The "MagTech" primer

[FAsmus]

Gentlemen;

I have a primer question for the membership;

With the current & on-going primer shortage I went ahead and bought 5000 MagTech primers. These items are made in Brazil but had good recommendations.

I got the primers and when my stock of WLR ran out, began using them.

Right away I noted that they; #1 would not 'turn' in my Lee auto-prime tray as all US - made primers always have. #2 are quite a bit 'harder' than the typical US primers, I cannot use the Lee tool to seat them in everything since the stress is great enough I think it might break the Lee tool. #3 They seem to be subject to some failure-to-fire problems - far worse than anything I've ever seen before, sometimes as bad as 10% missfires in my M70.

Now, when the primers work, they work very well. No change from previously set zeros at vrious distances with WLRs and excellent shot-to-shot performance.

My question is; Has anyone else used these primers? What results have you seen with them?

Good evening,
Forrest

[leadhead]

I just aquired 600 of them, but haven't tried them yet.
wolf primers are kind of hard to seat too.
Denny

[angus6]

went through 1K and didn't notice any thing differnt using them

[theperfessor]

Does the anvil sit out as far as a known "good" primer? I wonder if a short anvil and a hard to seat primer is keeping the anvil from seating firmly against the bottom of the primer pocket, causing problem #3.

[crabo]

I loaded 1,000s in pistol cartridges and have had no problems.

[runfiverun]

the perfessor hit it on the head wolfes are the same way.
make sure you seat them till they stop.
wish i could fing 5k of those magtechs

[fecmech]

I've gone through about 10k small pistol and 3k large pistol Mag Techs with no problems. I load mainly on CH Auto Champ progressive presses and they run through their primer feed system just fine. Ballistics and reliability are great, I'm perfectly satisfied with them.

[Rockydog]

I loaded about 500 small rifle mag techs in .223 with no misfires. Savage 112V, LC brass, H4895, 55gr Vmax. Only problem seating was with a case or two with the crimp not properly removed. Seated all primers with a Lee hand primer. RD

[lwknight]

I have had a high FTF rate with Magtch large pistol primers but, there are other varibles at play in my case. It could be my light hammer spring so I hesitate to blame the primers till I get more tests done. The magtech will usually fire on second strike, indicating a light hammer fall.

I do have a 10%FTF with the last batch of CCI primers that I got in and I know the gun has not changed and I can shoot some ammo that I loaded up a few years ago with zero FTFs. These will not fire on second strike.

Maybe in the hysteria to fill orders they have let QC go to pot. Beats me.

[dudel]

I also picked up some Magtech primers when there was nothing else on the shelf. I've loaded several hundred of these in SP on a Lee Auto prime hand tool without a problem. IT was a couple of months ago; but I don't recall any particular difficulty getting them to flip in the Lee tray. I do recall that the box was larger than the Lee tray and moving the primers from package to tray was tedious. However, they all fired when the pin hit.

Bottom line, I'd buy them again.

[primersp]

i load in sp primers no problems

[FAsmus]

Gentlemen;

Thanks for all the feed-back, needed to figure out if I have a marginal lot of the primers or what.

The answer seems to be narrowing down to the anvil and the way this lot's anvils are seated pretty much flush with the top of the primer cup by the manufacturer.

These primers won't turn because the edges of the anvils do not catch in the groves of the flip-tray. I know about seating to the bottom of the primer-pocket - I always clean pockets and in the instance of these hard-seating primers I have gone back to seating them one-by-one in the press instead of the Lee tool so as to assure that they are fully bottomed-out. I have measured primer-picket depth of the cases that failed to fire ~ normal within tollerance in all of them.

My failure-to-fire problems have mainly been in my M70. This rifle has the typical good reputation for reliability and up to now I never encountered FTF while using it. The next step is to change firearms and see if the FTF problem follows the primer ~ I'm going to the range today with 50 loaded for the SKS.

I'll post results soon, good morning,
Forrest

[sqlbullet]

I went through 2000 LP primers in my two 10mm's. They worked great for me. Zero issues.

[ReloaderFred]

I only have experience with the MagTech Small Pistol primers, but I've loaded approximately 30,000 of them, and have yet to have a misfire or any other issue. I find them to be as sensitive as Federal primers in my tuned handguns. I have a large order pending for them, and will continue to use them.

If primers go off with the second primer strike, that's usually an indication of a primer seating issue. I stopped using handheld priming devices many years ago, and now use the Ram Prime method of priming, since I find it much more positive.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[mag44uk]

Here in the UK there are alot of Magtech primers. They are a bit cheaper than other makes too.
I have used 10,000 or so through two Marlin 1894`s which both have "tricked" triggers with no problem. Same in various full bore rifles.
I would say make sure your pockets are clean.
HTH
Tony

[woody1]

Gentlemen;

I have a primer question for the membership;

With the current & on-going primer shortage I went ahead and bought 5000 MagTech primers. These items are made in Brazil but had good recommendations.
................
My question is; Has anyone else used these primers? What results have you seen with them?

Good evening,
Forrest

I've used a goodly quantity of the Mag Tech LR primers, mostly for plinking loads. I've noted no differences in performance but certainly haven't done any scientific tests. They go bang and hit the target the same way the Winchester LR's did. Bought these primers just before the big shortage.

They do not seat nearly as easily as the WLR's but I use the press mounted priming system both RCBS and Lyman including the Tru-line Jr. I also finger check the seat depth of every case. Occasionally one needs a little more pressure to fully seat. I don't use a primer flipper. I've had NO failures to fire with any Mag Tech primer. I've not used any in any light hit handguns. They get WSP's only as long as they last. Regards, Woody

[FAsmus]

Gentlemen;

Very well, thanks for the additional feed-back since I last posted ~ its beginning to look more and more like I've run into perhaps a marginal Lot of the MagTechs.

However, there won't be a serious leap to conclusion either; my testing in other guns has begun and will continue. Who knows? The M70 might very well be "spoiled" or "picky" or the cases I use in it (loaded 80 times each) might be at fault.

This morning I had failure-free shooting MagTech in the SKS with more planned when the weather permits.

Good afternoon,
Forrest

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
Some fail to fire are the result of primers not being completely seated/bottomed out.
A 2nd hammer hit almost always gets these to fire in my guns.

[trickyasafox]

i use a lot of magtech primers. last time I stocked up they were cheapest. They are hard and slightly larger than what you find domestically- or at least my experience seems to mirror yours. I get light strikes only with my Hi-power AR-15 which has a set of lightened springs in it. other guns with factory stock springs dont have any issues. I use them in SR, LR, SP, and LP. aside from the few misfires (usually go bang on the second strike anyway) I have no complaints.

[FAsmus]

Gentlemen;

Update on the M/T primers is like this ~

Since I bought 15,000 of them I naturally kept on shooting the items.

By dis-assembly of a spent primer I determined that the cup is 0.005 thinker than a WLR cup. This is quite a bit and makes the rest of the story understandable.

It turned out that the M70 was my only rifle that had a "soft" firing pin fall and ran up the 10% miss-fire problem. All my other rifles eat them up with no problems at all. These are mainly singleshots and old resurrected military types.

Recently I have gotten my M336 Marlin out of moth-balls for long range shooting but I knew that it had a light hammer-fall long ago. Thus I never even tried it with the M/T primers but stuck with the regular WLR I use pretty much for everything.

A note here about the way these primers are made ~ They have a lower anvil than US made primers. This makes them reluctant to "flip" in the usual grooved primer tools. A fellow has to filp what will flip and then turn the ones that will not turn over by hand before the primer operation can be done. I find this additional operation a minor but crummy little problem. I'll live with it until they are used up but unless we run into another primer shortage I doubt very much if I'll buy another 15,000!

Good afternoon,
Forrest

[zomby woof]

I bought some a few years ago because they were cheap. I used them in my practice loads and CCI for my match loads. The magtech primer loads had tigher groups. I wish I could buy more of them.

[Mal Paso]

I had FTF issues with MagTech Large Pistol Primers in a fairly new Redhawk with a New Factory Spring. My opinion was the cups were too hard. Before I switched to cast, MagTech Factory Loads were all I shot, never a misfire. I noticed on the Factory MagTech 44 JSPs, the Primer was indented with a V. My thought was the V might have weakened the resistance to the Firing Pin. I experimented with primer tools until I ran out, 4K of em. My Colt and Redhawk have a lighter strike than the Smith and there aren't any spring upgrades so I shoot Federals.

[Wayne Smith]

I know with the Russian primers, and apparently with the MagTec, the anvil is seated in the primer at the factory. American primers leave the anvil high and the loading force seats it. It is easier to leave the primers that are already seated not fully seated in the cartridge. This sets up a FTF, as the firing pin hit first fully seats the primer in the case. I have close to 20,000 Tula primers (I've used some) and have been aware of this from the beginning. No FTF's yet.

[mdi]

Does the anvil sit out as far as a known "good" primer? I wonder if a short anvil and a hard to seat primer is keeping the anvil from seating firmly against the bottom of the primer pocket, causing problem #3.

+1
I had "problems" seating Wolf primers, much the same as you note with Magtech. I've always preferred a ram prime unit over a hand primer so the additional force needed to seat the primers wasn't a big deal. It can be done with a hand primer but you need to make sure the primer is all the way seated in the pocket (my thumbs got tired quickly, he he.).

[sig2009]

Never heard of a so called primer shortage. Even after the last so called primer shortage primers were available at any gun show I went to!

[williamwaco]

I loaded 1,000s in pistol cartridges and have had no problems.

Same here. I have used about 3000 small pistols never knew the difference.

[TCLouis]

I too have ended up with some Mag Tech LP primers and have had 100% success with them.

[rodsvet]

Primers at the orange County Ca. gun show were there for $99 per 5000. Any size Winchester. I buy 10,000 every 6 months or so. I try to keep 75,000 on hand after obama got in the first time. Maybe I should double that. Rod

[FAsmus]

sig-2009;

No primer shortage?

Did you notice the price of primers go up? The two things were connected ~

Good morning,
Forrest

[FAsmus]

Rodsvet:

Wow! $99/5000 is unknown here for many years.

Typically at the discounted table at gunshows the price for a 5000 piece box is $150 - $160.

I agree that we should all stock up while availability is good - regardless of cost.

Good morning,
Forrest

[davismotown]

Hey Y'all,
I loaded 1,000 LP in 45 auto, and I could not wait till they were used up. They measured within specifications when I put a mic to them (sampled). I was using a Lee Ergo Prime unit, and I had to put on gloves with this usually very easy priming tool. I had to put some of the cartridges in my press to seat completely. I had FTF on two of the primers; one of which never did fire after repeated strikes. Based on that experience, why would I go back to Magtech ever? Another shortage would be the only reason I guess. My experience wasn't good as you can read. I even asked my LGS if they had experience with them, and one employee reported good experience with SP. Like someone posted above, may have been pushing for production and didn't want to stop the line when on max tolerance.
Regards from GA
Pete

[dudel]

Went through a thousand SP during the shortage. No problems with the
Lee auto prime, they all worked. Then the CCIs became available, and I've not seen the magtechs since.

[FAsmus]

Gentlemen;

My supply of Mag-Techs are long gone - and I was happy to use the last one.

My M70 would not ignite them reliably - it always preferred WLR and never missed-fire. The military actions, (all of them) never missed.

My biggest complaint was that, due to some odd-ball manufacturing spec, they would not reliably 'turn' in my LEE priming tool ~ I always had to pick them over by hand to get the last 5 or 7 to be right-side-up for priming my cases.

Forrest

[mdi]

Recycling can be a good thing, even threads from 2009/2012...:mrgreen: