Ranking Primer Quality

I agree that power is not the same as quality. I have found most ammo has done best with a milder primer.

I am very pleased with the Ginex large Rifle primer. It will be my preferred primer in the future.

Not happy with the Ginex small pistol primer. Too many light strikes. hard cup, I suspect.

In my test, one of the Winchester primer blew out a pin hole, damaging the bolt face.
 
jamesharrison said:
I'd say that you should probably better define quality.
Click to expand...
I'd define high quality as producing consistently low ES and SD values and good accuracy. The question is probably best posed, when considering rifle primers, with respect to LR and SR primers separately, as what is the best for LR may not be for SR. This latter difference is seen in the first article linked above in my Post #19.
 
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...

That's a kind offer, but not near enough large of a sample size to draw any adequate conclusions.
 
Here are a couple of articles about primers by Laurie Holland, who is a British world-class precision shooter and extremely knowledgeable handloader. His writings on all topics related to precision shooting are worth reading.

The first is from accurateshooter.com, 2017.

https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2017/04/ultimate-large-rifle-primer-shoot-out-16-types-tested/

The second is from Target Shooter magazine, 2015.

http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=1471

What's really interesting in Laurie's tests is how well the Sellier & Bellot LR primers did.

However, when considering all of the information I've been able to find, there seems to be a slight overall preference for CCI #450s or BR-4s for small rifle and Federal 210Ms for large rifle. Of course, these are general results, and your own results may result in different preferences.
 
Ganderite said:
I agree that power is not the same as quality. I have found most ammo has done best with a milder primer.

I am very pleased with the Ginex large Rifle primer. It will be my preferred primer in the future.

Not happy with the Ginex small pistol primer. Too many light strikes. hard cup, I suspect.

In my test, one of the Winchester primer blew out a pin hole, damaging the bolt face.
Click to expand...

Could you please comment on the issue of ease of seating the Ginex LR primers? I use a hand priming tool.

Thanks!
 
Ganderite said:
I agree that power is not the same as quality. I have found most ammo has done best with a milder primer.

I am very pleased with the Ginex large Rifle primer. It will be my preferred primer in the future.

Not happy with the Ginex small pistol primer. Too many light strikes. hard cup, I suspect.

In my test, one of the Winchester primer blew out a pin hole, damaging the bolt face.
Click to expand...


I wonder if Winchester would be so kind as to ship you some primers to replace the ones that damaged the bolt face of your rifle ? a nice letter stating that you have used their products for many years and this happened . just a thought .
 
cement head said:
I wonder if Winchester would be so kind as to ship you some primers to replace the ones that damaged the bolt face of your rifle ? a nice letter stating that you have used their products for many years and this happened . just a thought .
Click to expand...

Yeah, but then you'd have more Winchester primers you might risk using.
 
Ganderite said:
I agree that power is not the same as quality. I have found most ammo has done best with a milder primer.

I am very pleased with the Ginex large Rifle primer. It will be my preferred primer in the future.

Not happy with the Ginex small pistol primer. Too many light strikes. hard cup, I suspect.

In my test, one of the Winchester primer blew out a pin hole, damaging the bolt face.
Click to expand...

Same boat here.
Especially with extruded powders, huge flash primers seem way more inconsistent then milder ones, get way more inconsistent fps/es/SD.
I've actually started using standard rifle primers in a lot of my smaller magnum cases, and they work much better.
Ball may be different, I don't have enough experiments with that yet to say anything, other then small cases like 223/7.62x39 like standard primers.
I'm currently working on some Magpro ball with 243/6mmCM/270Win/6.5PRC and 7mmRem, have loads ready with both standard and mag primers with that powder. It's fairly slow ball, gets good velocity, rumors say it is easy to ignite, only loads I've worked up was for a buddies 300 Ultra, but used mag primers for that, and it shot ridiculously well very quickly, cloverleafs at 100 if you don't mind teeth rattling off the bench. I never shot it, watched it, chrony'd it, I'm just the load guy, and none of the shooting side of it looked fun to me lol.
 
cement head said:
I wonder if Winchester would be so kind as to ship you some primers to replace the ones that damaged the bolt face of your rifle ? a nice letter stating that you have used their products for many years and this happened . just a thought .
Click to expand...

I try to avoid aggravation. If I had a working relationship with them, I would let them know. And I sure don't need any more Winchester primers.
 
Ganderite said:
I agree that power is not the same as quality. I have found most ammo has done best with a milder primer.

I am very pleased with the Ginex large Rifle primer. It will be my preferred primer in the future.

Not happy with the Ginex small pistol primer. Too many light strikes. hard cup, I suspect.

In my test, one of the Winchester primer blew out a pin hole, damaging the bolt face.
Click to expand...

I didn't see your results with the Ginex primers posted.

I was given a box of 100 LR primers made by Ginex and my results were unspectacular as far as extreme spread of velocities was my result.

The powder I was using was quite slow, IMR7828, so that might have been the problem.
 
Ginex seems to be mild. 7828 has a lot of deterrent on it, to slow the initial burn. This makes it a bit harder to ignite and is the kind of powder I would always use a Winchester stand or CCI magnum.
 
Ganderite said:
I agree that power is not the same as quality. I have found most ammo has done best with a milder primer.

I am very pleased with the Ginex large Rifle primer. It will be my preferred primer in the future.

Not happy with the Ginex small pistol primer. Too many light strikes. hard cup, I suspect.

In my test, one of the Winchester primer blew out a pin hole, damaging the bolt face.
Click to expand...

Your light strikes with the Ginex small pistol primers what gun/s did you have light strikes with?
 
Couple of items ... Mic McPherson in Metallic Cartridge Handloading has a good section on primers - he indicates that for CCI primers it's the experience of the operator and a dedicated production line that makes a benchrest primer. Composition is the same as the regular primer. Some verbal suggestions that the European pellet composition differs from North American, but no published source that I can find.

FYI - Ganderite's results are on another post - from what I tested with LRP (4x loads each, 3x rounds per load, new Lapua brass, VV N140, 208 Berger), the S&B consistently gave the lowest ES (single digits), Ginex the highest velocity, slightly more than BR2. Ginex is harder to seat in new brass, BR2 the easiest.
 
Last edited:
Ganderite said:
Sorry. No specific memory of that. It would have been some striker fired 9mms.

i just tested over 30 380 ACP pistols with Ginex and every one worked well. Most were hammer guns.
Click to expand...

Okay thanks for letting me know, I have a few striker fired 9mm's, hopefully I will not have any problems when I get into the Ginex primers.
 
Interesting discussion, and some good information, but I would caution anyone about interpreting differences by using a "test" of only a few of each type of primer. Ganderite has offered very kindly to do some testing. Others have also graciously shared their experiences. All good, and appreciated, but please realize that 5 of each can't possibly measure differences in velocity, pressure, or accuracy. If you understand statistics, you will also realize standard deviation is meaningless with such a small sample size. 50-100 of each sample would start to reveal some real measurable differences, but a sample size of 5, just isn't enough to draw any measurable conclusions from.

I'm like everyone else, if I have had a bad experience, I tend not to repeat that choice no matter how much of a fluke it may have been. But to measure "best" is a long, slow process that requires very carefully controlled conditions and lots of repetition to measure very small practical differences.

I don't fret much about primer choices. I use magnum primers with big magnum cartridges that use slow burning or ball powders, and mild Remington 6-1/2 primers in the tiny .22 Hornet. Federal primers give me more reliable ignition than others when the cartridge is fired in some of my break action rifles that have relatively light firing pin strikes.

But comparing what is "most accurate"? - a survey of what bench rest or elite long distance target shooters are using might be more appropriate than small scale tests. You know then what actually works OK. You won't eliminate bias based on fashionability, but you won't be far off if doing what they do.
 
What works for one shooter isn't necessarily what works for another. Different calibres, powders, reloading equipment, and firearms, and even if we're both on the same there will still be differences in reloading technique, firearm adjustment/cleanness/lubricity, temperature, etc.

Quick tests of a small number of rounds show what's promising and what has obvious problems, but it's only after you load and shoot a lot of something eg over a season of competition you find out what's flawless and what occasionally does you wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom