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What's your pick on rifle Primers......and priming tools?

Re: reliability, accuracy, and speed, what is your pick for large and small rifle primers?

Priming tool?
 
I'd be interested in this as well....everyone talks about primer selection but how does it actually matter? Is there more to it then simply igniting the powder charge?

I've only used Winchester Small rifle primers for my .223 up to this point.

Purely because they were the closest thing on the shelf.
 
I'll play.

CCI 200s for my LR needs in auto loaders and Wolf LR for bolts where I'm going for accuracy.

Remington 7.5 BR primers for accuracy in SR and CCI in autos. I got hooked on the 7.5 Remingtons some time back and I'm getting stuck in my ways with them.

CCI or CCI magnum for pistol, depending on the load.

RCBS hand priming tool, the thing rocks, it's fast and drives them in far and consistent for me and gives good feel feedback on seating.

Wayne
 
I use rem small rifle match for .223 and cci&winchester for large rifle.My favorite tool for inserting primers is the lee unit.It is cheap and works great.
 
Remington 7 1/2 and 9 1/2
Lee Auto Prime, (hand held)

From what I have seen, most guy's favorite primer is the one they started with, for what ever reason.
I actually started with CCI until a gent showed me they have larger OD. They have a place when a primer pocket gets a bit loose and you want a few more loads out of the other wise good brass, but then your looking at tuning the load again. :P
 
Appreciate all the feedback, been using a Lee over 20 years, have an RCBS that gets used often as I get more 'leverage' out of it, and the Lee has had 2-3 failures of the lever that your thumb operates-though they have replaced everytime. I looked into other 'precision' priming tools years back but agree, I want a tray for volume loading. Was not sure if anything new had come out w/a tray.

Thanks all for your replies.
 
Afterm using a Lee hand primer for 30+ yerears and wearing at least two of out I bought an RCBS model with the large square pan. It is head and shoulders over the Lee.. Primers, I use mostly Federal Match both in Large and small rifle.. Also use a lot of Rem 7-1/2.
 
I too used the LEE for several years. Using cci, wolf, and winchester primers they were pretty toughto get seated flush with it. Federals seated fine with it.I got a used RCBS and love it so much that i bought another one. I have 2 of the universal RCBS, 1 set up for LR and 1 for SR and with the universal sheelholder I can load everything without changing anything.

There is a quite of bit of difference in the way a primer ignites the powder charge. Its not like some of the fellows say around here "fire is fire". There is different temp's and amounts!!!
 
I loaded primers with my press for many years, and just switched to a Lee hand primer. It is much better than a press for feel. The primers do jam up occasionally, but other than that it works fine. I believe there are some limitations as to which primers can be used in it. I see Lee has just come out with a new version that is supposed to accept all primers. See link below:

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1289592586.174=/html/catalog/primtool.html

As far as primers, I have always used CCI for no good reason, other than I just have. Just today though I did some analysis of primer performance in the cold, and discovered of the primers tested, CCI seems to be least affected by the cold. See this post:

http://www.accurateshooter.com/forum/index.php/topic,3754350.msg35894800.html#msg35894800

As far as power goes, they ranked as follows with hottest first:

Normal - Cold
WLRM - CCI 250
Fed 215 - Fed 215
Fed 210M - WLRM
CCI 250 - WLR
WLR - 210M
RWS - BR-2
BR-2 - RWS
 
Primer: Depends on the round and what it likes. Usually I've found the CCI primers to be very consistent and the Winchester's not so. Russian primers have been very good for me, both SR and LR.

Priming tool: Lee Auto Prime. It has a decent "feel" for seating and very easy to use. I've loaded 1000's of match winning ammo with it.

davery25 said:
I'd be interested in this as well....everyone talks about primer selection but how does it actually matter? Is there more to it then simply igniting the powder charge?

Yes, it matters greatly. For the best, detailed explanation of large and small primers, please refer to the primer study articles by German Salazar. Well worth the reading...

http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2009/06/primers-large-rifle-primer-study.htm

AND

http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2009/06/primers-small-rifle-primer-study.html

Doug
 
I have been using the Lee Auto Prime Tool for over 30 years. It works great. I don't like that it is made of cheap metal and plastic. I bought the Sinclair Stainless Steel Priming Tool, it also works well. It is a precision high quality tool, but it can only handle ONE primer at a time. I am not a benchrest shooter so I find myself going back to the Lee Auto Prime Tool and letting my Sinclair Priming Tool gather dust. Sinclair, if you are listening or reading this, make a priming tray for your priming tool.
 
65BR said:
Re: reliability, accuracy, and speed, what is your pick for large and small rifle primers?

Priming tool?

My experience with primers has been dictated largely by availability. I haven't seen Fed 215s in nearly 3 years. I've always had excellent results with Fed 210s and 215s.

I was reluctant to buy Remington, but was forced into it when Federal took up residence with hens' teeth. So far I've only used the 9 1/2 and have had no problems. I've seen no difference in reliability or accuracy. Haven't measured velocities.

I'll stick with Federal as my primary, but unless something changes, I don't mind Remington as a stand in. One day I've gotta spend some time with Winchester.

I use an RCBS priming tool.
 
federal 205m and 210m used a lee for years wore 2 out now have a k&m and a sinclair one set up for 30br and the other for .223 hope this help. Mark
 
Federal primers in small rifle, large rifle and magnum rounds. CCI in my revolvers. Just bought a Sinclair priming tool 6 months ago, and it is without equal! My RCBS hand primer still hangs on my bench pegboard for backup.

Frank
 
Primers can change lot to lot. For short range accuracy I've found Fed205M to be the best performers time and time again. Had one load in a 14 twist 6BR using Benchmark that preferred Rem 7.5's. I've seen some very old CCI -450's that really rocked with a particular load. New 450's were terrible with the same load ???

I have some old Win SRP's that usually come in second place in accuracy to Fed's.

I find it amusing that you can develop a load and tweak it with primer A. Then try the same load with all the primers you have on hand and find primer X wins hands down ;D
 

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