Opinion needed on primers

In general, I have found primer selection to make more of a difference on the smaller cartridges and somewhat of a difference on less stable ball powders that require hotter primers in cold temps.

On bigger cartridges, I've changed out primers on several loads and found no significant differences. In my match loads, I readily switch from BR2s to 210Ms with no worries.

James Calhoon's article from years back pretty much sums it up........
 
FWIW, extreme example:

30-06, 180 gr ballistic tip, remington brass, N160 powder.

With CCI, WLR, and Federal 210 GM, I got sub-MOA groups with 210 GM being the best by a small margin.

With remington primers, I couldn't get groups under 3 inches at 100 yards.

You shot a rifle, get groups larger than 3 inches at 100 yards & tell me you ain't going to do something different, LOL
 
Wow. That is an extreme example. I've not heard of primers making that big a difference on anything. Especially a cartridge as large as the '06. You sure it was the primers?
 
i normally use cci 200. ran out and all i could get was WLR. the only difference i can see is the primer pocket is easier to clean with the cci.
 
I ran controlled tests & it was repeatable.

CCI, Win & Federal primers all delivered sub-MOA groups with multiple powder charges. Using the same brass, bullets & powder, I couldn't get a group under 3 inches with remington primers.
 
i found in 3 different 7-08's, that wlr vs. cci were more consistent. in all 3 guns, groups went from 1'' groups with at least one flyer to 5/8'', nice neat cluster.
shooting imr 4350 under 120 btips, in stevens 200's. lee.
 
Good thread! I started reloading around 2 1/2 years ago...right in the middle of the Obama scare. As you all know components have been sparse, especially primers. For that reason I got the only primers that I could get my hands on, which were Rem 7 1/2 br, 9 1/2 and 9 1/2M. I have run these in my reloading and have stuck to them because they were in my recipes. I have been going like crazy, and have developed loads for 204, 223, 243, 3 different 308s, 300 WSM, and most recently 338 Lapua Magnum.

I dump all guns that I can not get to shoot sub .75 @ 100 yards, and as such do a lot of buying and selling.

The following have all been with Remington primers and are my best groups with each rifle in a 3 shot group @ 100 yards:

204 Dtech AR .111"
.223 Sundevil AR .17"
.243 Win M70 .51" (5 shot group)
.308 Armalite AR 1.25" SOLD
.308 Noveske AR 1" SOLD
.308 DTA .32" (still in load development)
300 WSM A-bolt .189" (was constantly performing at sub .4" until recently...now over 1.2"...haven't figured that out yet)
.338 Lapua DTA .68" (shot that yesterday, and is still in load development)

This is not an attempt to brag, as this was all BR shooting with sand bags, and I shoot a lot. So for every group that I listed above there are 100 at much wider, and yes I have the groups to back these up.

I read here that Rem 7 1/2 BR have the thickest cup and that had a bearing on why I stuck to those (except the Sundevil AR which is CCI 400). I have been reading on Snipers hide a lot and those guys all trend on Federal 210. They claim that Rem 9 1/2 is nearly as hot as most magnum primers which apparently is bad. That, and this post claiming that Remington primers suck is making me think that I need to change up primers for my initial testing, and that I sold a few guns that may have performed.
 
I have not extensively tested one against the other but in quite a few .223's(8) I have used 4 different primers to see if there was any noticiable difference and I could not see it.I have tried the same 4 in the 6X45mm as well.... no difference.
 
For many years I used a lot of different primers. Over 15 years ago I quit and only use Winchester regular primers for everything. I have lost no accuracy or velocity variations. They work as well as anything from 221 to 300 Win Mag.

Jack
 
FWIW, in several rifles with a few powders I found that:

CCI an WLR primers shoot to the same point of impact at 100 yards with groups sizes so close as not not worry about it. Never chrono'd the loads, so dunno if the speeds vary any.

Federal 210 GM shot close to the same POI, but with somewhat smaller groups. We're not talking large amounts here, but better is better. So in large rifle I've settled on 210 GM for everything.

As stated, the remington large rifle just wouldn't group. Now to be fair I used to shoot a lot of rem factory ammo with good accuracy. So, a different powder maybe different results. Since I was getting fine enough results with what I was working with I never made any further effort to find out.
 
Different primers in the same load can make a difference once in a while.

My .243 was shooting a hair bigger than 1 inch with WLR primers Went to CCI 200 with everything being the same except the primer
and group went to 5/8' and lower.

Have switched primers on other loads for other rifles with no change in group size.

No perfect answer to the primer question.

DAB
 


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