Favorite primers?

[Leadlum]

What are your favorite primers? or do you think they are all the same?

[Rrusse11]

Federal Gold Medal Match are the best I've used so far. Bought a brick of small & large rifle recently,,,, soon time for some more. Well worth the extra coupla' $'s per brick IMO.
Cheers,
R*2

[waksupi]

I shot Federals for years as my primary primers. I've switched over to Winchester. Why? Both are as readily available here. The determining factor is the size of the packaging. I hate the bulky Federal packaging. They take up way too much room, as I generally buy primers by the case. I know a lot of others have the same complaint about them. If they would go to a more efficient size package, I would go back to them, and I bet they would sell a lot more. I've shot some CCI over the years, with better results in some firearms than others. The seating problem kind of got me off of them, due to possibilities of irregular ignition.

[fatnhappy]

I buy whatever is cheapest. I have a minor stockpile of remingtons but use CCI's just as often. I'm pretty ambivalent about primers.

[Bullshop Junior]

I use what ever dad gives me ! for my 223 I like the federal #205. that is the only primer that I have tryed that my 788 will not peirce. for the other primer I like CCI. I use to use winchester's in my 22 hornet, but got rid of them when I traded the hornet, becoese the 223 periced them. you may think that I am loading too hot, but it does it from no powder indoor pellet loads to, the full power loads.

DANIEL/BULL SHOP JUNIOR

[NVcurmudgeon]

Daniel, I happen to be using mostly Winchester right now, because they are readily available and cheap at gun shows. My real favorite is CCI because when I started loading Win. and Rem. discouraged reloading and CCI was about all you could find easily. I can't tell any difference between WW and CCI except in my Dillon Square Deal progressive pistol loader. Dillon says correctly that CCI primers are oversize and out of round and won't work reliably in their machines.

[Buckshot]

...........I use Winchester because they're comparatively inexpensive, and seem to do just fine. You can get a sleeve of 5K LRP at the gunshow for about $70.

............Buckshot

[Bass Ackward]

What are your favorite primers? or do you think they are all the same?

Leadlum,

This is probably the biggest area for group improvement for cast and one of the least understood and practiced. Since a cast bullet is so easy to start down a bore, it offers very little friction, or resistance, to start out compared to jacketed. Here primer variance shows up the most. Primers remain my single biggest edge to producing ammunition to produce sub MOA cast loads. I believe this to be the cause of more people's fliers than actual bad bullets, because people will cull those. How do you cull a bad primer?

I test primers myself to test consistency, and then buy a big enough batch to tide me over for awhile. Because all brands of primers change in just a very short period of time. I read about a guy who tested two years ago after making a devise sorta similar to one of those strong man rigs at a carnival where you hit the pad with a mallet and try to ring the bell at the top. He measured how far up a scale it went. The farther up, the more powerful the primer. He went to this effort because he was (me too) shocked at how bad primers were then. In short, what he found was that any brand of pistol primer was drastically more consistent from shot to shot than any rifle. The best at the time were WLPs.

The best rifle primers at that time / batch were Remington 9 1/2s. Only 9 out of 100 were out of range. But .... when they were out, they were hotter than the normal operating range for 9 1/2M (magnum) primers. Everything else was a big drop off from there. And some were so bad statistically, you .... don't want to know and I can't remember accurately enough to say. One interesting thing to me was that virtually every brand went hot when they devieated. Only one went both ways. CCI.

The people most likely to see it show up in groups are ones shooting smaller case sizes for bore diameter. Or people trying to run super fast powders where .1 grain makes an enormous difference in pressure. Can anyone say 22 Hornet? Or people trying to push a mix as far as you can go for hunting. Seems that the best accuracy usually appears right before the mix fails. So when you get a bad primer, off the bullet goes.

But don't believe me, load up a favorite load with your favorite primers and load one with a known magnum primer. See what happens. Some loads will not see the difference, some will. Wouldn't you like to know which ones? The sad thing is cast bullets get the blame.

Who makes out the best? The guy that is shooting cast, like cast, at what are considered normal cast velocities with medium speed powders. And shooting a heavy for bore diameter bullet that offers maximum resistance. They will see the least amount of difference. Ever wonder why that 1500 - 1800 fps area really came about? Or shooting heavy for caliber bullets?

[Cayoot]

My favorite depends on what I'm using them for, and I'm pretty strict about this.

If I'm loading one of my competition guns for IDPA or something similar, I go with ONLY Federals. Federals are the softest and eaisest to ignite. Most people who shoot competition with "tuned" guns will go with Federal for that reason. Especially if it is for my PC 625 where I have replaced the factory main spring with Wolf competition reduced weight springs. Here Federal is the only way to ensure good ignition.

The other time that I use only Federal is in my self-defense guns. I am more concerned about the gun going "BANG" when I pull the trigger than about anything else. When it comes to a gun that may be called upon to save my life or the life of one of my loved ones...I want the easiest primer available to ignite.

On the other hand, when I'm shooting a semi-auto military style rifle, I prefer CCI's. This is because CCI is on the opposite end of the scale from Federal.

Typically, CCI's are acknowledged to be the "hardest" primers on the domestic market.

Whether in a formal competition or just out plinking with my friends, I want to prevent "Slam-Fires" in my military style semi-autos. The best way (that I have found) to do this is to seat the primers down completly and to use CCI primers.

Those are the three situations where I am very particular about what primer I use.

[swheeler]

OEM primers when I can get them at 45.00 a sleeve. Fed 215 in the really big cases, Fed 210M if I'm looking to fine tune a load, Win 209 in shotgun. I've tried every brand over the years and match primers seem to produce more consistent ammo- just my 2 cents.
Scooter

[Willbird]

I prefer winchester for pistol, and federal magnum match for large rifle where needed, otherwise federal match.

Bill

[johniv]

I have used all brands except Rem. Just bought 20,000 CCI larg pistol.The CCi never gave a problem or misfire in my 1911's or Ruger BH.I keep some Fed #200 around for loading 2400 in the 357 cause thats what Alliant recommends in their handbook. I have some Win sp and lpm around too.
In the rifles it's all CCI . Have also tried RWS (like em) and Hirtenburger .Please bear in mind I dont load for sub moa nor do I compete
at this time. If a particular brand is called forI try to use that brand (ie Fed works better in some tuned pistols as noted in an earlier post and CCI does seem a little "harder") FWIW.
John

[BD]

Federal 150s in the .45acp loaded on a progressive. Winchesters for all other handguns. Federal 210ms or 215ms for large rifle, Remington 7 1/2s in the .223 AR . The only primers I've ever really had trouble with are CCIs, but I still use them in a pinch as I can get them by the 100 locally. BD

[crazy mark]

CCI 34's and Rem 9 1/2's for my semi-auto milsurps and Win and CCI's for the rest of my loads. Too many slam fires in my MAS 49/56 with regular LR primers. The remington 9 1/2s don't seem to slam fire.

[Char-Gar]

For as long as I have memory, many cast bullet folks have felt like Remington 9.5 primers turn in the best groups in cases using the large rifle primers. Why?...because ((I am told) the Remington 9.5 has the lowest brisance of any primer on the market.

I use nothing but Remington 9.5 in large rifle primers. I am covinced from experience it is easier to find a good accurate load with these primers than any other. Can you get equal accuracy with other brands of primers? Most certainly! However, stretched over time and with many rifles, I find Remington 9.5s to suit my needs better than others.

For handgun loads I use nothing but Winchester, just for consistancy sake.

[9.3X62AL]

Mostly Winchester primers here, due to their wide availability as noted by Buckshot. Another reason I favor them was related by C.E. Harris in American Riflemam some years back--the WW primers contain an aluminum oxide fuel element that enhances combustion with ball powders, and I use a LOT of ball powders.

[sundog]

Charger, same experience here with Rem 9 1/2. I posted this on the old Shooters.com that I had run a whole bunch of identical except for primer rounds across the chrono. If I remember right it was my old standby 30-06 load of 180ish boolit, prolly the Ly 311291, and 21/IMR4227 for ~1650 fps. Winner for consistency, hands down, was the Rem 9 1/2. Again, if I premember fully, I tested CCI, CCI BR2, Win, Fed, Fed Match, and Rem, and maybe one or two others. I do remember that I was NOT impressed with the Fed Match, but it may just have been that particular lot. I now buy Rem 9 1/2 by one or two 5,000 count cases at a time. sundog

[felix]

I agree with Sundog about the Remington primers. Their lots seem to be extremely consistent from batch to batch, including the pistol primers. The other brands seem to vary somewhat between lots, but that is not all bad because you never know what might work mo'betta' for the SAME load. One CCI standard small pistol lot works so well with a specific load (12.5 N110/225646) in the bench gun that I don't switch it out. Yes, another primer might work better, but good enough is just good enough. ... felix

[Char-Gar]

Sundog...I am by nature a philosopher and creative kind of guy. My gifts do not lay in the area of science and technical stuff...but I had "studied a right smart amount" on this primer brisance issue and cast bullets. Now by studied, I do not mean research, I just mean thinking!

Brisance..as I understand it is the rate at which the primer releases 100% of it's energy. To talk about primers as some being "hotter" than others is not to talk about brisance. Brisance is about speed or rate of energy release, rather than tempreture or amount of energy.

Case bullets are easier to move down the barrel than those dreadful little yellow thingies. A slower primer will shove the bullet down the barrel as oppposed to throwing or spanking it down the barrel. This shove will result in less distortion to the bullet and hence better accuracy.

We all know the rate of powder energy relase, has allot to do with cast bullet accuracy. Fast pistol powders can give great accuracy at the low and mid-range section of cast bullet velocity. Try and get top end speed and accuracy goes to hell in handbasket. The bullet takes too big a whack on the base, the bullet accordians or other wise distors and accuracy suffers.

These slow machine gun powders we love, give great top end accuracy, because they shove the bullet down the barrel. When coupled with a slow primer, magic happens.

With a case (lightly compressed) full of WC872 and a Remington 9.5 primer cast bullet accuracy is a sure thing..if:

1) The bullet is an accurate design and a good fit in the thoat and barrel.
2) The alloy is of proper temper for the speed
3) A good lube is used
4) The case capacity is appropriate for use with this slow powder
5) Care and good tools are used in the loading process. Straight ammo is always a good thing.

When I add it all up, I feel that the above is why a low brisance primer contributes to cast bullet accuray in rifles.

Again..I am an technical dunce and those of you who know such things, may feel the need to straighten me out. Have at it..I am willing to learn.

[Wayne Smith]

WC872 - is it appropriate for the larger straight cases, such as the .405 Win. and the 45-70?