Question on Federal Large Pistol Primers.

Neither good nor bad, but different makes of primers have reputations for hardness. I found the following, but cannot attest to the accuracy. From softest to hardest: Federal, Magtech, Winchester, Remington, CCI. Some guns have a preference on what they will reliably fire. (soft vs hard strikes by the firing pin)

I suppose that the store where you saw them had just received a shipment and stocked the shelves with what they got.

I have never had a problem with Federal primers.

Never had an issue either, have always heard they are soft.

I tend to not buy them because of the ridiculously large packaging Federal uses for primers. Messes up my primer organization!

If you need them though I wouldn't hesitate to grab them.

Good primers. Buy them if ya need em. Heck even bad primers are better than no primers lately.

I've heard the Federal small pistol primers are soft, never used them, then I read somewhere the large pistol primers are not so soft, which doesn't make sense because they probably use the same coil stock to make large pistol primers as they do small pistol primers.
But that's what I read so maybe someone who knows for sure can help us out and tell us.
I have 6K of Federal Premium Large Match Pistol primers I bought for $4.00/thousand on a 90% clearance sale a couple years ago but I haven't used any of them yet.
They are good primers, the store just lucked into getting some them instead of another brand.

Nitroglycerin is listed in the SDS of Federal primers. This may make them more sensitive.

All primers should be treated with care. When a primer feed jams, never force it. Clean primer dust out of feed tubes.

There are photos of primer Kabooms in my album.

243winxb,
Walkalong did a primer test a couple years ago to see what primer yielded the most velocity with all else equal and found that Federal primers were the highest velocity, therefore the hottest.
Maybe that's why.
Thanks for letting us know that!

I bought a few LR Federal primers a few yrs back and my only complaint is the box is about 1/2 again bigger than their competition, I store my primers in a filing cabinet and it messes up my rows so I store them separate

rdnktrkr said:

I bought a few LR Federal primers a few yrs back and my only complaint is the box is about 1/2 again bigger than their competition, I store my primers in a filing cabinet and it messes up my rows so I store them separate
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Amen to that!!



Stay safe.

Walkalong said:

Federals are great, if you need them, buy them.

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Hope your right as I have two thousand of each, ridiculous large boxes and all.
The small are Magnum however so I’ll need to start over on the 9’s and 38’s I suppose.

Sportsmans had Federal LPP for $23.99 a thousand a couple of weeks ago. Three big boxes of them came home with me.

Federal primer are fine. Load em and shoot em.

I have never used Federal primers. I have probably used every type except Federal. Federal primers are always more expensive and the packaging is ridiculous. Except for cup hardness there is very little, if any, difference between primers in my opinion. I am sure there are many who will point out how wrong, I am.

Walkalong said:

Depends on your definition of different.

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I agree with that statement. Dependability and accuracy are my biggest priorities. I have found slight difference in seating primers but never anything I couldn't overcome or deal with.

What’s the deal? Do the Fed primers have a bad reputation I’m unaware of? I would have thought those primers would have been gone shortly after they were put on the shelf considering the current situation

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Score Any primers right now are good primers!

I've done extensive testing of primers, powder and bullets. There is very little difference across the board using best practices when reloading inside 25yards. If you are 10% below max even magnum primers or damaged bullets make very little difference.

At 50 yards everything matters! Federal primers included. My go to primers at 50 yards were the Gold Metal Match.

And yes I object to the larger sized packaging but I realize the primer mixture is known to be more sensitive!

Smiles,

Think in these terms: they wouldn't spend the extra bucks for larger packaging if they didn't think it needed it.

I prefer Federal primers over all others. This is typical of competitors with worked-over "race" guns which may not reliably set off other brands.

Great primers, horribly large packaging.

Definitely a bad rep. Just leave them there for me to find.

Fed primers are great, especially gold medal match for rifle work