7.62 Mil Primers

[mineralman55]

A well-known vendor advertized "7.62 military primers" on their site. I'm interested in getting some, but they haven't answered my queries. I got to thinking what is a military primer? Is it different dimensionally or physically (harder than normal?)

Just for fun, I pulled primers from a half dozen spent once-fired LC brass and measured their diameters. All were 0.207". Then measured a bunch of WIN LR primers. All were 0.210". So are these 7.62 military primers going to seat properly in LC cases that have had their primer pockets swaged?

 

[rcmodel]

CCI makes the only military grade primers I know of.
http://www.cci-ammunition.com/products/primers/primers.aspx?id=30

If that company is selling something else, they must be surplus or something, and I would consider them suspect.

All Lg Rifle primers should be the same .210" size, as GI brass has the same size primer pockets as everything else.

The reason your spent GI primers were measuring under-size is because they are crimped in the case. Forcing them out past the primer pocket crimp re-sized them smaller.

You will have to ream or swage the GI crimp out before you can reload them with any primer.

rc

 

[Slamfire]

I got to thinking what is a military primer? Is it different dimensionally or physically (harder than normal?)

Military primers tend to be less sensitive than commercial primers. They also are magnum primers, though my comparison of CCI#34's and WLR in a 30-06, the WLR provided higher velocities for the same load.

Almost all military weapons are semi automatic or full automatic. They typically have robust ignition systems. Many have free floating firing pins. Given the design features, military weapons need less sensitive primers to reduce the risk of slamfires, and yet because of their robust ignition systems, they have the energy to ignite these primers.

The primers themselves may have harder cups, different primer compositions, might be changes in the angles to the anvils.

Even though the "all fire" levels of military primers are higher than commercial, the "none fire" limits are the same in the spec I looked at. You would figure that the lower limit would be elevated by the same amount as the upper limit.


Military Specification MIL-P-46610E(MU) “PRIMERS, PERCUSSION, STYPHNATE AND CHLORATE TYPES, FOR SMALL ARMS AMMUNITION” used to be the specification used by the military for primer procurement. Since “Acquisition Streamlining” dumped the mil specs and went to “best commercial practices” (as practiced by British Petroleum in the Gulf), who knows what standards are used to buy military primers.

 

[Cosmoline]

I *LOVE* the CCI 34's for Mosins. They fit the shallow cups perfectly and hold up well under the bashing from that huge pin. I haven't been able to find any more for years. I'd jump on any you can find.

 

[Seedtick]

I *LOVE* the CCI 34's for Mosins. They fit the shallow cups perfectly and hold up well under the bashing from that huge pin. I haven't been able to find any more for years. I'd jump on any you can find.

Hey Cosmoline, Have you got your jumping shoes on?

CCI 7.62mm NATO-Spec Military Primers #34 Box of 1000 (10 Trays of 100)
Status: Available Should ship tomorrow
$35.99

ST

 

[Cosmoline]

I wish, but in Alaska we can't ship such "high explosives" through Canada. I'm glad to see the supply is still OK in the lower 48.

 

[mineralman55]

I received an informative reply from the vendor, in which he said the 7.62 mil-primers are less sensitive to impact, presumably to accomodate the free-floating firing pins in most military semi auto rifles and help prevent slam fires. He also said the primers were a little hotter but not magnum level. Something in-between. Otherwise, they were like any other large rifle primer.

RCMODEL, thanks for the explanation of why the decapped primers from the crimped cases were 0.003" smaller than nominal. That makes sense.

 

[medalguy]

Just FYI, I use Remington LR primers in my 30-06 and 7.62 reloads and have for many years. I've never experienced any out of battery detonations in over 30,000 rounds. I have no plans to change to hard primers such as CCI. Generally the military goes overboard just in case of a worst-case scenario.

 

[Cosmoline]

They are really useful for shallow-pocket European military rounds, though.

 

[frankge]

I tried to get 34 primers but could find none so after some research it was reccomended to try Wolf LR primers becasue they were "harder". I load for the AK (yeah I know) and have used Win and CCI up to this point without a single slam fire. Will be loading the Wolfs shortly and dont expect any difference. They were available, what can I say?

 

[Slamfire]

Generally the military goes overboard just in case of a worst-case scenario.

It will ruin your career if one of your Troopers has an Negligent discharge and someone is injured, or worse, killed.

Over time our society has become less injury tolerant.Back in 1927, the US Army decided to keep single heat treat 03 receivers in service, only scrap them when the rifle came in for rebuild. These receivers were weak, there were a lot of bad ones out there, when they fragged people were injured, some for life. Hatcher has a long list of blow ups in his book.

Back then, a trooper was worth less than his $40.00 rifle, it was just his bad luck if he lost an eye or a hand due to a defective receiver.

I heard that at the time of the Golden Gate Bridge, the acceptable loss of human lives on construction projects was one dead person per 1 million dollars in construction.

Does anyone really want to go back to the days when it was just your bad luck if you got injured by a defective product?

Nowdays, 135 Maytag dishwashers out of 2.3 million made catch on fire, and they have a recall. No one got killed, someone got a burnt hand.

Name of Product: Maytag® and Jenn-Air® brand dishwashers
Units: About 2.3 million
Incidents/Injuries: Maytag has received 135 reports of dishwasher fires, resulting in product and/or property damage. Four injuries have been reported, including three reports of smoke inhalation and one serious hand laceration when operating a fire extinguisher to put out a fire in the dishwasher.

Do you want the liability in today’s world if your weapon accidentally discharges due to sensitive primers and someone downrange gets hurt?