them. Once you've done this, as is outlined later, the basic operation for reloading a primer is not that hard. Just do the following: 1. Clean the primers of carbon deposit and dirt. If you have it, spray carburetor cleaner works well. 2. Remove the anvil (the three-pronged, flower-shaped metal inside the primer) from the primer cup. This is most easily done with a sharp-pointed tool. 3. Clean the primer cup and then use a small tool to flatten out the dent placed in the bottom of it by the firing pin of your gun. (A hammer with a flat-ground nail works well for this, ) 4. Pour the primer chemical into the cup, compact it in the base of the cup, and allow it to dry . 5. Place the anvil in the primer pocket of the brass that's to be reloaded (the brass should be cleaned and polished before the anvil is placed in it) . 6. Place a tiny paper disk or very thin piece of foil over the primer chemical. The size and thickness of the material can be determined by a little experimentation. The disk may not be necessary if the powder grains are large enough that they will not flow through the primer hole; if the powder is fine, the disk keeps the powder from clogging the primer and blocking the anvil from reaching the primer's explosive. You might also place a thin disk of foil or paper over the primer hole for this same purpose; a little glue will be needed to keep the cover in place, and it must be very thin to permit the "flash" from the primer to ignite the powder in the cartridge. 7. Reseat the primer cup into the brass. Once this is completed, you have a rifle or pistol brass ready for the powder charge and bullet. Shotgun primers can also be reloaded. The main difference with shotgun primers is that they also contain a "built-in" primer pocket on the primer rather than in the hull itself. This means that you have to dismantle the shot shell primer after it has been removed from the hull. (A .223 Remington depriming tool is about the right size for this task.) The anvil in the shotgun primer is shaped like a Y rather than like the three-sided flower of the pistol and rifle primers. Other than the extra steps involved in removing the primer from its removable pocket and then replacing it, the procedure is much the same as for the brass cartridge. It's also essential that the paper disk be placed on the shotgun primer to keep powder from clogging the primer. Reloading centerfire primers is tough; reloading rimfires is a real pain in the posterior. Generally, it isn't worthwhile to reload .22 rimfire brass, but if it means the difference between being unarmed or having a working firearm (or if the prices of ammunition have catapult[8 . jpg] Reloading .22 rimfire ammunition is really tedious. However, the small size of many hide-out .22s may justify the extra work needed to reload these cartridges. Shown here i~ a small Sterling automatic pistol. ed bootlegging ammunition into a lucrative new profession) , you might want to take extra pains to do so . In rimfire cartridges, the primer goes inside the rim. When the two sides of the rim are smashed together by the gun's firing pin, the primer ignites and sets off the powder in the rest of the cartridge. Now, you could go to a lot of trouble and create a tool to iron out the original firing pin indent in a .22 cartridge. But this isn't really necessary because the chances of the firing pin striking the exact spot twice is small and, even if it does, if you've placed new primer chemicals in the rim of the shell, it will likely fire anyway. So don't worry about the little dent made by the first firing of the shell. In the heyday of shooting galleries--when .22 shorts cost less than a penny apiece — reloading machines for ,22s were common. Designs varied, but they were usually smaller versions of factory loaders that held the case upright for loading a small amount of fluid priming compound, then spun it rapidly enough for the compound to be forced to the hollow rim and held there until it dried to the desired firmness. In this manner, .22 cases could be reloaded many times. Here is the procedure for repriming an empty rimfire: 1. Clean the old primer residue from the inside of the rim of the brass with a small tool. 2. Dampen the primer chemical with alcohol, acetone, or methyl ethyl ketone (MEK} — you'll have to experiment to see which works best. You want it to be almost liquid, but not runny, so