Ranking Primer Quality

South Pender

South Pender

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I've been following primer prices over the past year or so and have noticed some fairly large price differences among the various brands (although availability is the much larger issue these days). When available, it seems that Federal and CCI are the most expensive (with the premium lines of each (CCI BR-2 and BR-4 and and Fed. GM210M and GM205M) at the top of the price range. Slightly lower in price are the Winchester and Remington primers and still lower, the Sellier & Bellot primers made in the Czech Republic and the Campro/Unis Ginex primers made in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There also seems to be some difference in current availability among the various brands.

Ganderite’s excellent recent thread testing many primers has revealed differences in brisance of some of the various brands and is really worth reading. I’ve been wondering about consistency both within and between lots of the various brands. And also whether the higher prices of the premium lines of CCI and Federal primers are worth the cost. Is there a real difference in ES and accuracy potential, for example, between CCI 200 LRs and their BR-2s, or between Federal 210 LRs and their GM210M match primers? And I wonder what manufacturing differences account for the higher cost.

Putting aside the availability issues we’re facing these days, is there a clear rank-order of quality among these different brands and lines of primers?
 
Pretty sure I read straight from CCI that the BR primers are just the first 10's of thousands off the line after new dies. Whatever their magic number is they are then sold as standard primers.
I found no difference between BR's and cheap Russian Muron that canam use to sell
 
I’ve often wondered if there was any real difference between match and standard quality primers. A couple years ago when I stocked up, before the shortages, the match primers were only a few dollars more per brick so I bought them for peace of mind.
 
A Czech company just bought Vista sporting goods which has CCI/Remington/Federal under it's group, dunno if that is going to improve supply, they bought Igman prior, one company with a lot of primer makers there.
 
I could do a small test of 5 rounds of each primer and note the groups size, Extreme velocity Spread and the Standard Deviation. I could add a steel Berdan case, too.

The load would be 46 gr of N140 (similar to 4895) under a 155 Sierra match bullet, shot in a Savage at 100 yards.

TApX92T.jpg
 
Ganderite said:
I could do a small test of 5 rounds of each primer and note the groups size, Extreme velocity Spread and the Standard Deviation. I could add a steel Berdan case, too.

The load would be 46 gr of N140 (similar to 4895) under a 155 Sierra match bullet, shot in a Savage at 100 yards.

TApX92T.jpg
Click to expand...

If you have time I’d sure appreciate it!
 
Ok. I loaded the primer test ammo.

goDVQYL.jpg


All the primers in the picture, plus some ammo made using Russian and Portuguese military brass (Berdan). The Portuguese (FNM) is brass cases and the Russian is steel case.

The brass is virgin Winchester brass. It came primed, so I ran it through a neck sizer to uniform the necks and knock out the primers.

All cases were then chamfered and then 5 of each were primed with the test primers using a Frankford Arsenal hand primer.

A Chargemaster dispensed 46 gr of N140 into each case. The two military cases got 44.7gr, assuming they had less capacity than the Winchester.

Sierra 155 match bullets (factory seconds) were seated to an OAL of 2.790", which is about 20 thou off the lands of my Savage.

It has a 20" barrel, so velocities will look a bit low.

I will shoot each batch of 5 rounds for a group and measure av vel, ES and SD.

If the primer affects velocity, the groups will change a bit because each load would need a bit of tweaking for best grouping.

Based on the look of muzzle flash, I expect the Federal and Ginex to have the lower velocities and the Winchester and two magnum primers to have the higher end.

5 rounds is a very small sample. I usually do 20 round tests, but these days I have to be mindful of wasting components.

I hope there is a bit of wind tomorrow; otherwise the barrel heat will mess up the sight picture.

Bfj3gHs.jpg
 
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I have had Winchester primers rupture, and I have had a few CCI duds, but I have had no issues with Federal, so I tend to purchase Federal, other than Remington 6-1/2, for small cases like the 22hornet.
 
Next time you put 100 primers in a tray, look at the compound. I’ve seen a wide range of compound quantity in them. Some almost overflowing and some quite modest.
 
coyoteking said:
I’ve often wondered if there was any real difference between match and standard quality primers. A couple years ago when I stocked up, before the shortages, the match primers were only a few dollars more per brick so I bought them for peace of mind.
Click to expand...

CCI used to have a little "B" stamped on the cup. I don't know if this is the case any more, I was lucky and stocked up during some sales so I haven't had to buy primers for a while, but the stamp would indicate at least some difference. The material seems to be a different colour than standard as well.
 
I've found variations between lot # of the same brand. The theory is for accuracy you want the power from the powder not the primer. Ball powders are harder to ignite, use a hot or a magnum.
 
It would be interesting to see if the various primer brands ranked consistently in Large Rifle vs Small Rifle vs the pistol primers, or if they rank differently in each type.
 
Here are a couple more articles I've run across regarding primer choice. The first lists the primers used by the top 100 shooters in the Precision Rifle Series in 2015 and appeared in a 2015 Precision Rifle blog. The survey included both small rifle and large rifle primers, along with bullets, powder, and brass. It also contained information regarding the standard vs match primer issue.

https://precisionrifleblog.com/2015/12/27/best-bullets-brass-primers-powder/

The second is a much smaller analysis of standard vs match primers and appeared in a 2020 issue of Rifle Shooter:

https://www.rifleshootermag.com/editorial/match-grade-primers-are-they-worth-it/380257

Both are interesting reading. In the first article, what surprised me about the choices of small rifle primers was the overwhelming choice of CCI #450 Small Rifle Magnum Primers over the CCI BR-4s and Federal 205Ms. However, with large rifle primers, Federal came out on top with their 210Ms holding first place. Finally, the almost-even split between standard and match primers was interesting. For what it's worth, both Remington and Winchester primers were at the bottom of the preference rankings.

In the second article--which is far too small to produce dispositive results--the equivalence of standard and match primers seems to be confirmed.
 
I'd say that you should probably better define quality.

For my cast bullet loads in 9 calibres [0.224, 0.300, 0.308, 0.312", 0.323", 0.357, 0.366" 0.375" & 0.458"], 15 cartridges [.22 Hornet, .298 Minex, .30-30, .308 WCF, .303 British, 32-40, 7.92x57IS, .38 Special [rifle], .357 Magnum [rifle], 9.3x57, 9.3x62, 9.3x74R, .375 Fl. N.E. 2 1/2", .45-70, .458 Win. Mag.in 41 different rifles, the use of milder primers always resulted in better groups. Hence my proclivity for Fed 210, Remington 6 1/2 & RWS SP primers as the case required.

Back when Winchester made decent quality primers, white box "For Standard & Magnum Loads" primers were my go-to LR primer of choice when magnum primers were called for, or I was loading ball powders. I no longer own any Magnum rifles, but still have a stock of R-P 9 1/2 M primers on hand for when I use ball powders, which is less often in any large-rifle primered case. For .223 with WC735 ball powder [the only powder I use in that cartridge], I use Remington 7 1/2 BR primers. Based on 10 5 shot groups in 3 different stainless steel LVBR barrels of different makes [Lilja, Shilen & McLennan], a limited test sample I grant you, the Remingtons were the winner, compared to Fed. 210 Match [the primer that predated their Gold Medal primers?], CCI 400, CCI BR-4, Winchester SR, Rem 6 1/2 [had a lot of blanking & some blow-throughs with these though they were outstanding in .222's & my go-to primer in .22 Hornet & .357 Magnum in my Ruger #1's].
 
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