Remington Primers: 6 1/2 vs. 7 1/2??

M

mmilne

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Given the current shortage of primers, I found some Remington primers on Cabellas.ca and bought some. When they showed up, WTF they are 6 1/2 small rifle primers, not 7/12 small rifle primers like the nice picture on the website.

I'm using them for .223 Remington, and most of the load data, specifically the Lyman manual and the remington website all show the use of Remington 7 1/2 primers for all .223 Rem loads.

Can anybody comment on:

- What the difference is between the 6 1/2 and 7 1/2 small rifle primers?
- Can I safely use the the 6 1/2 primers in place of 7 1/2?
- Differences in pressure or velocity?
- Anything else of concern...

Tanks
 
The 6 1/5 are the standard small rifle primers, while the 7 1/2 are the "Bench Rest" small rifle primers. I've never noticed any practical differences in pressure or velocity with them.
 
Please do "not" use 6 1/2 primers in .223 Rem.

I got a really good deal on some of these a few years ago. I assumed that all small rifle primers were the same.

I loaded some in my regular .223 load & on firing the fourth round I had smoke coming from the breech of my rifle. Inspecting the fired cartridge revealed a blown primer. Luckily the rifle was undamaged.

I sent the fired case to Remington & they replied that I should be using the 7 1/2 primer for .223. They further stated that the 6 1/2 is designed for low pressure small rifle applications such as the .30 carbine & .32-20. The main difference is in the cup metal thickness.

I would hate to see you damage your rifle or even worse yourself.
 
Rod B is correct, to be used in lower pressure rounds due to cup thickness.

I use rem 6 1/2 in .22 hornet and 25-20
 
Update

Cabellas/SIR has:
- Agreed to take back the Remington 6 1/2 primers
- Fixed their website so it clearly shows that the primers are 6 1/2

I'm impressed with the service. They had Federal Small Rifle match primers in stock so I ordered some of them.

Thanks to all that replied....
 
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