My question: Which is easier to seat using a Hornady LNL, Remington or Winchester primers?
For the longest time I've been loading with my LNL using CCI primers. I've always used two up strokes and a good deal of force on the press handle to make sure the primers were seated. Recently, the only small pistol primers I could find were Wolfs (the new silver colored ones). The Wolf primers would lock up the press from not seating completely, caused a huge amount of frustration and I couldn't get more than 100 rounds per hour out of the press. I was even starting to think something was wrong with the LNL so I tried "shimming" the primer punch and some other recommendations I'd found online. Then magically I was able to get a box of Federal small pistol primers. The difference was like night and day. The press has never operated soooo smoothly. It's like the press was designed specifically to be used with those primers. They'd seat reliably on the first up stroke of the press handle and I didn't need use much force at all. (The primer pockets aren't loose. Most of the brass is once fired and I tested a couple hundred rounds today. The primers on the test rounds looked fine.)
My local toy store now has a small stock of Winchester and Remington primers in stock and I'm wondering which are the most similar to Federals in dimension and metal softness. I know Federals are the "softest" sensitivity wise but I'm not concerned with that characteristic as all my guns will pop off CCI's just fine. It's the ease of seating on the LNL that is my primary focus.
For the longest time I've been loading with my LNL using CCI primers. I've always used two up strokes and a good deal of force on the press handle to make sure the primers were seated. Recently, the only small pistol primers I could find were Wolfs (the new silver colored ones). The Wolf primers would lock up the press from not seating completely, caused a huge amount of frustration and I couldn't get more than 100 rounds per hour out of the press. I was even starting to think something was wrong with the LNL so I tried "shimming" the primer punch and some other recommendations I'd found online. Then magically I was able to get a box of Federal small pistol primers. The difference was like night and day. The press has never operated soooo smoothly. It's like the press was designed specifically to be used with those primers. They'd seat reliably on the first up stroke of the press handle and I didn't need use much force at all. (The primer pockets aren't loose. Most of the brass is once fired and I tested a couple hundred rounds today. The primers on the test rounds looked fine.)
My local toy store now has a small stock of Winchester and Remington primers in stock and I'm wondering which are the most similar to Federals in dimension and metal softness. I know Federals are the "softest" sensitivity wise but I'm not concerned with that characteristic as all my guns will pop off CCI's just fine. It's the ease of seating on the LNL that is my primary focus.