What is your favorite primer?

[357Maximum]

What is your favorite primer, and Why?

[Jack]

I usually use CCI primers, both for rifle and pistol. They've always worked well for me.
Truth is, CCI's are what my local gun dealer always has in stock, so I standardized on them years ago, and have never had reason to change.

[Gil Martin]

My preference are Winchester primers for rifle, handgun and shotgun. In the past, I used CCI and liked them and still have some on hand. Just like Winchester better. All the best...
Gil

[Catfish]

I can`t answer your poll. I use several different primers for the different rounds I load. People who load for several different rounds usually find that different primer are better suited for different rounds.

[Cal Sibley]

I generally use two, the Federal 205M and 210M, and the Remington 7 1/2 and 9 1/2. I don't really know that they are better than the others though, or why the Federals cost so much more than the others. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[Burnt Powder]

I've had very good luck with most all the major brands of primers. However; I have had my best groups and SDs using either Remington 9 1/2s or in the small primers 7 1/2s. the CCI Br and Federal match are probably just as good. But where I buy primers the Remingtons are always a few bucks a thousand cheaper and even shoot better for me! I have a bunch of Winchester primers too, and they are not bad, just had better results with the RPs.

BP

[Adam Helmer]

The first tray of 100 primers I bought in 1961 were CCI. Since then, I have won two state pistol championships and went on a state high power rifle team to Camp Perry twice using CCIs. The only "bricks" of primers in my house are CCI; I have used them in rifle, pistol and shotgun and never had a misfire. I just see no reason to leave CCIs and work up new accuracy loads for all my iron. I keep 12 "bricks" of CCI primers on establishment at all times in case of need.

Adam

[bulletpusher]

I voted for Federal because thats what I'm now using in my .25-06 loads. The Federal 210M Gold Metal Match.

I've used Winchester LR Large Rifle, they worked very well in a lot of the loads that I worked up. I've even tried the Winchester LRM Large Rifle Magnum primers but could never get the groups the way I wanted them consistantly.

In my Handguns I us the CCI 350 Large Pistol Magnum primers for every thing and have had wonderful results with them.

What can I say, the poll only let me pick one, so I did.
:D :D :D :D

[Cal Sibley]

I'm loathe to say primers make any real difference in accuracy. I'm
pretty evenly divided between Federal and Remington. However I picked up some RWS primers a while back and use them in a couple of calibers with excellent results. Still, I'm hesitant to say the primers have any real effect on the accuracy. Can anyone add anything here besides merely personal preference? It's not a well covered topic by any means. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[357Maximum]

Originally posted by Cal Sibley
It's not a well covered topic by any means. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

I will say AMEN to that!

max

[skb2706]

I started out using CCI primers ........I believe it was because all my equipment and loading data was RCBS/Speer/CCI and that's what they used. Besides they were easy to find and always worked quite well. I have used several other types and prefer Fed. 215M for my hunting loads in my .300 WM. Everything else still gets CCI, 200s, 250s and BR-4 s. I have never really done any significant accuracy testing to say one works better than another tho.............

Never ever had a 'primer' failure..........seated one upside down two weeks ago so that was my only failure...........first time in 30 years.

[Burnt Powder]

Well, I'm not so sure that this topic wasn't well coverer in years gone by. I'm a bit foggy right now with the names/personalities involved, but it was just arround the end of the BIG war that it was detirmined that one particular lot of Frankford Arsonel primers were indeed more accurate. They commanded a premium in the old long range rifle days. I forget again just who, but memory leads me to Townsend Whelen, Atkens, Keith, maybe Oconnor saying that the finest accuracy is always obtained with the "coolest" primer that fully ignites the powder charge. They had done a fair amount of testing for the government at Abradeene and Frankford to develop those conclusions. Wonder if that principal still applies?? I get my best results with RP primers, they are "supposed" to be the coolest available. No, I seldom shoot magnum, large capacity chamberings with slow burning powders for extreme accuracy. And again, the coolest that will fully ignite, and that may indeed be a Federal Mag primer, but it doesn't need to be used in a 7-08 or a Br cartridge.

BP

[Andy L]

Favorite primer? Thats a loaded question. :D (Pun Intended)

I was using Federal primers for everything, until I started loading for my 17Rem. It was brought to my attention by a very intelligent person that the Rem 7 1/2 was made for the finnicky pressure spikes of the little 17 and had a heavier cup. Believe it or not, I got better groups instantly, with no pressure signs (the Feds were boarderline on pressure) with the Rems.

Soooo, I guess, I dont have a favorite anymore. Probably going to re-evaluate on some other calibers and try some different things in the near future.

Andy

[mannlicher .270]

I seem to remember a topic that you may see as related in the Long Range page. From memory it was started by Boyd, and the gist of it was that the weight, or rather all primers in a load being the same weight, had a greater effect on groups than individual brands. This is not too say that a certain brand may not work better, but that variations within a batch has a noticible effect.

Mannlicher

[eldeguello]

Originally posted by Cal Sibley
I'm loathe to say primers make any real difference in accuracy. I'm
pretty evenly divided between Federal and Remington. However I picked up some RWS primers a while back and use them in a couple of calibers with excellent results. Still, I'm hesitant to say the primers have any real effect on the accuracy. Can anyone add anything here besides merely personal preference? It's not a well covered topic by any means. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

I've had my best results in velocity uniformity from shot to shot using Federal 210 primers, and, with some magnum LR primers once sold by the now-defunct Sullivan Arms Company that sold mainly shotgun reloading stuff.

The other day at the range I ran into a 1000-yard benchrest rifle competitor who was testing ammo for velocity and pressure performance, and he was using RWS primers. He said he got the lowest variation with them.

[iwerk2hard]

I'm partial to CCI primers.
My guns are capable of shooting better than I can, therefore I've never shot any competition, just recreational. I've not found primers that I can blame for lousy groups or missed game, although some loads do seem to perform better or worse with a single component change such as primer.
I've heard more than once that the CCI primers are less susceptible to gang explosion while using hand priming tools. That's enough to sway me right there. On top of that, they seem to feed better in my Lee hand priming tool.
Opinions will vary with need and past experience.
That's my 2 cents.

[R-WEST]

Winchester's WLR (and its progenitor, the old 81/2-120) has always produced the best results in MOST of my rifles. The occasional R91/2 and F210M pops up occasionally as the ignitor of some of the "best loads" in my load notes, but, the WLR is the overall leader by a long shot (pun:)).

Handguns seem to like CCI's, standard or magnum, depending on the respective caliber/load.

[razmuz]

Like many of you I've bought what the store had. I mostly use CCI 200's. For "ball" powders I use WLR's. When brass gets old WSR seem to load up a little loose and the CCI load up just fine. Could be that they are a little larger.

[browning2000]

I used to use WLR's in all my biggame reloads, I allways got good accuracy and good velocity, there was really nothing wrong with them so why change. Well when I got my 6PPC target gun the guy who helped me get started told me that as far as he was concerned Federal Gold Medal match primers were in a league of their own. Federal 205's work nice in my 6 and groups in the .1"s cant be wrong so when I ran out of WLR's I switched to Federal 210 Gold Medal Match primers. Low and behold I was able to shave an easy .1"-.2" off the groups of my big game rifles. I'm not saying they make a huge difference, but in my experience, good primers are an easy addition to the handloads we put so much time and effort into developing and they're an easy way to shave a tenth of an inch off Aggs and help turn a good load into a super load.

[Cal Sibley]

While I use mostly Federal and Remington I can't notice any difference between the various primers. I have quite a few loads with the same bullet, case type, powder and load. The only variable is the primer. Sometimes I get smaller groups with the Federal, sometimes the Remington. Misfires are few and far between. If there's a measureable difference you could never prove it by my loads. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[BLUEDOT 72]

Back in the 60's or early 70's I had a CCI fail to fire so I developed a paranoia about them, (but I have never had problems since) . Never have bought any since either (except Percussion Caps)
Federals have done me so good that those are about all I buy but Remingtons did me real well in the 70's when I was shooting a lot of Metalic Silhoutte (.280 Rem) . Also these worked real good for .2222 and .222 RemMag.

[Freebore]

Each rifle load is developed using different primer to see what gives the best accuracy with a given powder,bullet for a given cartridge w/ minimal deviations. I have Federal, CCI, WLR, Rem on my shelves. I mainly find that with ball powders in short cartridges (7mm-08) the WLR work well. The large belted cases the Federals. The custom .22's CCI BR's.
Never tried the Federal gold match. I think I'll try them w/ loads I have if they work that well. There is room for them too on the self.

[scooterman27006]

both small and large winchester primers work well enough for me without the added cost - i do however have one load for 223 that needs the cci br4 primer no doubt it does make a difference but as far as large i believe cci makes them worse - winchester i say only because i have never used anything for large except winchester or cci and none of the others listed

[Cobra]

Like the CCI BR's, never had any noticable problems with any others though. These seemed to be just a bit more consistant and are readily available. Tried some RWS that a friend gave me, very nice but hard to find, at least when I was needing to stock up.

[BAN]

I have found primers make all the diffrence in specific loads. When I first began handloading all I knew was large or small rifle and manufactuer made little diffrence to me. Now that I became an accuracy addict I have found sometimes that simply changing primers and leaving the rest as is can be all that is needed to go from good to great. In my custom 22/250, I knew I had the making of a good load and tried diffrent OAL, charges, powders,etc., and went back to the first load used a CCI BR-2 and now it shoots a one hole seven shot group under 1/4". When I get a load that is close but not quite what I want the next step for me is trying a diffrent primer. There are several brands and types on my bench and my favorite is which ever one my rifle digest will best.

[cemerson]

Precision Shooting magazine had an article covering the differences between the various primer manufacturers. I have the magazine somewhere, I never throw them away and if pressed, I'll find it. However, the most interesting thing featured was a series of photos that illustrated the fire that each primer produced when touched off. Each one had an intensity of it's own. Most throwing sparks. There were two primers that showed the most uniform flame. Both were Federals, #'s 210 & 215. Since then I have switched to Federals and have not looked back.

Chet.

[badgerrr]

My local primer supplier carries Winchester and CCI. After popping lots of both, I've resolved:

CCI for Rifles

Winchester for handguns (especially small handguns)

The CCI's are the most accurate in my rifles almost without exception.

But CCI's have given me misfires with small double action handguns, especially when fired double action. Had a CCI fail me double action, once, in 45 Long Colt . The Winchesters always go bang.

[scooterman27006]

i just reread my comments above and after doing a lot more shooting and finding some great loads - well i have to say i use whatever primer the gun/load shoots the best but out of the loads that are keepers so far all of them are using the federal match primers 205 and 210 but the 223 is going to keep the cci br primers - i say all this now with a couple thousand of the winchester small and large in my drawer lol

[dovehunter]

I have bought nothing but CCI primers for years. A while back my local gunshop ran out of CCI Large Pistol primers and said to get Winchester instead "as they should be about the same". I did and my usual (and long standing) .45 ACP load mysteriously started puncturing primers. I threw the rest away and waited for them to get in CCI.

[skeet]

Actually now days it is getting harder to tell. I have been told by some industry insiders that CCI is making a lot of Wichester primers these days. Do that possibly be true??

[dovehunter]

Actually now days it is getting harder to tell. I have been told by some industry insiders that CCI is making a lot of Wichester primers these days. Do that possibly be true??

That very well may be true. However the question is do they make them to W-W's standards or their own? I am not knocking W-W products. I have been a big W-W fan for years. However, fluke though it may be, my one and only experience with W-W primers was a bad one.:eek:

[buckhunter]

At this time I use whatever the stores have in stock. I normally us CCI if they have them. For my purposes I find very little difference in any brand.

[Pre-64]

Im with Catfish on this one. I have had accuracy change drastically more than once by changing primers. Good example a few weeks back: 35 Remington, 180 Gr. Speer Flat Point, 43 Gr. of RL-12. 2 to 2.5 inches was the best she would do. I loaded CCI 200's, Rem 9 1/2's, WLR's all with about the same result. Loaded 5 more with Fed 210's and shrunk it down to just over an inch. Loaded 20 more with 210's and all shot great.Got me a new Deer load:D