Primers... All things (not) being equal...

[Old Ironsights]

Assume you found 5000 each of Rem, Win, Fed, CCI &/or Wolf primers (all of the same type) on a shelf.

They are all priced the same... say, $100 ($20/K). You are only able to buy ONE case of 5000.

Which brand, and why?

If the type matters, pick... Small Pistol Magnum or Large Rifle.

[Hunter 24095]

CCI because thats what I worked my loads up with and I would hate to waste primers at todays price to start over.

[ktw]

The brand I already had loads worked up for.

I try to stay with CCI across the board, but only to cut down on logistics.

Feds tend to have a softer cup if you have a tuned gun with light springs that doesn't strike full-power.

Some manufacturers of progressive reloading equipment have had warnings against running various brands of primers in their equipment. Don't know how current or relevant those may be.

-ktw

[runfiverun]

if it were for lighter cast boolit loads and or full lgc's it would be win.
i have had some good low sd's with fed and 2400 too.
in large rifle.

[stubshaft]

I've had the most consistency with Federal Primers.

[Heavy lead]

Federal 150
CCI 350
Federal 205m
Federal 210m
Winchester WLRM
All else being equal this is what I prefer in the different sizes, now I think I've darned near used them all and still do especially now they are scarce. I have much more Remington, CCI, and Winchester on hand than Federals right now because of availablility. Pretty much they all work for me and go bang when I need them to, so what the heck.
Oh shotgun I like WW209's for target and Fed 209a for heavy field and slug loads.

I think I forgot the question.:roll:

[Nazgul]

Right now it doesn't matter - buy them all.

Don

[C A Plater]

Easy. Not Wolf. For the others, I would get what I had been using. A few years ago I got a super sweet deal on some CCI (free) and Winchester ($75/5000) and I'm working through the stash so I'd just get more of the same.

[leadman]

Nobody uses Magtech?

[buckbeans]

what's wrong with wolf primers?
Just saw some the other day

[runfiverun]

i get magtech's when i can find them. them and wolf aren't on the shelves round here.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Fed LR mag , CCI-LR/ SM Pistol

[HeavyMetal]

Here in LA it's alway been choice between Win, CCI and Federal's. Rare day I see Remington primers and those I have gotten are harder than all get out! I had a tough tme getting an unaltered Browning Hi Power to fire the batch I got!

I quite using CCI's about 20 years ago because they were larger in diameter and didn't "seat" with out "bending".

For me the choice would be Federal primer's first and Win second.

[Lloyd Smale]

depends on what your loading for. For handguns i standardized on fed primers for standard primers. they go off more realibly in wheelguns with action jobs so i dont even bother with others. For mag pistol i for the most part only use cci350s anymore. Figure if i need a mag i need a mag that is hot. For small rifle i use ww because they allways gave to best accuracy in my 454 handguns so i figured what the hell, most of my small rifle is black guns and it doesnt matter if they shoot a 1/8 of an inch bigger group. I do vary that though when i loading for my varimit guns and use the one that does the best. For large rifle i use most feds but that can vary too. Now where is this store that has cases of primers!!!!!!

[jonk]

For rifle I'd have no preference; Wolf or Winchester.

I have no use for small magnum pistol primers whatsoever. If they were plain small pistol I'd take the CCI.

[anachronism]

Buy them all, then sell the leftovers at a big enough profit to replace the house payment you just spent, plus buy a few extra thousand 223 bullets, then sell them too. Take that money & pay off your credit cards. Buy more primers, max out your card, then sell them at enough profit to pay off your house, plus pay the card off again. Take out a second mortgage, buy Midway....

[Old Ironsights]

OK, the reason I'm asking is that I have a mixed-bag of primers in my stock, and really haven't seen all that much difference between them except that CCI's seem to be a bit harder to ignite in my rifle.

Of course, I'm mostly a "Minute of Deer/Goblin" type shooter, so the "little" variances between primers in accuracy are not as big a deal to me as reliability.

[ddeaton]

I have tested Wolf and Winchester large pistol on a Ransom Rest last week with no difference. That is all I know so far.[smilie=1:

[Ed Barrett]

I guess I'm bucking the trend here because I would take the Winchester. I have always found them very accurate in my loads. The Federal and CCI primers seem to be comparativly larger and seat harder, some people say this is good for over sized primer pockets. If I get over sized primer pockets I discard the brass. I have used some Magtech and Wolf primers for pistol target loads and couldn't find anything wrong with them. I'm still using some RWS primers that were packaged for the LA Police Dept. in the 1960s and 1970s.

[EDK]

I'm with Joe. I use Winchester most of the time...easiest to find around St Louis. I bought a couple sleeves of WOLF Large Pistol because they were available. Federal are OK; CCI didn't work very well for me in 45 ACP and my new SQUARE DEAL 'way back when. BUT I won't pass on any Small Pistol that I can find right now! This ain't a time to be too picky.

I'm going to Belleville IL gun show Saturday if I don't work overtime. A little low on primers and powder...and looking for a 357 MARLIN Cowboy rifle. (I've been working some overtime lately PLUS my share of the tax return. Yankee dollars in shirt pocket...life is good with cash in your pockets!)

:Fire::cbpour::redneck:

[jameslovesjammie]

I've pretty much standardized on Federal for everything. I started using them in shotgun when I started loading it, then HAD to use them in my revolver. Just kept on going from there. Always had good luck with them.

I'm not accurate enough with a handgun to see a difference on paper, but when they don't go BANG I do tend to notice that.

[cajun shooter]

Winny's across the board. Cut my teeth on CCI but they seem to have a harder cup these days and don't seat as well for me. Would buy "Ajax" brand at this time, You know the one's made by the Road Runner's nemesis. They would probably go bang at wrong time though. Later David

[shooterg]

CCI, they do seem harder and less likely to slam fire in the service rifles i mostly shoot. But yeah take any and all you can get !

[arclight]

I would go with Winchester or CCI small rifle primers. These can safely be used in pistol loads (a lot of Class III guys use these in 9mm SMG loads) as well as the usual rifle loads.

[Springfield]

Been using Winchesters for 15 years, never had one not go bang, so no reason to change. For whatever reason Dillon recommends Winchester also, and I have 2 of them.

[Tomhorn]

Right now I take what I can get. Given a choice I will always go with Winchesters. Have never given any problems, very consistent.

[Old Ironsights]

Winny's across the board. Cut my teeth on CCI but they seem to have a harder cup these days and don't seat as well for me. Would buy "Ajax" brand at this time, You know the one's made by the Road Runner's nemesis. They would probably go bang at wrong time though. Later David

You mean "ACME" don't you? [smilie=1:

[Larry Gibson]

OK, the reason I'm asking is that I have a mixed-bag of primers in my stock, and really haven't seen all that much difference between them except that CCI's seem to be a bit harder to ignite in my rifle.

Of course, I'm mostly a "Minute of Deer/Goblin" type shooter, so the "little" variances between primers in accuracy are not as big a deal to me as reliability.

Based on your response I'd buy the Winchesters (I most often do) WLR, WLP, WSR and WSP. Reason being is they are quality primers giving consistant as my pressure testing has indicated. They are made for all types of powders (extruded, flake and ball) in standard cartridges. They also fire with lighter striking firing pin blows and hold higher pressures with the best of them.

Problem is in these days one pretty much must get what one must get. I have an assortment of primers due to the nature of my testing but I most often end up with Winchester primers in most of my loads. I was in a major supplier today who had some Federal primers. I was interested in the SR Match primers for a .22 Hornet load with Lilgun as the brisance is on par with SP primers. They would only sell 200 primers so it really wasn't worth the effort. I would have bought 1000 for a consitent lot of ammo to use over a 3-4 day squirrel shoot but they wouldn't sell me the thousand. They were also taking buyers names on a list "and checking it twice" to make sure someone wasn't buying more than 200 primers per week!!! They said they were trying to "be fair"! Is this what we have come to? I didn't buy any primers.

Larry Gibson

[Treeman]

I'd buy the Winchesters because all of my load development for the last decade has been done with Winchester Primers, they work well and they are considered safe to use in quantities in primer trays and feed tubes. However, I have never had any problems with any primer brand and would happily buy any brand at a decent price right now.

[Ole]

Another village is missing their idiot:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=127746944

They could have every primer I own for $230/k.

Heck i'd disassemble ammo I've already loaded to get those primers out @ .23 each.

Crazy!

[felix]

Ole, that is cheap considering the cost of a new match barrel and having it fitted. ... felix

[Down South]

I've got mixed brands of primers too but I mostly use CCI. I don't have any problems with them except every once and a while I'll have one hard to seat.

[Jbar4Ranch]

Federal or Winchester. I've used several thousand Magtech's too, and never had a problem with them. Never have come across any Wolf.