[tbeb]

I know "hard" and "soft" is not the correct terminology. Here I'm using them to mean a light strike by the firing pin will most likely ignite a soft primer before a hard primer.

Of Fed., Rem., Win., and Speer, I feel Fed. is the softest and Speer is the hardest, with Win. in between. Where would Rem. primers be positioned since I've never heard anything on them?

[stans]

Federal is the easiest to ignite and CCI is the hardest. I think Remington primers are a little harder than Federal to ignite.

[The Bushmaster]

Now I was told by the manufacturer's that there was no difference. That they bought their cups from the same maker. Now please don't jump on me...I use winchester and CCI primers and have noticed that CCI is harder to dent then Winchester. But who am I. Just another reloading customer... :)

[JoeHatley]

I've found Remington and Winchester to be about the same.

The cup thickness is only part of the ignition formula. The sensitivity of the primer mix and anvil highth also contribute.

Good Luck...

Joe

[armoredman]

I have only used CCI 500 small pistol primers, and my CZ75 PO1 and wifes CZ 2075 RAMI reliably ignite each one I've used in my very limited experiance.

[Guy B. Meredith]

Dunno the real answer, but using JoeHatley's response and going from an anecdotal situation, Remingtons may not be bad.

Most revolver competitors use Federal as they use lightweight (bobbed) hammers and light springs and feel the Federal ignite best. Their guns feel like toys.

I ALWAYS use Winchester (cheap from our club). One of my friends with the competition setup tried some round I had reloaded and they all fired perfectly. Not enough rounds to make a difinitive study, though.

If Remington=Winchester per Joe and if Winchester=Federal from my EXTREMELY limited study, then Remington should be close to Federal.

On the other hand, maybe you should check for yourself.

[Mikul]

People keep saying there's no difference. With Winchester Large Pistol primers in my Ruger, I need an 18# minimum mainspring installed. Without changing anything except the primer from Winchester to Remington, I can drop the mainspring down to 12#.

No difference my butt.

[BluesBear]

A gun that won't reliably pop every name brand primer has a defect.

[JA]

Back in the late 1970's when I bought my first pistol which was a used S&W 28. It had a very light trigger pull and after firing a couple boxes of 38 Special commerical reloads to get some brass. I bought the dies and supplies to reload the cases. The local gun shop had Fedral primers and they worked fine.
After loading the cases several times I ran out of primers and went to get some more but they only had CCI. Loading them none would fire in my pistol and a guy at the indoor range tightened up the hammer spring strain screw on my pistol. After that they fired fine. I went to several gun shops and got every brand primer I could find. I loaded up about half a box of each primer and found that by adjusting the strain screw which controls the force applied by the hammer spring to the hammer. Increasing or decreasing how hard the firing pin hit the primer I found that the amount of force needed to reliably ignite a primer and ranked the different brands of small pistol primers from least to most force needed as.
Federal
Remington
Winchester
CCI
Reloading 7.62x39mm in the late 1980's myself and several friends with soft point bullets for deer hunting. I found that reloads with Remington primers would slamfire in properly cleaned and maintained SKS rifles. I tried Federal with the same results. Switching to Winchester and CCI primers stopped the slamfires.
In the late 1990's forming cases and loading 5.45x39mm for my Romanian AK rifle that Winchester and CCI primers would slamfire. Switching to CCI # 41 military specification primers stopped the slamfires.
So overall I would rate primers from least amount of force needed for reliable ignition to most force needed as.
Federal
Remington
Winchester
CCI
CCI mil spec

[taliv]

bluesbear, i hear you, but i wonder.

years ago, i bought a sig 225 that wouldn't reliably ignite S&B ammo, among some other brands. I'm sure tightening the hammer would have fixed it, but it was always 100% on stuff like american eagle. i was told it was a european thing (hard primers) but that never made any sense to me, for the obvious reason.

last year i switched from WLP to Fed because my wilson supergrade fails to ignite about 20% of my 45ACP loads with WLP. Naturally, I called wilson and said, "***??" and was told, they'd had that problem too and switched to federal. So I switched to federal too. I've put about a thousand rounds with Fed primers through it and it hasn't missed a single one of them.

I'd really like to know why wilson didn't just make their hammer spring a little beefier so i could shoot whatever ammo i wanted. Unfortunately, I'm not a 1911 guru, so I probably wouldn't understand if they tried to explain it to me. i'll stop just short of calling it a defect though


one of the downsides to "soft' primers is that it doesn't take an overpressured round to make them flat. it can be misleading to people new to reloading

[Black Snowman]

I know Federal are more sensative because they're the only one I've set off by accident while reloading. Stopped useing them after that. CCI's seem the toughest and I use them the most. I load a few things with Winchester but I'll probably switch back to CCI once I'm out. I know if my guns will ignite CCIs reiliably then I should be good to go with pretty much any factory ammo.

[BluesBear]

When I bought my all time favorite .45 it was lightly used.
The person I bought it from had purchased a very nice 30lpi checkered Wilson flat mainspring housing complete with Wilson mainspring.

When I bought the gun he had returned it to original so the Wilson MS assembly was not installed. I ran 500 rounds through it with zero malfunctions.
It was then I changed MS housings. I immediately was getting at least 2 FTF out of every magazine. They would always fire on the 2nd strike.
After seven magazines of this BS I put the original Colt mainspring into the Wilson housing. There is an enormous amount of difference in the amount of tension between the two.
Many thousands of rounds later I have had absolutly ZERO malfunctions of any kind in that gun.

It now takes a little more force to pull the slide with the hammer down but the recoil is also noticably softer. As proven by over 6000 rounds on a single shok-buf that is still going strong.

I have three carry guns. ALL three of them will fire any ammo you put in them.

A gun that will only shoot a narrow spectrum of ammo may be good tor target ventilation but it ain't worth a tinkersdamn for asset salvation.

[Poodleshooter]

A gun that won't reliably pop every name brand primer has a defect.
Just to be fair to the gun manufacturers and those who make aftermarket parts: "A primer that won't reliably pop in every name brand gun has a defect". :evil:
Most of my primer ignition problems have been a result of high seated primers due to dirty pockets. The rest are from mishapen primers. I have an old box of CCI Large pistol magnum primers that absolutely will not fit into any of the .44 brass that I own, including once fired brass. They're just slightly too large in diameter and will not fully seat. As a result, they never ignite,and are always slightly high,even when they "feel" well seated during hand priming.

[Jim Watson]

There is a tremendous variation in guns and primers.
No doubt why a GI 1911 has a 23 lb mainspring and BluesBear's .45 needs it but my SA 9mm will reliably fire small rifle primers with a 17 lb mainspring.

Trials with lightly sprung DA target revolvers have convinced me that in order of sensitivity it is:
Federal
Winchester unplated in blue box
Winchester plated in white box
CCI

I have only shot a few Remington pistol primers and those went in .45 autos which are usually very flexible so I can't rank them.

Federal says their basic lead styphnate is more sensitive than other makes' neutral lead styphnate. I have seen enough difference in primer flattening and cratering in near maximum 9mm P loads that I am convinced their cup metal is either thinner or softer.

I am confident the unplated Winchesters are more sensitive than the previous nickel plated ones. HOWEVER, I have seen a lot of reports of numb lots of Winchester after the change. Some Glock 21s seem not to be compatible with Winchester primers. I think omitting the plating softened the primer cup but they cheapened the product in other ways.

CCI is tough no doubt about it. I test my defense guns with CCI primers. I figure if they will fire a CCI reload, they will shoot any other brand, factory or handload. I haven't been fooled yet.

[Deavis]

Federal
Remington
Winchester
CCI
CCI mil spec


I had a hammer spring installed in my HK that didn't live up to expectations. So, I reloaded a bunch of ammo and varied the primers before I sent it in. Based on the number of restrickes required I came up with almost an identical list except I found Remington to be softer than Federal. CCI's would not spark off without 4-5 hits DA.

Of course, after HK fixed the spring, it lit up anything :)