Powder or primer issues? Who make the most reliable primer?

[Tripplebeards]

I shot some 44 mag 7.5g trail boss loads out of my rifle today. First 5 loads averaged 963 fps. The next two were 563 and 562fps. I hand measured the powder charge so it wasn't off. One of my primers didn't ignite and a had a few in the same box not ignite earlier in the week. Could my issue be faulty primers, crushed powder, or a weak crimp?

Who makes the most reliable primers? It's been a long, long time since I had one that wouldn't ignite. My firing pin put a huge crater in my primer so I know the pin and spring is good. The ones I'm having trouble with are federal magnum large pistol primers.

[Hick]

I can't say for sure which is best but have had no problems with CCI and Winchester. I use Large rifle, Large rifle magnum, Small rifle, Small pistol magnum and small pistol standards.

[jcren]

I personally don't use magnum primers unless downloading very slow powders. Mag primers seem to be harder, or at least Winchester small magnums give me ftf in reduced spring guns.

[tsubaki]

Pay particular attention to cleaning the primer pocket and seating the primers.
Bad primers are usually the least problem.

Case and point, for several years I had done made up my mind the misfires in a bolt action 7mm Mag was due to a weak firing pin spring and not bad primers. I even bought another rifle and the problems persisted. I finally narrowed it down to improper resizing of certain cases. The light primer strike was due to the case being pushed forward ever so slightly by the firing pin when the trigger was pulled.

I have a muzzleloader that will misfire if the cap is not completely seated on the nipple. This was the basis of finding the problem I created in the 7MM.

[dragon813gt]

You shouldn't have any issues w/ CCI, Federal or Winchester. I'd possibly add Remington to the list but I haven't used them enough. When you get into the foreign primers there have been reports of bad batches as well as the primers being a slightly different size.

[GhostHawk]

I'm with Hick, CCI is my first choice, Winchester second. If I can't get either of those I wait until I can. And when I can I stack them wide and deep.

I am working on filling my 2nd .50 cal ammo can of primers.

I like to buy 5,000 primers and a 8 lb jug of Red Dot or Promo. Splits up the hazmat, keeps my ammo cans full of primers. I don't shoot as many large pistol or small rifle.
So the two I have most of are large rifle and small pistol. But even 2,000 small rifle and a pound or 2 of Red Dot will load a LOT of .223 if you don't insist on 3000 fps loads.

That is what works for me, YMMV.

[Sasquatch-1]

Are you sure you are getting all cleaning media out of the flash hole. I have seen walnut media made for cleaning cases stick in the pocket and flash hole. I was at the range with a friend who had loaded up a bunch of 40 s&w. A couple of the rounds made a fizzling noise, burned through the primer cup and did not ingnite the powder. The only thing we could come up with was a blocked flash hole.

[Tripplebeards]

I pin tumble my brass. The primer holes look better than if you bought a brand new bag of brass. My firing pin is good. It looks like it almost cratered too much when striking. I just bought the primers a couple months ago at gander mountain.

[Texas by God]

I read years ago thar NASA used a Winchester primer to fire off booster rockets in the space shuttle launches. Good enough for govt work?
Seriously I prefer CCI but will use whatever brand I can get.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Gewehr-Guy]

I will recommend one foreign brand, S&B, as I have used many thousand in the last several years,with complete satisfaction. Cabelas would have them for sale for $20 and other brands at $32 and up, an incredible bargain in my opinion.One thing I noticed they are plenty tight in new brass, but never a problem seating them. These were all LR primers, used in 30-06 , 30-40 and similar cast loads.

[scattershot]

I have used just about any primer you can think of over the years, and have never had a problem.

Have you had these primers for a while? How were they stored?

[Tripplebeards]

I have used just about any primer you can think of over the years, and have never had a problem.

Have you had these primers for a while? How were they stored?

Bought them in June from gander mountain. They sit in my home inside my load bench cabinet.

[Plainsman]

I only use Winchester primers for everything and load a LOT of .44's, using ONLY WLP, never saw the need for MAGNUM primers in .44. Seen and heard they are "harder" than standard primers plus they change how the load behaves, so I keep it simple and dont use them.

[wrench man]

I've burnt several pounds of Trail Boss, use CCI LR and Federal LP primers, never not gad one go off?, I'd also make certain they are seated properly.

[Larry Gibson]

Are you handling the primers individually with your fingers when priming?

[Shuz]

Triplebeards--I use Remington 2-1/2 or CCI 300 large pistol primers and 7.1g of Trail Boss with an MP-433-640HP(clone to the Lyman Devastator) in both my Smith 629-3, 5" bbl revolver, or my Winnie Trapper in .44 mag. They have never failed to ignite, and there wasn't a significant difference in either velocity or Standard Deviation between the two.

[tdoyka]

cci, winchester and federal: i use them in small rifle and large pistol and large rifle and also magnum large pistol primers too.

for target/varmint shooting i use cci small rifle primers. deer/black bear, i use anything.

[Tenbender]

The only misfires I ever had was with CCI and Remington. I'm a Federal fan but use S&B and Win. when I'm out of Federal. Still have a bunch of CCI's but don't think I will ever buy them again.

[jimb16]

Must be that every maker occasionally puts out a bad batch. I had one batch of Winchesters where 11 out of 50 failed to fire. The rifle had never had any problems before and has not had any problems since. And it doesn't care what primers I use. It happens.....

[Tripplebeards]

Are you handling the primers individually with your fingers when priming?

Larry, yes I am. I have never in 25 years of years had one not fail to fire (and have loaded thousands of rounds this way) untill this box of primers.

Is there a better way? I individually put one by one in my rcbs Rock chucker press. I could never get that goofy feed mechanism to feed primers.

I just bought a $40 brick of a 1000 cci magnum pistol primers. I'm sure they will do better. I tried some of these before the federals. I had some laying around since 2000'. They were in outside storage for a year and a half at one time and all still ignited.

[Tripplebeards]

I just ordered a rcbs hand primer from midway...one less thing to eliminate. I liked the Lee bench rest primer but didn't want to have to purchase additional shell holders for it. I watched some YouTube videos on it...it's sure going to save a lot of time untill my hand gets sore.

[EMC45]

I have had hardness problems with Wolf primers (small pistol). Also have seen where some batches of CCI small pistol have been hard in my experience. I recently have been shooting some S&B primers and they are GREAT! The small pistol primers are nice and soft going in and go bang every time! Good primer indention and good ignition.

The remainder of my Wolf SPP will go in my semi auto pistol cases. They want to act up in wheelguns.

I also am working through some really old large rifle and pistol CCI primers now. They are good to go.

[Tripplebeards]

I called federal today and gave them the lot number to let them know I've had issues with their primers. The guy I talked said there was nothing he could do for me but then asked me if I could load up a dozen of my casings and send them in to them for testing on my dime. I dumped them down the toilet and won't use federal anymore.

I've already fired a box and a half of cci magnum primers with not one issue. They will be my goto to primers for now on.