Regular vs match primers

Suther

Suther

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So whats the deal? is there really a big difference between match and regular primers?

I just picked up some primers at the LGS today, and the match ones were .50c more per 100, so I bought those instead. Worth it? What are your opinions? (I bought Large Rifle primers, to reload 270 win primarily, but potentially also 303 brit and 243 win.
 
From my reading, the federal match primers are simply the ones that come from the newer dies in the factory and are considered to be of tighter tolerance. I’d use either.
$5 on a 1000 is not much of a premium though. Usually it’s $20 more in my experience. The only time I’ve ever bought any is when wss was out of the regular lr primers. The manager gave me match primers for the price of regular. I can’t tell the difference. I’d bet they cost the same to produce.
 
I think I've tried every primer out there. Some of my best accuracy loads were with Winchester WLR plain jane primers. That being said I really like the Federal Gold Medal match primers, mental confidence I guess.
 
weight sort 100 of both, and make a bell curve... see for yourself....

the match are held to a tighter ( I assume weight ) tolerance.... not that it could not be better.... I resort them by weight, keeps my sd in single digits, along with anal case prep, neck tension and powder weight
you can do the same with standard primers.... they are all good
 
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todbartell said:
I think I've tried every primer out there. Some of my best accuracy loads were with Winchester WLR plain jane primers. That being said I really like the Federal Gold Medal match primers, mental confidence I guess.
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Hah. I got federal. I guess we'll see, if i notice a difference then I'll stick with them. Otherwise might go back to regular primers after these 300 are used up.
 
Suther said:
Hah. I got federal. I guess we'll see, if i notice a difference then I'll stick with them. Otherwise might go back to regular primers after these 300 are used up.
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I use S&B, never mind any of the 'fancy' primers. I have tried them all but never found any difference whatsoever in the end result no matter how tightly I control everything else. There are two things that do have a significant impact, the amount of powder in the case and myself. Controlling the first is easy with the right equipment. The second is more of an issue. Most days I'm consistent and 'on' but other days, no matter what I do, I am 'off', sometimes way off.
 
A couple of years ago, I asked CCI about their BR-series of rifle primers. The answer was that they are ballistically the same as the corresponding normal rifle primers, but held to a tighter tolaerance in manufacturing.
 
OldDude said:
A couple of years ago, I asked CCI about their BR-series of rifle primers. The answer was that they are ballistically the same as the corresponding normal rifle primers, but held to a tighter tolaerance in manufacturing.
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That makes sense...just like other manufacturing processes..
 
While attending the Shot Show a few years ago I had the opportunity to talk with an older gentleman who had been a long time employee of CCI. I was discussing with him my experiences while testing powder and priming combinations. I had noted that magnum and match primers produced similar results during chronographing. I asked him if match primers were hotter than standard primers as they gave similar results. His explaination was as follows.
Priming compound when it is formulated is exactly that " a compound". The finished product varies within a plus or minus tolerance for its intended purpose. When a batch is made up it is tested for consistency in all it's aspects. If they get a batch that turns out as above average / excellent after it has been tested by the quality control lab a call goes out to the warehouse to see how they are inventoried for "match" primers. If they are low on match primers then this batch of priming compound gets destined to run off a batch of match primers. However if the fates are aligned and they have lots of match primers on hand then this compound is used in the production of standard grade indicated primers. Therefore he said sometimes you will be getting match grade primers in the regular
packaging. Match grade will always be match but sometimes regular price primers are actually match quality as well. So if you try some regular primers and they really perform well. Check the production lot number and grab a bunch because you will have lucked into the special circumstance where the regular primers ar actually loaded with the higher grade priming compound and are actually match quality.
 
I've never noticed a difference between different primers.
My pal who has loaded forever says as long as it goes bang it's doing it's job.
 
I prefer strict tolerances so I run the match cci’s. I get noticeable consistency on paper. Although that being said my wife’s 308 does not care what primer! The was no change on paper with hers between match and normal. So it always comes back to....every rifle is different
 
I purchased the high price primers a couple of times and tried my best to see any difference..if there is I'm not good enough to tell the difference
 
rgwhitman said:
While attending the Shot Show a few years ago I had the opportunity to talk with an older gentleman who had been a long time employee of CCI. I was discussing with him my experiences while testing powder and priming combinations. I had noted that magnum and match primers produced similar results during chronographing. I asked him if match primers were hotter than standard primers as they gave similar results. His explaination was as follows.
Priming compound when it is formulated is exactly that " a compound". The finished product varies within a plus or minus tolerance for its intended purpose. When a batch is made up it is tested for consistency in all it's aspects. If they get a batch that turns out as above average / excellent after it has been tested by the quality control lab a call goes out to the warehouse to see how they are inventoried for "match" primers. If they are low on match primers then this batch of priming compound gets destined to run off a batch of match primers. However if the fates are aligned and they have lots of match primers on hand then this compound is used in the production of standard grade indicated primers. Therefore he said sometimes you will be getting match grade primers in the regular
packaging. Match grade will always be match but sometimes regular price primers are actually match quality as well. So if you try some regular primers and they really perform well. Check the production lot number and grab a bunch because you will have lucked into the special circumstance where the regular primers ar actually loaded with the higher grade priming compound and are actually match quality.
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I would hazard this is the most likely scenerio and I have seen some good and bad from "match" primers.

When you need to hit a 5" circle at 1000yds, you quickly see when primers aren't consistent. I will test both type AND lot number to find a primer consistent to do the job. I buy in larger amounts hoping that the lot will be good... if not, it goes into the blasting pile and my Semis and LR rock smashers have lots of fun.

Had some real hair pulling lots back in the early "hording days"... but things are alot better. I currently found a couple of CCI 200 lots that work as well as the BR2's... YEAH!!!

Would I bet on every lot of CCI 200's being as consistent? Nope.. why I run the BR2's in competition.

Piece of mind goes a long ways....

Jerry
 
In a cheap factory rifle it wouldn't really matter, but in Benchrest, TR, F-class with high end rifles rifles, it certainly can be noticed.
Funny thing about small rifle primers, almost everyone settled on CCI 450's instead of BR4's and fed205's.
For large rifle, BR2's always seem great, but last box I got was a bit over $100... so I use some 200's for practice and such, wanted to get some fed210's match but everyone was out at the time.
I definitely won't be putting WLR's in there though.
 
I used to buy only primed cases for loading. Typically 40,000 at a time, primed with federal match primers.

During one of the primer panics, the factory could not get 40,000 federal 210Ms and asked what I wanted as a substitute. I took some brass and popped the federals and installed WLR. SD was about the same, but the av velocity went up 25fps.

We ran with the WLRs and no one complained.
 
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