Overwhelmed by number of threads on primer choice. Fast question OK?

[Tallbald]

My mercy there are so many (4 pages) of answers to a primer brand choice search. I can only read so much before neck pain and crossed eyes set in and I have to give up. Not to annoy old timers who may crustily say "he needs to read old threads and not waste our time", but folks I have been doing just that here and on other forums.
Here it is. I've lived through several boom and bust cycles of ammo availability with several jerkwad/idiot administrations causing runs and price spikes. I also have read about primer/powder shortages through the years. I buy wisely and learned from my parents that rainy days come and I'd better plan for tough times (child of the '70's recession here--parents lost home, yadayada).
I use a Lee hand primer exclusively (old style round one) to seat primers, and instructions say WW or CCI only are advised. I have 1000 of each, mixed SP, LP between the brands. No magnum primers .
I don't want to be caught off guard now that I am reloading again. I'm not a hoarder (is having several weeks of canned food on the shelf, 15 gallons of gas for our generator, three months of insulin/syringes for my wife and 90 days of blood pressure medicine on hand hoarding? Grin.) but rather a prepared person, I'd like to lay in maybe 7,000 primers.
Questions:

1) I have had not quality issues with WW or CCI primers. Have I missed something?

2) I only have standard pressure (no magnum) primers. I'm concerned this might be poor planning, given that I'm loading .357 and .44 "Magnum" and soon .38 Special cartridges but at lower power levels. Will a standard pressure primer not touch off a true "magnum" load? I really don't know if it's an issue. And I don't even know what constitutes a "benchrest" primer.

Thanks for advise and mostly for tolerance here folks. I'll get better narrowing things down using the search feature on the forum as I participate more. Don

[Garyshome]

I get what I can, If you are going to hoard something [firearms related] it needs to be Primers/Powder. You can make your own boolits. I am not picky about the kind of primers I use as long as they go bang.

[fishhawk]

Never had a problem with any brands of primers in the lee primer. And for the mag primers in 357 or 44 I don't bother all a magnum primer is just more flame to ignite some of the powders that are "hard" to ignite.

[Texas Tinker]

A second for fishhawks never having a problem with Lee Hand Primer regardless of primer brand.

The only pistol powder that I use with Magnum Primers is H110 (Win296) in both .357 and .44 magnum. Since H110 is not recommended in anything short of full power loads I only use it for my "No you can't have my stuff" loads. Thankfully, so far, I only shoot enough of these flame throwers to keep myself in practice and center mass.

[Char-Gar]

Take all the complex and conflicting information about primers with a grain of salt.

I have used Remington, Winchester, Federal and CCI primers with complete success and don't feel that one brand is clearly superior to another.

Standard SR, LR, SP and LP primers will do the job 99% of the time. There are just a few exceptions where I would look for something else.

1. In autoloading rifles, where a slam fire might be a serious problem, I would stick with the military rifle type primers designed for that purpose.

2. In handguns just a few powders require a magnum primers, with 296/H110 being the only one that pops into my mind. If you don't use this powder, a standard primer will give you full magnum performance. I favor 2400 or AA9 for that purpose.

3. In rifles a few very slow surplus large caliber machine gun powders can benefit from a magnum primer. Also some long stick (i.e. 4350, 4831) slow powders in large magnum calibers can benefit from magnum primers.

This is about as complicated as I can make it. :-)

In days of primer shortage, I buy what is available. These days it looks like CCI is more easy to find if you are building a stash. I have a stash of about 30K primers and they are a mix of Remington, CCI, Federal and Winchester.

[GhostHawk]

My first choice has been, and remains CCI, with Winchester a very close second.
To date I have not had to stray afield from those 2 choices with careful buying and a measure of patience.

Why CCI? Well I've never yet to have a problem with them. Period.
Others mileage may vary, until mine does I'll remain a CCI by choice guy.

[Tallbald]

Thanks all. Questions answered! Don

[williamwaco]

My first choice has been, and remains CCI, with Winchester a very close second.
To date I have not had to stray afield from those 2 choices with careful buying and a measure of patience.

Why CCI? Well I've never yet to have a problem with them. Period.
Others mileage may vary, until mine does I'll remain a CCI by choice guy.

Been using them since the Speer days.
Never had a problem of any kind with any powder or any firearm.

I will not try anything else until I do.

[Char-Gar]

I started using CCI in 1958 because there were "non-hydroscopic (didn't attract moisture) and had a shelf life of 50 year, or so they were advertised. When the Viet-Nam war broke out we started to stash primers because we heard the stories of ammo and components being unavailable in WWII. I stashed CCI and some Winchester SR primers.

I still have a couple of thosand of those old Winchester SR primers Viet-Nam stash left. I tested them about a year ago against some fresh CCI SRs and the old Winchesters produced groups just as small as the new CCI, so I guess they have a pretty good self life as well, i.e. since 1965.

The only trouble I have ever had with CCI was failure to pop with a light DA hit in a highly tuned S&W back in the day when I did that kind of nonsense. It was not the primer's fault, but mine via over the top tuning of the action.

Bottom line is I liked CCI but they are no better, nor more worse, than any of the others.

[littlejack]

Years ago ( about 40) I loaded some .41 magnum rounds with Hodgdons H-110 powder. I used CCI 300 Large Pistol primers, because I did not have any 350 magnum primers. When fired, there were quite a few rounds that fired two projectiles. Thats right, I said two.The boolit would exit the barrel (barely) then there was a cylinder of compressed powder that exited right behind it.
This is the one and only incident where I have ever had any problem using large pistol primers with a slow powder (H-110).
Here locally, the most available primers are the Winchester LP. Winchester states that they are sufficient for standard AND magnum loads. I can't find a flaw with that statement, as I have loaded thousands of rounds with the H-110 powder with no problems at all.
I have also use Federal 155 LP primers with no ill effects over the years, when living in different parts of the state Baker Oregon being one of them.
If you can find them, I suggest you stock up sir.
By the way sir: Welcome to the Castboolits.
Regards
Jack

[zuke]

What's available at the store you buy your reloading stuff from?
Personally I have 15-18 brick's of primer's in GI ammo can's.

[Tallbald]

CCI and WW are here locally each time I've looked. Will buy a brick here and there starting now (regular SP and LP). Don

[Lead Fred]

CCI primers are normally hotter, WW have the most consistent flame rates.

I use the CCIs in my 45/70, Use the WW in everything else

[Ken77539]

First off - Welcome to the board!

I have a mixed stash of CCI, Winchester, Remington, Wolfe and Fiocchi primers - running somewhere in the 10K range. I basically buy whatever is available, but lean towards Winchesters and CCI's (most prevalent in my area). My experience and expertise in the hand-loading realm hasn't evolved enough to be able to really distinguish performance characteristics between primers - I've seen more differences in powder and projectile selection than anything else, so primer brand selection is just short of a moot point for me.

I've used nearly all these primers (without incident I might add) in my old Lee primer, but since acquiring my first Dillon Progressive with the primer feeder, I have pretty much abandoned my old hand primer. I've even gone as far as retro-fitting my Rock Chucker and Lee Turret to press mounted priming set-ups - it makes life so much easier for my old hands.

I'm loading for a 32 ACP, 9mm, 38 Spcl, 44 Spcl, 44 Mag, and 45 ACP, 223 Rem, 30-30 Win, 270 Win, 30-06 Sprg, and a 7.65mm Argentine - and they've never failed to go bang when I hit the switch, no matter what primer I've seated.

[TXGunNut]

Welcome to the forum! I keep Winchester on hand for my pistol loads and keep Remington and Federal primers on hand for my rifles. Every now and then a load that should work, doesn't, then I try a different primer.

[CHeatermk3]

I quit CCI primers 30 yrs ago when I started loading on a Dillon machine--the CCI primers just did not(for no reason I could ascertain) function in the dillon primer feeding assembly.
i switched to winchester on the advice of a fellow Dillon user and never went back.

As an aside I have worn out 5 Lee priming tools and am still on my first RCBS priming tool... bought it 4 yrs ago it has at least 3000 cases through it as I recall the Lee units last about 2000 primes(that's a very rough estimate).

These days I prefer Federal LR primers they seem to fit tighter in the pockets.

[fouronesix]

Primers have changed within brand and type for years and will likely continue to do so. Learn what a correctly seated primer looks like in a particular case and learn how to seat them correctly. Don't believe everything you read or hear about primers…. at least some of that information may have been from 30 years ago and likely will have changed since. Using magnum primers for general problem solving with standard type loads?… refer to "don't believe everything you read or hear". Use magnum primers only when called for. Most FTF or so-called primer FTF problems are related to some stage in the reloading process or the firearm and not the primer. Use the right primer type for the right cartridge… small pistol for small pistol, large pistol for large pistol, small rifle for small rifle and large rifle for large rifle. Unless your rifle shoots groups smaller than .25" @ 100 yards, fussing over slight variations in primers, brand to brand, is silly.