Military primers

[kildar]

What's the difference between CCI small rifle primers and their 5.56 Military primers for .223 reloading?

 

[SteveW-II]

The primer cup is made of harder material, plus it's a 'magnum' rated primer. The idea of the harder cup is to prevent the firing pin from setting the primer off as the round is chambered in a semi auto. If you have an AR15, chamber a round by using the charging handle. Eject that round and look at the primer. It's likely you will see a small dimple on it from the firing pin just touching it as it was chambered.

 

[jjohnson]

Steve's Right.

Makes sense, right? Military use - rough handling both from humans and the firearms. A little 'extra' good stuff to make SURE it works when it has to.

In the military, we all had a special fondness for things that predictably would go "bang" when they were supposed to. And... having been a combat engineer (we handled explosives for a living) we conversely were very annoyed if anything went "bang" when it wasn't supposed to.

 

[kildar]

Thanks guys good stuff! I guess the Military primers should be okay for us civilians loading .223. Maybe just reduce the recipe by say .5 gr because of the magnum rating?

 

[SteveW-II]

> Maybe just reduce the recipe by say .5 gr because of the magnum rating?

If you don't have a chronograph, then I would say that's a good idea.

If you do have a chronograph, then establish a reading with standard primers, drop the load by a .5 of a grain and work back up to the velocity you want.

I have to say, I have not seen Magnum primers make a difference to my velocity readings with rifles. I do see a difference between standard and magnum primers with handguns, but not rifles. For that reason I standardized on Magnum primers for any rifle application. Makes buying and sorting much easier.

S.

 

[stubbicatt]

Actually, according to the rep at CCI whom I spoke with, the military primers are magnum primers, but the anvil is of a different configuration with different angles to resist slamfires in auto rifles.

She insisted it wasn't the primer cup which accomplished this, but the anvil inside.

FWIW

 

[SteveW-II]

You learn something every day !

 

[mallc]

Slam Fires in ARs

Had a buddy who use to get an occasional double out of a Bushmaster AR. He was loading Winchester primers on a Dillon and not quite getting the primers recessed.

We tinkered with the Dillon and fixed the problem but also switched to CCI #41 and CCI #34 for gas auto loaders to put a bit more dependability in the system.

Scott

 

[BADUNAME37]

I also have been using CCI #41 Mil-Spec primers for my 5.56 loads.