Primer Brands for Handguns

[jbradley]

Very helpful info. Thanks all!

I had the impression I just needed to decide what brand I wanted. Jumped on the Midway site and filtered by brand. It seems that it is not just the packaged quantity that I choose from. One brand is simpler, magnum or not. Another, there is strips or not, 500 or 550 etc.

Can someone help me understand what the differences are and most of all, what I need?

Thanks for the patience with the "simple stuff". I can hardly wait to figure out powder.

 

[mc223]

Very good general and ballistics info as well as bore cleaners and lubes. Scroll down near the bottom.

http://www.frfrogspad.com/

More interesting stuff

http://www.jamescalhoon.com/primers_and_pressure.php

And just because.


http://www.6mmbr.com/PrimerPix.html

 

[billybob44]

What works for me..

For my 2 cents worth--After close to 40 years of handloading, I like Winchester best, with CCI a close second.
With that said, I have bought in a pinch most all brands. Yes Federal are softer, yes Wolf/Tula do seat harder. I have NEVER had a batch of any brand that did not do their job.
It makes no difference to me how primers are placed in their box-I just place them in a primer flip tray, shake a few times, place cover on, turn over, and load my primer tubes.
When primers were hard to find, I did some substitution for some loads, but they all went off. Came to find out that in some handgun loads, a small rifle primer would do better than the called for small pistol primer.
To sum it up, for me, I buy a name brand at the best price at the time...Bill..

 

[ranger335v]

I've been loading a long time and have never found any brand to be stand out poor or exceptionally good. But, all I've ever used were Winchester, Federal, Remington, CCI, RWS and Alcan.

I prefer Federals because they are more sensitive than others, some think they are "soft" but I don't believe that to be so. I've shot some very hot rifle reloads with them and they do as well as any. But, especially for handguns, the Federal's more sensitive compounds have given me very few failures to fire.

 

[txloader22]

To answer your questions, Magnum primers are simply made to burn a little hotter and a little longer than standard primers in order to better ignite some harder-to-light powders, or for better ignition in extremely cold weather. In the calibers you've listed, you generally won't need magnum primers.

For small pistol in 9mm and 38 spl, stick with CCI 500, Win small pistol, Rem 1 1/2, or Federal 100. In the 40, Remington recommends the 5 1/2 due to the thicker cup because it's such a high pressure round.

As far as the strips vs. trays, you only need to buy the strips if you have a priming tool that specifically uses them, such as the APS. Otherwise, stick with the regular trays.

Hope this helps!

 

[918v]

The difference is in the mix. Some brands have a stronger mix and therefore affect your load differently due to a different start pressure. This in turn affects the presure curve, velocity and time inside the barrel. Magnum primers generally have a stronger mix than standard primers, however certain brand standard primer are almost as powerful as some brands magnum primers.

The best approach is to experiment with all the brands you can get your hands on. I recently did an accuracy test with the 38 Special using four different 148gr HBWC bullets and four different primers with 2.7grs of Bullseye. There was a 66% difference in accuracy between RP 1 1/2 and WSP primers in one combo, for example. 66%!

 

[murf]

+1 on 918v's post. if you want more accuracy from your load, match the primer to the powder by testing 3 or 4 different primers. rifles the same way. first, choose the bullet. then, match the powder to the bullet. finally, match the primer to the powder. then you can play with cartridge length to get top accuracy.

if you just want to shoot the gun, use any primer suggested above. imop

murf

 

[mbruce]

...

 

[TonyT]

I normally use Winchester primers for my semi auto loads but have used Remington and some CCI. For revolver loads I stick to Federal primers since my revolvers have lightened DA trigers.

 

[Fisherdave10]

I'm a young guy (almost 21) and have been reloading for a few years. I have used CCI, Remington and Federal small pistol primers.

I have been most disappointed with Remington primers. They did not work well in my auto prime system (Dillon SDB). They would always jam up. I have not had that problem with CCI or Federal primers. Remington Primers in my experience have had the most duds of the 3 brands. I would still consider using them if they were cheap, but their my least favorite so far.

CCI primers are pretty hard, but it really isn't an issue with me. Federal primers seem significantly softer than CCI or Remington and are noticeably easier to seat in cases. Being easier to seat in a progressive press is nice. I like both brands.

 

[Ala Dan]

Federal primers for me too folk's~!

 

[Hondo 60]

I've used Fed, CCI, Win, & Rem and haven't had any issues with any of them.
I reload 38 spl, 357 mag, 9mm, 45 Colt & 223 rem. (stock springs in all of them)

Haven't tried Tula or Wolf primers - TulAmmo is horrid in my AR!
3-4 FTEs/20 rd mag. Absolutely no issues with any brass-cased ammo.
While Tula primers may be ok & they're usually cheaper, I just won't!

 

[Ken451]

I like Winchester because I can easily use the primer pickup tool directly from their tray. Likewise not needing magmum in LP.

I stick to one brand so that I do not have variations from one load to another. If 6.6 gr of xxx is a safe load, I won't be so sure if I switch.

I buy enough in advance that I don't have to worry about availability. I'm still using primers I stocked up on a dozen years ago.

When I first started, I did try Fed and CCI. The Federal packaging was more difficult. I remember some problems with the harder CCI. I still have several thousand of them from when I started reloading 16 years ago. They are my "backup supply" ;-) Otherwise, I stick with one standard for me, Winchester SP and LP.

 

[GLOOB]

Another nice thing about Win primers is they're color coded with a dot on the inside of the primer.

If you find a CCI primer on the floor, and you use more than one type, there's no telling what kind it is. Primers of the same cup size are indistinguishable.

Or if you primed a bunch of cases awhile ago and didn't label them, you might forget which type of primer you used (hmm, are these CCI 500/550/400?). With Win primers, you can see the color coding through the flash-hole.

 

[jbradley]

Great info... as always. Thanks!

 

[1SOW]

Added to correct my post above. I read the MSDS sheet on Federal SPPs and Win SPPs:
Federal DOES have Lead styphnate but also has aluminum, nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, and tetracene that the Win primers don't have.

Sorry, I believed the wrong person.

 

[Hangingrock]

More so out of habit I opt for Winchester brand primers. I use vast quantities of W231 along with limited usage of W296. The only rational explanation is I’ve fallen into a rut or it’s my comfort level thingy. There is probably a more technical explanation but at the moment it eludes me.

 

[Slamfire]

I buy by price. I have used shelves of Federals, Winchester, CCI, and soon will be using Magtech.

Bought Wolf, they were actually quite mild.

I agree with the statement that Federal are the "softest". A more accurate description would be "most sensitive", but hard and soft are concepts we have all experienced and are easily understood.

(Was that softball that hit my head "Hard", or just "insensitive"? )

Early on in my reloading life, when loading buffalo blasters in my 357's, I found that changing primers would create pressure problems. Federals were more mild and switching to Winchesters caused pierced primers and primer flow back into the the firing pin recess. And that was with the older, thicker cupped WSP.

I am into moderate loads now and primer changes are not that much of a problem.

If you are a coil cutter, if the firearm you have has a poorly designed ignition system with marginal firing pin strike, or your mainspring is worn out, then you will want to use the most sensitive primers you can find or you will have misfires.

I purchased a 586 from a friend who used it in PPC. It had under 100K rounds through it, might have been 40K, 60K, or 80K. He shot it a lot. Anyway he never had misfires because he was using Federal primers in his 38 Special cases. I was shooting 357 loads with AA#9, a ball powder, and WSP primers. WSP are normally great primers but it turned out not so good with a revolver with a weak mainspring, ball powder, and cold weather. I got squibs. Primer looked like it got wacked hard, but not hard enough.

I had to knock the bullet out of the throat with a screwdriver because I could not open the cylinder.

Incidentally, this has made me leery of ball powders. Ball powders are harder to ignite in cold weather.








Anyway a change to a new mainspring fixed all the ignition problems, and I was willing to trade off the wonderfully light double action pull (with the weak mainspring) for positive ignition in extreme conditions.

Others may be willing to live with an unreliable firearm as long as they are shooting under conditions where a malfunction only leads to a low score.

 

[TGReaper]

Over the years I have been reloading I have used most of the available brands of primers. I have not noticed any real performance difference. I buy them a couple of 1000 at a time and right now I'm using Winchester large pistol and Federal small pistol.
Rifle primers are a different animal,for my heavy rifles I much prefer CCI
TGR