 6 qt sized?) at a gunshow, it was full of old tins of Percussion caps, old round tins of primers, some old tins of 22 blanks...and some other goodies. I sorted everything into similar lots, put 'em in baggies, and flipped most of it at the next gunshow. Except the Primers, I saved those.
There ended up being 6 round tins of primers, 4 seemed full or almost full and marked qty:250. Why am I mentioning this? Today, I was loading a few batches of 45acp. On one batch (test loads, 27 rds) I decided to prime with Winchester #2 primers from one of those old tins. First time I even looked at these old primers, since I stored them away 2 yrs ago. I plan to test fire those tomorrow.
I was thinking they might be as old as WWI vintage? The Tin with ripped red paper label looks exactly like the one in ebay link. That guy thinks 1878, but that's just patent date.
Paper over tin. We think it reads, "1878" but might be "1873". You experts will know! Our photos are provided to help with what we're trying to describe. See what YOU need to see. Give as a gift.or keep it for trade, bragging rights or just because!
www.ebay.com