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Best LR Primers

SmokinJoe

SSOY 2004
Gold $$ Contributor
Seems like most shooters like Federal 210/210M LR primers & a few like BR2 best. However, in these times you can't always have your favorite. Just wondering what y'all think of the others, i.e. what would be your order of preference? And is there any performance difference between the Fed 210 & 210M? This is for a 308 BTW. Thanks, Joe
 
it all depends on the powder and the lots of powder and primers. I have founds 210M's to be very good for me with VarGet and H4350. Rem 7 1/2Ms for H4831SC, CCI 450M's with Varget in SR 6BR cases, etc.

Only way to know for sure is to get them over a chrono when you are grouping. If you're shooting inside 300y and aren't going for BR groups, it probably won't matter much what you shoot as long as it goes bang.
 
Primers are load dependent, just like powder/bullet combos. Now having said that I've been switching a lot of my loads to the Wolf/Tula brand and ES and accuracy has either improved or at least not changed and the primers (Wolf/Tula) are or were much cheaper than the other brands Match or standard primers.
 
I've used the Federal 210M for about 3 years with Federal brass for my .308, they worked well enough for me, but when I switched to Lapua brass the primers were real lose and I had more than a few completely fall out. I was advised to switch to BR-2, I did and the problem went away.

Performance wise I can't tell if there is a difference. I'm sure someone will say otherwise.

Joe
 
I have found with H4350 that CCI BR-2's normally work best. With H4831SC and IMR 7828 that Fed 210GM's work best. With H1000 of recent experience, I have found the Wolf L/R works better than Fed 210GM's by a little bit.

With S/R primers, I have found that with RL-15 and Varget, CCI 450 "normally" work best. With VV N540 and N150 CCI BR4's work best..

If you get into BIG Magnums like the R.U.M. series, I have found you need either the Fed 215's or the Winchester LRM primers. Both will reliably ignite 85+ grains of powder..
 
I bought a bunch of Tula and Wolf primers as 'back-ups" a few years back and have folded them into my load development on every new barrel or rifle or bullet change. I have been impressed enough to replace my coveted Federal and CCI Match primers in a lot of loads.
 
Someone here posted a very useful pictorial of igniting primers from different companies. I wish now that I had suggested it be a sticky.
 
It's an abstract & it can't be implied that one is actually 'better' than another.
Nor should it be suggested that anything that goes bang is good enough.
There is also a lot remaining to learn about primer seating and striking(and per brand).

Changeling, maybe you're referring to Germán Salazar's testing;
http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2009/06/primers-large-rifle-primer-study.html
But the only meaningful conclusion there was very weak: Matching the primer to the load is critical for peak performance
I say weak, because even with same cartridge & powder, we end up swearing by different primers..
 
FWIW I've use only WLR since they were recommended to me by Dan Hackett, and frankly never felt the need to try anything else, as they have always produced the accuracy and reliability I required.
 
Bought a case of Wolf LR primers a couple years ago. Were better than any of the others for all my loads with super accuracy along with lower SD/ES numbers. When I got down to my last 2K I bought another case only the supplier now handles Tula. A quick check showed them to be the same in performance.

Hard to argue with a primer costing $20 per thousand (at the time) that performed every bit as good as a BR-2 costing close to $60 (at the time).

Even use them now for my Small Rifle primer needs.
 
amlevin said:
Bought a case of Wolf LR primers a couple years ago. Were better than any of the others for all my loads with super accuracy along with lower SD/ES numbers. When I got down to my last 2K I bought another case only the supplier now handles Tula. A quick check showed them to be the same in performance.

Hard to argue with a primer costing $20 per thousand (at the time) that performed every bit as good as a BR-2 costing close to $60 (at the time).

Even use them now for my Small Rifle primer needs.

I found the same thing with them, not to mention that they fit tighter in the primer pockets thus giving longer use of brass as my pockets give out before the necks split.
 
Well, it looks like we have a pretty good nationwide survey of LR primer preferences, thanks guys. I like WLR primers, but have a hard time getting the seating pressure right with my 21st Centurey seater. It is such a hoss, that I find myself (apparently) seating one too hard occaisionally to the point of cracking the pellet, which then causes a FTF. Maybe I'll try a different seater that doesn't generate quite so much pressure, or I could just start using the Tula LRM's that I have - they have never failed to fire. I doubt that the Tula LRM are any hotter than the WLR.
 
I doubt that the Tula LRM are any hotter than the WLR.

My experience is that the Tula / PMC (Murom KVB-7) is a mild primer whilst the WLR is at the very 'hottest' end of the range alongside the standard Remington 9 1/2. CCI-BR2 and Federal F210M models are also at the mild end of the spectrum as measured by velocities in .308 Win, both as the arithmetic mean and in ES/SD values.
 
Laurie, remember, Winchester primers were made to ignite Winchester BALL powders, which are harder to properly ignite than stick powders. That is why they are "hot"! The WLRM are AT LEAST as hot as the Fed215 which is always recommended for the BIG magnums..
 
Benjamin, I did a test of 16 LR primers (12 standard and 4 magnum) in a standard sort of 308 Win load with Viht N140 earlier this year. The results have gone off to a British shooting mag for publication, but I'll put the tables up on the forum after they've come out in print.

I intend to repeat the exercise in 2015 with 308 again and SR / SRM primers in Lapua Palma brass.

Some results were as I expected, others not at all. The WLR was right where 'received wisdom' said it'd be, second or third highest average MV speaking from memory.
 

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