Is a Primer a Primer?

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orygunmike

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I'm fairly new to reloading and have only used Winchester Small Pistol Primers when reloading .38, 9mm and .40

Are all brands pretty much the same....?
are there any brands of primers to avoid?
Should a guy just go for the brand which is available at the best price?
 
For handguns with somewhat limited accuracy that are mainly going to be shot at 10 to 50 yards at the most, you probably won't notice much difference among the different brands but I wouldn't just interchange brands when reloading. You should pick one brand and work up your loads with that particular primer.

When you're loading for rifles or handguns capable of 1.5 MOA at 100 yards, primer type/brand can show significant differences in accuracy.
 
I agree on picking a primer brand and staying with it. In my case I have used Winchester for year without any problems.
 
Grumulkin had some very good advise.

I would add this. For pistols at close range, amd as long as you are not loaded up with max loads, you can pretty much interchange the brand of primer and be safe. I have used Federal, Winchester and CCI primers in handguns with equal success. The others are probably fine as well. I would not sweat it.

The advise to stick with one brand of primer is very sound. Pick one for price or whatever, then work up your loads. Then, if you do have some max loads, you will not have to worry about working it back up with a different primer. You can just keep loading them up with your primer of choice. :)
 
"Are all brands pretty much the same....?"
In some aspects, yes, and in others, no. All commonly available primers will do the job they are intended for. However, most brands will have slightly different firing characteristics; some are a little hotter than others, some have a different flame shape than others (probably due to different pressures since they all have to force the flame through the same flash hole).

But, to me the most important difference is the cup hardness, not the firing characteristics. For example, Federal primers are a little softer than most others and CCI primers are at the other end - a little harder. Remington and Winchester are somewhere in the middle. You might want to choose a primer based on cup hardness if your firearm requires a hard or soft cup due to firing pin/spring differences.

"are there any brands of primers to avoid?"
AFAIK, none of the commonly available primers need to be avoided. (But, see the first point above.)

"Should a guy just go for the brand which is available at the best price?"
IMO, yes, but again, see the first point above.

I fully agree with those above that suggest picking a brand and sticking with it. That saves a lot of rework time. Whenever you change any component in reloading, you should back off 10% on the load and work up again, and primers are definitely one of the components you need to do that with.

Personally, I have pretty much stuck with Win primers for SP and LP, and CCI for centerfire rifles. The WLP primer can be used for standard and magnum loads, so that's a difference in that particular primer that would differentiate it from, say, a CCI standard LP primer.
 
"Are all brands pretty much the same....?"

Pretty much. There are of course some slight differences. In some situations, that little difference can make a slight difference. The chances of reducing a 2" group to 3/4", or vice versa, due to a primer change is remote.
 
A primer is an element of the total load. For maximum accuracy you need to develop a load with a particular primer and stick with it. Loads should be worked up with a particular primer.

I decided to check how much difference the 2 different types of standard primers I had (CCI and Win) made with .38 spl loads. The standard Winchester primer gave me 70 fps greater average velocity with the same charge of Unique and a 158gr LSWC from a 2" Colt DS and 90 fps more from a S&W 4" M66 tested on the same chronograph set up at the same time. So there is a difference.
 
IMHO a noob reloader needs to respect established reloading data. once a sense of accomplishment is attained then a person can swap out parameters and rework the the load.

Some guns are going to be married to certain primers, ie S&W revolvers with tuned actions, especially N Frames. A person needs to use Fed150's.

There is a dfference between primers do not be cajoled....

It is thought that CCI primers are slightly over sized.....

Fed are more sensitive.
 
On the subject of Winchester Large Pistol being advertised for both Standard and Magnum loads, does that imply that it's basically a magnum primer? Don't the other primer manufacturers have separate LP and LP Magnum lines? If so that's a good example of why you should always rework the load when changing components.

Do you all rework your load when changing to a different lot of the same primers? I don't know if I'm being overly cautious or not, but I plan to treat a new lot as if it were an entirely different brand. I say plan because so far I've been using the same lot for a few years now! :)
 
I have also used Winchester, CCI and Federal primers and all worked very well. Other reloaders have told me Remington and Magtech primers are also very good and work equally well. Even Wolf primers which are considerable less expensive than the others work well from all reports.

I'll add my voice to picking a primer and sticking to it. I prefer Winchester primers but when price or availably prevent me from buying Win primers I will use CCI and not worry at all. (Federal are just too hard to get and too expensive when you find them thees days)
 
One of the advantages of handloading your own is the ability to tailor your loads for a particular firearm, which is why I handload. I have performed a lot of powder/primer/bullet testing for the .40 S&W Glock 27 and the .45 auto Glock 36 I load for and documented using a CED M2 chronograph and a lot of time on the range.

For the .45, I found no statistical performance differences between primers of Winchester, CCI, Remington and Federal using AA #5 powder. However, in .40 for the Glock 27 using 165 grain bullets and Hodgon Longshot powder, I found that Remington primers gave me 1170 FPS and the others gave me 1068 FPS, all else being equal. And I also found that by backing off the powder by .2 grains from maximum, I received very nearly the same velocity (1068 vs. 1077) but with better SD, ES, etc with slightly less recoil. That said, I still need to retest this particular scenario to verify the repeatability of the Remington primers.

Testing is the only way to find the sweet spot for your particular curcumstances. I have found I can easily produce top velocity with minimal deviations in my compact handguns, rivaling and exceeding the performance of tested full sized handguns using top notch commercial ammunition.
 
I would add this. For pistols at close range, amd as long as you are not loaded up with max loads, you can pretty much interchange the brand of primer and be safe. I have used Federal, Winchester and CCI primers in handguns with equal success. The others are probably fine as well. I would not sweat it.
Click to expand...

My experience exactly.
 
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