Primers ? what are you looking for ?

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AKD

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When it comes to primers ive only used one type - Winchesters - What difference do primers really make? I know the primer is important to get a good even start of burn but how can you really tell witch brand works better ?
 
primers can make a difference but due to avalabilty you might have to use what you can find. i prefer federals but latley i'm also using cci and winchester. to me there all about the same in a hunting rifle. for hunting all i use is magnum primers anyway.for benchrest shooting i would try them all and pick the best performing brand.
 
I got a bunch of CCI primers once that resulted in 2 out of 3 44 mag cartridges misfiring. I've used their primers before, and since without any problems. It was definately the primers since there was a good dent, but no pop at all.

Other than that, I don't think there's much difference. For a while, I only used Federal, but I wish you luck finding any quantity of them right now.

At present, pick up what you can get your hands on for a decent price, and by decent price, I don't mean $38 / 1000......or more :eek:
 
heavyBullet said:
I was looking at Higginsons website. They have Winchester and CCI (Large rifle) and the difference in price was $11 :eek: Winnies are $32 and CCI are $43 What is the difference ???????????????
Click to expand...

Colour ???

Sorry, couldn't resist. LOL !!!!

Honestly, if it goes bang, I'll use it.

I've put magnum rifle primers in 45 ACP and 44 Rem Mag cases. I've put large rifle in them too. I've used Federal large pistol primers in 30-30 rounds. I've never noticed any difference. They all ignite the powder, and once that happens......

I guess some of the precision shooters here with the $20,000 rigs who shoot 1000 yards know of differences, but for me, even shooting 700 meters with my trusty Stevens mod 200 in 300 win mag, primers never made any difference. In my good old Winchester model 94 lever in 30-30.....well, they weren't made for precision long distance shooting. Again, I've never noticed a difference when primers were substituted.

2 years ago, when everybody had a job, money was plentiful, 10 guys would have called me crazy....a Darwin award candidate...whatever for switching primers like this and experimenting "outside the box". Now, money is tight, prices are skyrocketing, and components are hard to come by. My guns didn't blow up then, and they're not going to blow up now, and I've read in a quite a few forums how guys are beginning to experiment, and have realized that a lot of the "oh my god, you can't do that" rumours are exactly that....rumours. Of course, people have been telling each other not to think outside the box for so long that they don't know how to think anymore. If you understand what you're doing, go for it. If you really don't understand, best to stick with the manuals. Funny how a financial crisis and shortages make some of the safetynutz simmer down a bit.
 
In the last great "primer shortage" (first Iraq war for you youngsters), I chrono'ed identical loads with std LR and magnum LR primers to see what difference there was. An average of 26 fps over 10 different calibers. Higher speeds due to the magnum primers in all cases but one. So, they burn slightly hotter, which I have to assume ignites the powder charge a little more completely, and results in a tiny bit more pressure pushing the projectile slightly faster. So, while I have favorites, I pretty much use whatever I have to hand interchangeably. Not without working the load back up, if I haven't used that particular combination before, but I don't worry about it too much either. I did see some accuracy differences depending on which primers used, much more so in pistol and small rifle cases then larger cases. FWIW - dan
 
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