Author Topic: Primers (Read 897 times)

Bart Solo · « **on:** January 01, 2005, 04:22:15 AM »

Are Remington primers 10 times better than Federal and twice as good as CCI? Unless I am misreading things (not hard to do on New Years Day) that is about the difference in price in the Cabelas website so I guess they must be much better. What do you think? What primers do you use?

A little more research indicates that the Remington prices are about the same as other companies at other sites including MidSouth so I am either misreading Cabelas or Cabelas has a small problem.

Anyway the basic question remains, what primers do you use and why?

Will_C · « **Reply #1 on:** January 01, 2005, 04:42:18 AM »

CCI. The man who taught me reloading used them, and I never have had a problem with them. I don't load enough to have lots of different primers around.
Will

Graybeard · « **Reply #2 on:** January 01, 2005, 04:56:30 AM »

CCI and Winchester mostly because they are what's usually most readily available in my area and have worked well for me for about 40 years or so.

Have used some Remington and Federal and even a few real off the wall ones but likely 95% or more of the hundreds of thousands of primers I've loaded have been CCI or Winchester.

longwinters · « **Reply #3 on:** January 01, 2005, 07:19:54 AM »

You are right, there must be a problem with the prices cuz everywhere I go for primers the prices are about equal. I used CCI but have been trying Federals this last year. The Federals have worked great. But I really don't think there is much of a difference between any of them.

Long

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #4 on:** January 01, 2005, 07:34:19 AM »

I've used CCI almost exclusively.
Good, consistant.

There are folks that have rated primers on two criteria:

hardness/softness of metal (ease of ignition) and;

relative power/flame.

I don't have the rankings, but they're out there.

Bench rest primers are usually produced with a little greater uniformity - same production line, just more careful quality control monitoring the process/product.

Duffy · « **Reply #5 on:** January 01, 2005, 08:24:08 AM »

Are they showing different quantitys? Like the others I use what shoots the best for a given load. Most are priced within cents of each other.

longwinters · « **Reply #6 on:** January 01, 2005, 09:45:48 AM »

Have any of you tried the same loads but with different primers? I did, only once, with Winchester,CCI and Federal. All loads shot identical. But this was only one load. Has anyone had different experiences?

Long

Bart Solo · « **Reply #7 on:** January 01, 2005, 12:25:53 PM »

I went to Cabelas today and discovered that the web site is giving you the price for 1000 but it seems, at least this morning, the Remington ad gave me the impression that it is the price for 100. While I was there I bought a couple hundred CCI primers. They were out of Remington.

As I have said before I am still learning. I got away from hunting and shooting in 1985 and just got back into it as the result of my son's invitation to go hunting just this fall. I am dusting off all my ancient firearm memories and sometimes I come up a little short. That is why I still have a great foundness for 6MM remington as opposed to 243 Winchester and why I am trying to figure out why anybody would want a WSM in any regular caliber. Yesterday I used my old Lee Reloader to reload a box. In the process I ran out of bullets and primers. Today, tired of using a hammer to resize my case necks I bought one of the $57.00 Lee Anniversary Kits. I am probably going to have a lot of questions. One of them is, do you think my 20 year old gun powder is still good? It has been stored in a cool dry place all those years and I can't think of any reason it wouldn't be, but what the heck do I know. Anyway I am going to trot out to the range tomorrow to try my reloads.

8rounder · « **Reply #8 on:** January 01, 2005, 01:09:27 PM »

For rifles I use only CCI because the Federals are made out of softer material they tend to show pressure signs before I get to max loads.

For my revolvers, I use the Federals because I have changed the springs and now the hammer doesn't fall as hard which will cause misfires. I have never had this happen since I went to the softer Federal primers.
I might also add that I don't hunt with my wheel guns I compete with them. If I were to load up some max rounds I might go back to CCI or Rem primers.

JMOP
David

myronman3 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 01, 2005, 05:58:46 PM »

Quote from: longwinters

Have any of you tried the same loads but with different primers? I did, only once, with Winchester,CCI and Federal. All loads shot identical. But this was only one load. Has anyone had different experiences?

Long

yes. i was working on a load for my 270. was using imr 7828 and winchester primers and getting horrible powder residue left in the action. so i switched powders, same primers. clean burn, but velocity proved way shy of where the book said i should be near. so i went and got some cci primers. loaded everything the same and with the second powder, velocities were no worse or no better. so on a whim i loaded some round up with cci's and the 7828. super clean burn, and got an honest 2900 f.p.s. with a 150 gr. ballistic tip. the only difference was the primer.

so is cci better than everything else? i would say it depends on what powder your using. me, i stick with cci from here on out; because there are too many possible variations for me to figure out and i have better things to do. and cci worked where other primers left me wanting.

Duffy · « **Reply #10 on:** January 01, 2005, 10:34:40 PM »

I also did some primer shuffling here lately. Tried some loads in my 338 with WW, vel was right where it should have been and groups were fair. Switched to a Fed match primer and while vel only changed about 3 fps the extreme spread went from 36 to 6 and the group went from over an inch to almost a one holer. In my 708 it's almost the same story but now in the Hornet it prefers WW. I used to stick with only one brand but anymore I try them all to see who gives the best performance.

Bart Solo · « **Reply #11 on:** January 02, 2005, 04:09:45 AM »

I have never really used "magnum" primers, but reading my old RCBS reloading guide (copyright 1976) I am told that the "CCI magnum primer is a premium primers that results in more uniform ignition and stable velocities." Does the term magnum have any technical meaning with it comes to primers or is the term marketing hype for a premium primer. If so, given how cheap primers are, why don't we use "magnum" primers in all our reloads, magnum or standard alike?

Bart Solo · « **Reply #12 on:** January 02, 2005, 12:56:24 PM »

The reloads worked. My first in about 20 years. Old components worked well. Talked to another old guy at the range who told me that he has some cans of powder that are 45 years old. Don't know if that is the truth, but apparently powder will last a damn long time if properly stored.

My groups were pretty tight. Since I just used the Lee Reloader recommended load they were pretty light loads. Now that I have a scale I will be able to work up some heavier loads. This could be addictive. I really need a better rifle.

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #13 on:** January 02, 2005, 01:03:49 PM »

Magnum primers are used to ignite lots of powder or powder that is harder to ignite (as when it has a coating of graphite).

Just for fun do a network search on primers and brisance.

Bart Solo · « **Reply #14 on:** January 02, 2005, 05:01:39 PM »

Quote from: Cat Whisperer

Magnum primers are used to ignite lots of powder or powder that is harder to ignite (as when it has a coating of graphite).

Just for fun do a network search on primers and brisance.

Thank you. I did. Learned alot.

rpseven · « **Reply #15 on:** January 07, 2005, 08:45:52 AM »

I've got several different primers, I had a federal primer fail on me about three weeks ago, cost me a deer, first time I have had one fail. Kind of drops ones confidence level.

Bullseye · « **Reply #16 on:** January 07, 2005, 06:26:02 PM »

Someone mentioned accuracy and POI change between primers. I learned a hard lesson this fall. Switched from CCI Magnum to CCI standard in my 41 Mag with IMR 4227 powder. POI moved a bunch and group size at least tripled. Switched back and all was fine.

Switched from Winchester 209's to CCI 209's in my Encore muzzleloader. Group size grew a bunch and the POI moved about 3". Shot a nasty group with the CCI's one day, loaded two with Winchesters and those two shots where touching. My wifes Encore did the same thing. Everyone was happy I switched back except for that deer.

warf73 · « **Reply #17 on:** January 09, 2005, 11:23:48 PM »

Like GB I load CCI and Winney.
Both work great for me.

Warf

dave375hh · « **Reply #18 on:** January 10, 2005, 03:14:58 AM »

I used to use CCI's but the only misfires I've ever had in 36 years of reloading were with CCI's. The CCI BR's in cold weather are the worst offenders. I now use Win for pistol and rifle and did use Fed 215's for the big stuff(.375HH, 7MM STW. 7.82 Warbird) But just reciently read that the Win WLRM is 40% hotter than the fed.215 so I'll change over. The Warbird takes 104 grs of RL-25. I do still like the CCI 109's in shotshells because the rounded tops work so well through auto primer feeds, and they haven't misfired ever.