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.

[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. (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.