Is it worth saving your used 209 primers?
 

For several years, I’ve been saving my used 209 shotgun primers for no particular reason except thinking they might have some value later on.

So, a couple weeks ago I took about 55,000 of them weighing about 95 pounds to the scrap yard to see what they might bring.

I got 10 bucks for them.

Some probably already know they are about worthless and for the ones that don’t know – don’t bother saving them unless you have some other useful purpose. Your mileage may vary.

https://i.imgur.com/ZMfn1lQ.jpg

I poured about fifty pounds of them inside a hollowed out tree stump . I’m
sure at some point someone will be metal detecting looking for civil war relics and I suspect the signal might make them deaf if they’re wearing ear phones :whistle:

It would not surprise me if almost everyone who reloads, saves their spent primers. I do. It gives me some ridiculous sense of accomplishment. I actually know someone who puts each one back into the cute little plastic trays the new ones come in. (yes, I used to save them too)
Indirectly, my spent primer collection gave me a great deal of joy. Back in 1996, I had one of those blue plastic water jugs that go on the the office cooler, full to the top of the neck, and another older, glass one, also full. I left them behind when I moved out the house I gave my ex wife in the divorce. I told her they were worth a fortune, and I'd be back for them, eventually. I knew, full well she'd try to sell them as soon as my brake lights went down the driveway. My son told me, about a month later, that she was trying to load them in the back of her car, and dropped the glass one in the driveway. I think you can get the picture. Still puts a huge smile on my face almost 30 years later.

I only save the box tops from the 1000 cartons and mark the number on them. I am at 90 now so i know i have loaded over 100,000 shells. So why do i still miss so many times.

Edgar that was classic. I have a son and grandson who are plumbers and they separate 2 metal pieces because left together they are almost worthless.I believe primers are in this category.

I am pretty sure the short answer is no.

Edgar - Whyinell were you on your brakes going down the driveway... second thoughts??





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I took about half of sixty some years of primers to a local metal dealer. I think I may have gotten twenty five bucks for them. When I took the other half about two weeks later, they wouldn't take them. I think they regarded them as explosives. They were stored in many cardboard 15 pound powder kegs. I got rid of the primers and the powder kegs in two trips.

Amazing! I would never think of saving spent primers in a million years. I guess the old adage "one man's trash is another man's riches" applies.

I’ve got a five gallon bucket at the shop that’s almost full of spent primers . Which unto itself is no big deal , but unless I’m mistaken they’re pretty much all primers that've been knocked out of 8 and 10 gauge hulls .

And I suspect all those empty boxes those primers came in are no good either. Shucks!