do you need any special tools to take primers out of brass?

Question

How do you take the primers out after you have shot it? they are .223, do i need a special tool or can i just punch them out or something? Not looking to re-prime or reload.

also got any tips for getting the gunk off the neck of the case. thanks in advance

ok, would i punch it out from the bottom, or from the inside?

This is lake city brass, which i am pretty sure is reloadable

Answer 1

Using fine steel wool will clean them up pretty well, and take off the annealing, too. Then you can use a rag and cleaner and get a really good polish to them.

As far as depriming goes, look down into the bottom of the case. If you can see a round hole, then it's a Boxer primer, and all you have to do is push it out from the inside. If you don't see a hole, or there's a bar going across it, or more than one hole, you have Berdan primed cases, and you'll have to pull them out from the bottom. You can do this by drilling a wood screw into them slightly.

If you were interested to reload these, you'd have to drill the primer flash hole and primer pocket out a little bit in order to fit a Boxer primer in them.

Good luck, hope these turn out nice for you!

Answer 2

If you have ANY thought of reloading the brass, do not use something that you dug out of your tool drawer to remove the primers. You need a device that is made specifically to remove the primers from your .223 brass. The shaft of the tool nas to fit the neck of the .223 brass and the tip has to be the correct size to fit through the flash hole to tap out the spent primer without changing the size of the flash hole or putting a burr on it. If you damage the flash hole, you may have ruined the brass shell and will have to toss it away. If you try to remmove the primer by prying it out from the outside, you will damage the primer pocket where the primer fits. that pocket has to be the correct size to hold the primer tightly. If you damage the primer pocket, the primer might not fit properly and could blow out when the shell is fired. Not a good thing! I don't know why you are wanting to remove the primer from the shells if you do not plan to reuse the shell. I hope you are not planninng to remove live primers. That can get you hurt. If you have shells with live primers in them that you want to remove for some reason, just load the empty shells into a rifle chambered for the .223 round and fire the primer. Then it will be safe to work with. If you have any thought of ever trying to do some reloading and do not want to spend what it costs to get set up with a press, dies, scale, etc, you can buy a Lee Loader for the .223 round and it will have everything that you will need to peoperly de-prime empty brass and reload it safely.

There are products on the market for cleaning brass. DO NOT use any cleaner that has ammonia in it. Those cleaners that are made to polish brass fixtures, uniform buttons, etc, have ammonia in them. Ammonia will harden the brass and can cause it to split in the chamber when fired. Admittedly, one cleaning won't do it but repeated cleanning with ammonia containing cleaners will. What I use is a rock tumbler with some specially made crushed walnut hulls as an abrasive. Just dump your empty brass into the tuimbler and let it tumble for several hours. When you open it up, check the brass to see that it has been completely cleaned. If not, just tumble it a bit longer until it comes out looking like new brass from the factory. You can also buy some ammonia-free brass cleaner made specially for cleaning cartridge brass. It is available in any gun shop that sells reloading supplies. I have never used it so I can't say how well it works. If you want your brass to shine like jewelry, just buy some corncob media that is impregnated with jeweler's rouge and tumble your brass in that after the walnut hulls. If I do that, I remove the tumbling media and use some dish washing detergent in water to wash the brass to remove any traces of jeweler's rouge. Then I rinse the brasss in a pan of denatured alcohol that is readily available in any paint store, put the clean brass on a rack to dry and then admire the jewel-like polish. You probably have no interest in taking it that far so just stop after the walnut media or after washing in the cleaner. The brass at that point will be perfect for reloading.

Answer 3

No special tools are needed, but anything becomes easier with the right tools. You can punch them out from the inside with an old ice pick, but if the pick goes through too far it will damage the flash hole. If you can find a dowel the size of the neck, fill the case with water, place the base over a hole a little bigger than the primer, and insert the towel and hit it with a hammer. That works good with Berdan or Boxer primers.

Answer 4

If your not reloading use a punch through the case neck to knock the primer out and Brasso brass cleaner does a real good job cleaning the shells.

Answer 5

223 Primers

Answer 6

here is what you need
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=792154&t=11082005
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=163206
for about $11 you will have the proper tools for the job and then you can sell or reload your brass
you can try tools you have around the house nut may damage the brass so it will not be worth anything as far as reloading it goes if you are just wanting to sell the brass as scrap brass then the proper tools will make the job faster and easier

Answer 7

if you're not reloading, why pop out the fired primers ?

Anyway -- just use the right-sized punch and tap them out.

the primers are put on from the outside, so push them out from the inside.

Answer 8

if you are not reloading, just leave it in. some brass cannot be reloaded and the primers are not (really) removable. if it is important to remove the primer, then take the brass and put it in a vise to hold it steady, and use a hand drill to ream it out. "Brasso" brass cleaner will polish... well, brass. use a t-shirt and rub that gunk off.