Remington 6 1/2 primer for 223.

D

DieByTheBow

New member
Well here's the deal I bought 6,000 rem 6 1/2 primers cause they were available and a few days later I read on the box (Warning do no use in high intensity cartridges 17 rem, 222rem,223rem etc). What I bought them for was my AR15 223. I've been using CCI 400 and have had no problems with 60gr V-max and 26gr Varget. I found James Calhoons page about primers and pressure and the 6 1/2 and 400's are identical in dimension but he did not get into cup hardness differences. What to do now?
 
Ive been using them to fireform 223AI ammo. My loads arent "real" hot but I havent had a problem yet. I never saw the warning when I loaded up the ammo.
 
The primer chart that I looked at does not give hardness of the material that primers are made of but does give the thickness of the material and the Rem 7-1/2 and the CCI 450 primers has a thicker cup than the Rem. 6-1/2 and CCI 400 which should make them less likely to slam fire.
I know there are many that use the Reg. SM rifle primers and have had no problems so far.

I my self use the CCI 450's and the Rem. 7-1/2's .

The Sierra manual for the AR 223 calls for the Rem. 7-1/2 and per the primer chart that I use the CCI 450 and Rem 7-1/2 are inter changeable as per application.

DAB
 
They are more susceptible to pierced primers if you load max/hot loads but if you used CCI 400's with no problem I doubt if the Remington 6 1/2's will give you problems either. Someone gave me 7000 6 1/2's and I have used them on lots of AR and bolt gun loads that are moderate loads with no issues. I did get a couple of pierced primers when I tried to run some max loads in hot weather though.
 
I checked the hogdon book and varget powder has lower pressure than most other powders my load is around 46,000 if I back it off 1 grain it would be around 40,400. I read an old print that said rem 6 1/2 were good to 40,000. I guess I'll find out.
 
I found five boxes of 100 each here recently and bought them. First loading in my CZ 223 pierced a primer. Came home and unloaded all the others. Rem 6 1/2's are for the 22 Hornet and 218 BEE, low pressure rounds.
 
For personal use, I have not had any problems with them in mild "Varget" driven loads in the .223 in my bolt guns. However, even with mild loads I have had some spectacular slam fires and chain fires out of a Bushmaster. Once lost 11 rounds at one PD, the entire mounds erupted into quite a dust cloud.
John
 
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